Hello,
On my device, when I listen to a stereo sample (with panning effect - ping pong) in the Headphones out port, It sounds “kind of” mono, i.e. the panning effect is missing. On the other hand if I connect to say output 1&2 the same sample sounds like the original, with the panning.
So my question is : is the headphone out port limited, is this a bug ? or other?
@dagurg I’ve noticed similar weird behavior. For me it’s noticeable when I’m sampling vs playing back a stereo sample. If I go into sampling mode and audition a stereo source, the stereo image sounds fine/normal. But once I’m done sampling and assign the sound to a pad, whenever I play the sample it sounds like it’s collapsed to mono. In my case I’ve been sampling with the classic engine settings and haven’t tried using the individual outs yet, but I do hear this weird behavior for sure. I’m even double checking in the track settings that the output of the sample is set to stereo.
Sorry, if there’s a simple answer I don’t have it. I looked at the manual and there is no mention of headphones being mono.
It’s possible, especially at high gain settings, to saturate various buses in the S2400. This can change the sound, as can other subtle changes to settings.
Headphone out does not use the analog filters, but all comparisons, I would start by disabling these in “effects”. I would also use “hi-fi envelope” and make sure the track has not been set to 12 bit in track settings. Make sure to use a blank project file too to rule out any small filter or envelope changes and that digital filters are all the way open with zero resonance.
@dagurg Listening to 1&2 with the same headphones (ideally with some kind of cable adapter and no gear in between) seems like a good troubleshooting step to rule out the headphones changing the stereo qualities of the signal (as headphones do, perceptually). Or do a comparison using speakers from out 1&2, mix out, and the headphone port (again, with an adapter of some kind).
Better than a listening test would be running these into a computer with a different audio interface other than the internal USB of the S2400 (such as the 1/8" audio input jack on your laptop/tower) and recording the behaviour in a DAW like Reaper. Then you can use various stereo imaging tools to look for differences, but I would start with a Null Test by subtracting these various ouput signals from one another one at a time (manual gain adjustment will be needed to make the test work properly).
I’d love to see the results. 
EDIT: Also it could be a weird connection at the headphone jack. Some 1/4" plugs don’t sit super well in the jacks on my S2400, and bad cable connections often do weird stero things and generally trashify sound. I would rule that out first!
This one is a recording from output 1 & 2 on the ISLA to a Focusrite sound card on channels 1 and 2
This is a recording from Mix Output (sounds the same as the headphones out)
the first one has the panning effect -
Simple question but how are your settings in Pan mode on the s2400?
The s2400 is not very user friendly when it comes to pre-listening or listening stuff. Then, there’s the influence of mix out, separate outs, headphones out, pan mode on the s2400 and the settings of the virtual mixer in your computer if there’s one.
If your Focusrite soundcard has a headphones out I would use that instead of trying to use the headphones out on the s2400. That’s what I do here with my soundcard. I gave up on trying to reproduce the same conditions inside the s2400 and outside of the s2400.
To sum up, I’m using the separate outs on the s2400 to be able to use the analog filters. I do the panning on my computer (virtual mixer software linked to my soundcard) and I have everything straight in the Pan mode of the s2400.
Hey. Nice followthrough, sorry for my slow response.
The 06-24 - mix out sounds more saturated/compressed/overdriven to me than 06-24b, which is consistent with my experience, and that of others. It could certainly be that the saturation/clipping behaviour of your sound card is different than of the internal mix bus of the S2400 (likely the focusright is more clean / has not yet clipped due to a more conservatively set input gain). This behaviour is complex and could certianly be frequency dependent, as well as affecting stereo image. If you wanted to bring the two more into line, try going into track settings by hitting [shift + pad] of each track of the S2400 making sure gain is set to zero (or even lower).
True. The phones out of the S2400 is limited anyway since it’s not assignable to different tracks or outputs - since you are routing everything externally, it would be better to monitor externally as well.
I would personally like to see the phones out be reworked by the devs, it would be really useful to me.