Sennheiser PC37X randomly goes bad after disconnecting the cable ?
Greetings, Yesterday I was using my headset like normal with my macbook, just listening to music and on a call with people like usual, and the headset was perfectly fine. The stock wire that came with the headset is extremely long and yesterday it annoyed me very much that it kept getting tangled with itself, so I decided to see if the cable is replaceable. I pulled out the cable from the headset and saw the adapter, and looked online for a replacement. Upon plugging it back in, the audio sounded extremely muffled and washed out. Im not sure what I did wrong to make it mess up like that as I've always taken good care of it, ive had it for about 2 years and its always just been chilling on my desk, but anywho I thought the cable just went bad and ordered a replacement. The replacement came, and the issue is still persistant, so I am not sure what the issue is I've tried multiple different headsets and the issue is not with the port, and I also tried it with my windows laptop and...
Apr 23, 2024
Of the headphones you listed, I own the DT880 Premium 600Ω and the HD600, and I've demoed the AKG K701/K702/K702 65th Anniversary/Q701 extensively, and have access to a pair of AKG K712s I've demoed extensively and can listen to at will. I've additionally demoed the AD900 and the X1, but only had a few hours each.
I feel like given my experiences I am qualified to make the comparison fairly and in doing so I can honestly say that none of those hold a candle to the HE-500. Comparing the AKG K70x series/K712 to the HE-500, one of the things that's instantly noticeable is that you hear a much clearer separation between elements in the music on the HEs compared to the AKGs. This is extremely apparent in bass heavy tracks with vocals, as you'll notice the vocals become somewhat muddled on the AKGs by the drivers competing to produce the bass notes at the same time. With the HE's the vocals come through very clear, with good separation from the underlying bass tones, and overall better soundstaging.
I'm not going to write a comprehensive comparison to all of the headphones you've listed, but quite frankly if you think any of those are better than the HE-500, then you are talking out of your ass. I'll grant not everyone has the same preference for sound signature, and certainly I could see someone appreciating the differences in tonality between several of those cans so that they may personally prefer them over the HE-500, but in the matter of accurate reproduction of audio, the HE-500 is clearly superior to the others. Much like jerg, the fact you would even make this assertion makes me question if you've ever had the opportunity to demo the HE-500 on a capable rig, as the assertion is patently absurd.
For the record, I'm using an Aune T1 as a DAC and a fully upgraded and tweaked Bottlehead S.E.X. as an amp.
The HE-500 just wipes the floor with anything and everything I've ever heard previously. I don't make statements like that lightly. Usually these comparisons are iterative, but this one wasn't a close or difficult call in any aspect.
The only difference I note from what you and others have said is that I actually find the HE-500 has the most accurate bass I've ever heard, with by FAR the best bass slam/impact. They clearly do not has the mid-bass emphasis of the HD650, and some people hear this as having less bass - but the actual speed and impact of the HD-500 is leagues ahead. I've demoed these back to back and the difference is clear.
The HE-500s have slightly less bass _quantity_ than some others, but it hits fast, hard, accurate, and controlled. To my ear, the HE-500's bass performance is superior.
If you want to have an actual discussion, I'm all ears. But an actual discussion means listening, attempting to appreciate all viewpoints, and acknowledging you might not be right. It also means you must provide real support for your positions, and refrain from ad hominem attacks or other logical fallacies.
So far you've done none of the above and served only to attack and poison real discussion. Seeing as you are not part of this drop, I have to respectfully request you either change your behavior or stop posting here.
The Magni barely makes it with a 1W RMS rating into 50Ω, which means they may be able to power the LCD2, however the LCD2/3 is typically recommended to have a minimum of 2W+ to get proper sound because they use less sensitive drivers. The Magni would be able to drive the HE-500s capably, however I notice improvements in my comparisons, especially in the very high notes and in lower bass extension when moving to the Lyr, which is a higher output capable amplifier.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with using a Magni/Modi pairing as an entry stack, and it has a huge amount of stretch well into the mid-fi range making it a great value, but the Modi is a USB self-powered DAC, which introduces power noise into the circuit which is not capable of being fully isolated, so significant filtering improvements can be gained by moving to a better DAC that impact the signal noise floor. Additionally the Magni is more than capable of driving lower impedance non-orthodynamic headphones, but lacks in power output when dealing with 300Ω+ headphones and lower sensitivity orthodynamics.
But don't take it from me. Send Mike Moffat an email and ask him. I'm sure he'd say the same thing. That's part of why he offers multiple headphone amplifiers, because they all have a sweet spot for certain types of headphones.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/684169/tripath-ta2024-amp-board-as-balanced-headphone-amp-in-teac-ud-h01-dac
I have also read Emotiva mini-x sounds good with HE-500.
See http://www.head-fi.org/t/629352/he-500-lcd2-d5000-dt770-sr80-on-a-speaker-amp-emotiva-mini-x-a-100-project for more information about that pairing and how to do it.
Most of the headphone-specific amps targeted at orthodynamics that have the power output to really drive them capably are pretty expensive, unfortunately. Probably the most reasonably priced is the Schiit Lyr (which is what I use), and it does pair very well with the HE-500, but it's outside your listed price range.
I'm not personally familiar with the Soundblaster Z, but I will say that from experience internal soundcards typically introduce noise into the signal path when used as the analog source, simply from being exposed to RFI and EMI inside of the computer chassis. It's usually better to have a decent SPDIF output or to use USB (as long as you aren't using USB power and you cover the power pins) to connect to an external DAC. It's certainly something to consider for down the road, although that obviously doesn't fit with what you're planning to do right now.
Hope this helps.
Audiophile publications have a difficult job, because if they call some things crap they stop getting anything to review. So usually the ratings end up being positive with caveats: "for this component, in this price range, so long as you don't want to go portable, don't need isolation, if you like this genre... A+." This is why I usually turn to forums. Enthusiastic members on Head-Fi often do a better and more robust job comparing headphones than reviewers.
If you did have (or got) a pair, and posted some back-to-back comparisons, I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts and opinions. Positive OR negative. If you end up concluding they're bad and they should feel bad, I might disagree but wouldn't deny the validity of your firsthand account.