# headphone jack on cdrom **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2000, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242 "2000-06-22T21:45:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![katana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/db5fbb/32.png) [@katana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katana)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2000, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/1 "2000-06-22T21:45:15Z")
So what is the headphone jack on the cdroms use? I’ve never been able to listen to music from it and i don’t know any who has. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2000, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/2 "2000-06-22T21:54:14Z")
Hello and good evening. Nice to meet you. Now that we know each other, you can’t say that last statement. The computers I use at work don’t have soundcards, so using the headphone jack is the only way I can get sound out of the box. My CD-ROM (and most that I have seen) have a small volume wheel on the front. Again, nice to meet you 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2000, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/3 "2000-06-22T21:54:20Z")
I have. ---
**Author:** ![jamshid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@jamshid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jamshid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2000, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/4 "2000-06-22T21:54:47Z")
This is how Microsoft finds out if you’re pirating their software, and the US government determines whether you’re cheating on your taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2000, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/5 "2000-06-22T23:01:25Z")
When my sound card died, I plugged my speakers directly into the CD drive. Great sound, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2000, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/6 "2000-06-23T00:13:41Z")
I was in an office once where we had some translation equipment - a base station that transmitted to beeper-sized boxes with headphones coming out of them. A friend of mine made an adapter to hook up the CD-ROM jack to the transmitter so we could walk around the office with these tiny boxes and listen to music. It was great. [/pointless story] ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/7 "2000-06-23T00:41:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* I’ve never been able to listen to music from it and i don’t know any who has. > \*\* There are programs that play audio disks on the CD-ROM drives. All you have to do is place an audio CD in the drive, start up this program and hit ‘Play’. You should be able to hear the musig by connecting a headphone to this connector. In Windows, go to Start menu -\> Programs -\> Accessory -\> Entertainment (or was it Multimedia?) -\> CD Player. For Sun workstations, I think it’s called “workman” or something non-intuitive. Under Linux I think it’s ‘cdplay.’ Some CD-ROM drives actually provide the “Play” and “Stop” buttons on the drive itself. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2000, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/8 "2000-06-23T01:31:01Z")
My own speakers don’t have a headphone jack, and so if I want to listen to a CD quietly, the CD-ROM jack is the way for me to go. Turn down the speaker sound, plug in the headphones into the drive, turn the little dial on the drive and I’m ready to rock 'n roll! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2000, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/9 "2000-06-23T02:55:11Z")
I work for tech support for a large computer manufacturer. If the customer isn’t getting sound… first thing I do is plug the speakers in there to see if theres a problem with the speakers or the sound card. So the thing works… try the volume knob next to it. (FYI… if you’re trying to get regular sound from it, you can’t… Only CD sounds.) Screeme ---
**Author:** ![katana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/db5fbb/32.png) [@katana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katana)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/10 "2000-06-24T01:40:45Z")
Rhythmdvl, nice to meet you too ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headphone-jack-on-cdrom/23242/11 "2000-06-24T03:14:15Z")
I assume you mean CD ROM music. No other system sound files (MP3,WAV etc files) will come out that jack in that it is simply a direct CD line output and bypasses any music cards. Make sure your volume control on the CD is set to maximum. If you are trying to drive non-amplified speakers off that jack make sure that they are fairly sensitive. The headphone level output from that jack may not drive non-amplified speakers effectively. Also I assume you have a CD playing application (Microsoft CD player comes with Windows). Without one you may not be able to control the CD or get output. Good Luck.