# wireless headphone pre-out problem, please help



## gschnider (Mar 16, 2010)

I have a pioneer VSX-520 receiver which does not have an A/B speaker output. It has a front side headphone jack which, once the headphones are connected, distributes sound to the headphones and turns off the 5.1 speakers.

The problem is that I have to plug and unplug the headphones every time I want to use them. As far as problems go, it could be worse, but I want a work-around anyway. 

There doesn't seem to be a way to leave the headphones plugged in and switch between 5.1 and the headphones. There is no dedicated headphone mode, no button nor function command. The headphones have an on/off button, but that only controls the headphones. I believe that if the headphone jack was a pre-out, then the on/off button on the headphones would trigger the switch. 

Here are my thoughts...

1. Buy a speaker selector, which would need to be remote controlled (I have a logitech harmony 880). Splice the speaker wire to an RCA cable and convert to 3.5mm. Using the harmony remote I could then create a custom command string to differentiate between the speakers and the headphones.

2. Upgrade to a better receiver which has dual zone speakers and use the same splice to RCA to 3.5mm

3. Upgrade to a receiver where the headphone jack is a pre-out


Does anyone have any advice? Help is very much appreciated, thank you.


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

All sounds very complicated.

If you're willing to buy a new receiver, look for one with pre-out jacks then use one of THESE to connect your headphones to the front L/R pre-outs.


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