Use Internal Speakers While Headphones Plugged In

Hey,

I was fortunate enough to speak to an apple tech support person who was actually very knowledgeable about the computer software and hardware, and had an at-length discussion with him about this.

It's not disabled by OSX, and not programmable in the EFI. The switch is a hardware switch which is attached to the back of the headphone port. He told me how to turn it off, but doing so would require detaching the diode from the setup, and would require soldering work. needless to say, if you're under warranty, that's an immediate breaker.

there is software, i forgot what it is, that will disable the headphone port completely, thus giving you your internal speakers back, but then the headphone port is unrecognizable.

The point is that it is definitely a hardware switch that does this and, as the guy explained, even in the EFI you can't disable it by software.

The best bet, unless you are really good with soldering and are willing to take a risk, is to buy an external USB sound device as the other people have recommended.

It is a software issue - OS X simply will not allow the internal speakers to work when anything is plugged in to the headphone jack.

Apple is aware of this issue but does not consider it to be a problem and will not be fixing it.

The only workaround is a hardware patch - a USB or FireWire audio interface to provide the audio and/or headphone out, while you continue to use the internal speakers. It's a bummer, I know. But them's the breaks.

pie, you are exactly right. i took apart an imac 2011 and found that there is indeed a hardware switch, which you can bypass using a bit of soldering. but the question is of impedence. the new macs were designed to keep the integrity of the sound card alive, as well as the amplifier that powers the internal speakers, which is the same as the amplifier that powers the headphones, only when the headphones are plugged in, it amplifies at a much lower level.

Technical explanation:

the new macbooks and imacs were made that the same amplifier powers both. it is built with a hardware switch which prevents both from running at the same time because when you have vastly different impedences (the impedence of the built-in speakers and the impedence of the earphones), and they both run at the same time, you risk burning out the amplifier. yes, there are software controls involved in the sound card that can switch from one to the other, but the hardware switch prevents you from using both. when i bypassed the switch and put headphones in as well as running the external speakers, the amplifier had a slightly higher temperature, not really causing any harm, but if the wrong speakers or headphones with too little or too much impedence were plugged in the headphone port, and this overloading is done over extended periods of time, can shorten the lifespan of the amplifier, which probably didn't sit too well with apple's quality control.

This is why you might be fooled by the software control in the system by thinking you can run both at once, and that they advertise separate feeds, but trust me. it's just one sound card with one amplifier that runs both the internal speakers and the headphones. That's why you need a separate sound card to run both simultaneously.

I use this.

Griffin iMic.

http://www.jr.com/product/productListing.jsp?Ntt=griffin+imic

I leave the headphones always plugged in to the iMic and switch between the internal speakers and headphones by option clicking the sound icon on the menubar.

Try this:

1) Audio Hijack Pro software by RogueAmoeba, with the SoundFlower plugin.
2) Griffin iMic.
Once you've installed both the hardware and software, do the following:
1) In Hijack Pro, create a session with source type: audio device, and SoundFlower 2Ch as the input, and iMic as the output.
2) Create a second session again with source type: audio device, and SoundFlower 2Ch as the input, but change the output to "Built-in Output."
3) Click the "Hijack" button for both sessions, so Hijack Pro is hijacking audio from Soundflower and routing it to both outputs simultaneously.
4) In System Preferences/Sound, change sound output to "SoundFlower 2Ch".

I have some cheap speakers plugged in to my tower, and I use headphones until I need to play things for other people. This is a website that I found a while ago and this totally works: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/48534/is-it-possible-to-play-sound-thro ugh-both-the-headphone-jack-and-my-internal-spe

Once you do it though, you can't use the keyboard keys to adjust volume for your headphones, you'll have to change it in whatever app/browser you're using, etc. A small price to pay, in my opinion. It's made my job a lot easier than handing people my headphones, or blasting the volume from them for others to hear. Best of all, it doesn't cost anything.

Purchase a 3.5mm to USB adaptor. That's the only way I get it to work. Similar to this: https://www.amazon.ca/Plugable-Headphone-Microphone-Aluminum-Compatibility/dp/B0 0NMXY2MO

Here is a good solution:

http://best-mac-tips.com/2015/03/11/play-sound-on-multiple-devices-including-int ernal-speakers-os-x/

It's true that the switching is done in software, but it might also be true that switching is not possible by some hardware.

On my Mac Pro I can switch between headphones and speakers (both separate, external 3.5mm jack devices which is probably an important point) by holding down [alt], clicking the menubar speaker icon and choosing which to use.

Equally, some applications can choose which output to use independant of this setting (After Effects and Logic for example), which can be useful. This creates a situation whre it is possible that both devices are being used at the same time.

However on my 2006 iMac and 2009 MacBook I cannot select my headphones independently of the speakers or vice versa. Presumably the jack is effectively a switch, like a set of points on a railway: you can only use one at a time. There is probably some reason to do with impedance (not an audio expert) that you can't run both speakers and the headphone output at the same time from the same line. But if I attach a USB output device then I can, on all machines, use that as an output at the same time as the main speakers.

The issue then is finding a way to route the same audio out all devices. Either use some third party solution or try creating an aggregate device in OSX's own Audio/MIDI setup (in utilities, which I suspect is all any 3rd party app will do).

Has anyone tried using an Aggrigate Device? That works just fine on my machine. I have an enormous amount of audio outputs in my home, it's wired to play music throughout the entire house using firewire audio interfaces, the internal jack, speakers, and USB audio devices.

I don't know if this question is still relevant, but I think I managed to at least select another output device like hdmi output. (no internal speakers though)

First thing, go to Applications>Utilities>Audio MIDI Setup app

In the bottom left corner of the window, click the "+" button and choose "Create Aggregate Device". It will create another device in the list.

With this new device selected, in the right panel it shows a list of audio devices to use. Check the audio device that is not the built-in device. In my case, I checked the HDMI output related to my display speakers.

Close this window.

With the headphones plugged into the jack, open a video or music etc. The audio will be played through the headphones, as default.

BUT now you can go in System Preferences>Sound>Output and choose the AGGREGATE DEVICE, and you should be able to make the sound play through it 🙂

If you want a shortcut so you don't need to open the preferences every time to change the output, you can check the option "show volume in menu bar", to display the icon. Press and hold the "alt" key and click the sound icon in the menu bar, it will display a list of output devices, instead of the volume bar, and you will be able to choose it!

Hope it helps!

Hi,

There is a simple solution for those who want to switch between headphones and speakers (when the MBP in on an Henge Dock for example), just press "alt" when pushing the sound icon in the bar and choose the other way out "saisie" in french.