Headphones Level Clipping?

Quad Cortex Bug Reports
1

CorOS Version:
3.1.0

Describe your issue:
By default (after a settings reset), my Quad Cortex’s Headphones Level output meter always clips, even with no headphones plugged in.

The headphone output is extremely loud, and I’ve had to turn the Headphones Level dial way down — to below -30 dB — to avoid hurting my ears.

This seems abnormal and possibly defective, especially considering most users report the opposite issue (headphone level being too low).

Steps to reproduce your issue:

  1. Reset the Quad Cortex to default settings
  2. Plug a guitar into Input 1 and load a factory preset (e.g., 1A “Brit 2203”)
  3. Observe the Headphones Level output meter during normal strumming
  4. Compare the output levels between Headphones and Outputs 3/4
  5. Observe headphone clipping and excessive volume, even with headphones unplugged

I expected this to happen:
I expected the Headphones Level output to be at a reasonable volume by default and not clip — especially when other outputs (e.g., 3/4) are not clipping and are within normal dB ranges.

I have tried the following things:

  • Lowered the Headphones Level dial to below -30 dB
  • Ensured Input 1 (instrument) is not clipping
  • Verified Outputs 3 and 4 are not clipping (they peak around -12.5 dB on the same preset)
  • Adjusted the Multi Out dial (found it was set to +6 dB by default; reducing to 0 dB helped slightly)
  • Compared to online reports — most users seem to report low headphone output, not high
2

yep I found that by default it was way too loud and basically clipping also that the headphone out just sounds kinda flat and mushy, iirc some people say it’s defective, some say it’s the headphones impedance but “line level” audio from a PC via the usb interface is fine so I dunno.
maybe users reporting audio being too low are using headphones that need an amp to drivethem?

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