So one of the earbuds in my headphones recently broke so I can only hear audio from the right. I was checking around to see if there was a way to output mono audio to the headphones so I can hear both audio channels from only the right. There are a couple similar questions here (Force Windows to output only mono sound is the most notable) but they are all for older systems, and Win8 changed a lot.
I tried changing the balance, but that only increases the volume for one side, and doesn't merge the sides. The Realtek HD Audio Manager and Configure Speakers menus both look like they should have the ability to change the audio output, but they are both locked to stereo.
The Enhancements menu doesn't have the Headphone Virtualization option that I've seen elsewhere. The only option I see there is "Disable all sound effects".
I'm using a Lenovo Ideapad Z510 with all the most recent updates. I'm not entirely opposed to downloading 3rd-party software to fix this, but if there's a built-in way to fix it, that would be preferable.
I typically play music with either iTunes or Google Play, both of which are particularly resilient to using plugins. Plus, an all-purpose solution that can work with any program would be fantastic.
Obviously the first solution could be "buy new headphones" but I will also often listen to music or do whatever with only one earbud in so I can still hear my surroundings so a software solution is best.
Here's an image of some of the options I've been trying. Some things that seem to have worked for other people are disabled or don't exist.
