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
As for whether your AE5 is a good fit for HD6XX, no but you probably won't mind it either. You'll get sufficient volume out of them and they will still sound decent.
What this also tells you that a 2-channel audio (i.e. stereo) is fully capable of sounding 3-dimensional, regardless of whether it's actually mixed by software (SoundBlaster Virtual Surround, or ASUS Dolby Headphone) or native 2-channel that already have 3D information written into them, i.e. most music.
Hope this makes sense.
2) It depends. A lot of people are quite confused when it comes to balanced XLR vs unbalanced 1/4. Balanced XLR output on an amplifier is advantageous most due to lack of crosstalk between the left and right channels as they share separate ground circuits. However just because an amp have a XLR / balanced output, does not mean it is truly balanced. Fully balanced amps, and setups, are very expensive.
An advantage of XLR output - in an unbalanced amp - is the much higher voltage and power output (usually around twice the output of single ended), which would benefit the HD6XX just because they really need a lot of power to sound their best. That's not to say the HD6XX won't sound good on an AE5, they are not amp picky and will sound good with any amp.
Hope this makes sense too.
Btw, if you were buying an external DAC, you'll also need an external amp, because the order of connection is PC > DAC > Amp > Headphone. Your Sound Blaster is an integrated DAC/Amp that's why you can plug your headphones directly into it.
As for XLR balanced cables, the impact is minimal for short cable runs. I would be more concerned about interference from the electromagnetic fields in your PC case on your sound card.
Oh - there are 7:1 gaming headsets with 7 drivers in each cup but the drivers are of such poor quality and the price is high up. You will not regret using these for gaming.
For DAC and Headphone AMP only from NAD I would have gone for the 1050. Supposedly better for headphones and some people seem to appreciate the warm fun sound.
I have heard my amp on a really good set of Dali speakers and got to compare it to a 15x priced moon amp in quick succession. Yes it's not perfect but really good fun for the money.
The reason for going for headphones is that my current house doesn't let the speakers fit to their right. They are not huge but need some volume to fill. I hope that headphones will give me a consistent experience.
Also keep in mind that even if an amplifier can supply enough power output at 300 ohms, does not mean it can supply enough power to the headphone. 300 ohms is the impedance of the headphone at 1khz, where voice usually happens. Measurements for the HD6XX shows it gets to almost 600 ohms in the bass region, and more ohms means less power being delivered.
Now the tech - considering the Essence STX, skipping all the calculations, it would give about 149mW to the HD6XX at 1khz. This headphone requires 126mW to get to 118dB which is the ideal headroom for many audiophiles. Factoring in amplifier distortion you would want about 250mW. However at 600 ohms it would only be delivering 82mW, rounded up this is 33% of ideal.
Before someone jumps in and say "but 118dB will blow my ear drums". That's true but we're not talking about sustained 118dB, we're talking about headroom. The brain interprets volume as the average intensity over a segment of time. Headroom will allow a split second change in volume that you won't even hear, but will lead to more realistic sounding transients. Without appropriate headroom, the waveform can clip which leads to distortion.
So now that calculations are done, we see that mids are probably going to pretty good on the STX, but the power going into bass will be a bit short. A fully powered bass would be more transparent, have more slam, it would help with soundstage and instrument separation. This is why the HD6XX is considered a power hungry monster.
What amplifier that i can use on my pc would be more sufficiant ? I have a Fiio e17 but i suspect this wont cut it either.
I'm not sure a PC solution exist, to power the HD6XX optimally you really need an external amp. The cheapest I can think of is the Lake People G103-S ($315 but they are running 10% off right now), which you can hook up to your Xonar Essence STX via RCA. http://violectric-usa.com/headphone-amplifiers/g103-s
Once you've reached the power threshold of your headphones, circuit design and quality starts to make a bigger impact. Unfortunately it's a never ending road of upgrades.