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
Currently my headphones get plugged into the 1/8th" jack on my left speaker that's coming straight out of my soundcard but my little Cerwin Vega 5" speakers are in desperate need of an upgrade. I've had them 2 or 3 years and they're in good condition but I regretted the purchase right from the beginning they are underpowered and sound thin and lack bass.
If you read enough reviews around the net you start to realize that having a decent DAC/amp will improve the headphone experience and I made sure to pick one I can use as a pre-amp for my monitors and has a switch to toggle from RCA out to headphone out. I'm just hoping it's clean with a nice low noise floor.
I thought about getting an integrated amplifier (NAD D-3020) and some passive bookshelves but I believe they are generally better "midfield" when you sit a little farther back and they have a narrower "sweet spot." I wanted nearfield speakers for my desktop that sound best from 18" - 24" away and have a wide sweet spot so they'll also sound good anywhere in the room and I think these will fit the bill. I've heard the tweeters have an audible hiss but just how much can vary depending on your set-up. I'll start with rca out to dual TS 1/4" (don't get TRS) and if it hisses too loudly then I'll try sticking a GoRack in between so I can see if grounded XLR cables make a difference.
DAC would be cleaner looking i'm sure, but my issue stems from the fact that A) i bought a motherboard that comes with pretty good onboard audio already, and B) i honestly am not researched up in these things. I wouldn't want to waste money buying some amp/DAC combo when the Speakers have an amp built in already, if that makes any sense and C) they're not cheap, and due to B)'s issues, i wouldn't wanna waste money on something i don't if i'm getting what's really needed.
The amps in the DAC/AMP combos are primarily headphone amps, some of them can be used as preamps but not all of them. There are hundreds of different ones and I think a lot of them bypass the amp stage and just use the DAC when sending signal out to the monitors.
But if you have low impedance headphones and you're happy with the volume and the sound you're hearing then there's really no need for an external headphone amp. Your computer has a built in basic grade headphone amp anyway. These audiophile types with their $1000 high impedance 300 - 600 ohm planar headphones actually need a more powerful amp to drive their phones to a reasonable volume level but most of us really don't. My headphones (Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro) are about 32 ohms and get plenty loud even right out of my Cowon Plenue D Digital Audio Player (I'm old so I don't have any music on my phone I just use it for phoning)
Some people will tell you that an external Dac/amp will always improve the sound of a pair of headphones but I can't really confirm or deny that as I'm one of those guys that doesn't bother with FLAC files and for the little bit I've heard I can't really tell the difference in sound quality with the DAC or without it.
I'll see how I feel about it once I connect my new DAC and my new headphones come in the mail hopefully tomorrow.
Yeah, the better built in sound card, as i understand it, is supposed to be better isolated and more powerful (??)
I've used my Sennheiser HD598s with great success and the Sennheiser ones for gaming, both work great.
I do like the idea of having something for having a physical volume knob for control (since controlling from your computer can become tedious and i'm definitely not going to turn each jbl knob every time). a good clean sound would be a nice bonus (not sure if i'd notice it or not). Also i want something that i can eventually plug a standard sub into i'm not going to get the JBL 310, but might get some dayton or another sub some day.