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
~88dB/mW would mean these headphones have very low efficiency. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means they require a certain type of power to sound full.
BTW, the nomenclature is correct. Sensitivity is measured in volts. Efficiency is measured in watts.
But yeah, k7xx does take some current to drive them.
The 300 ohm HD650 is actually more efficient despite being less sensitive. 102dB/V ->96.77dB/mW. One could argue that the HD650 is easier to drive than the k7xx -if your amp has high voltage but poor current supply (typical characteristic of "low" power OP amp circuits).
Sennheiser hd 650 (6xx) will be my other headphones when they arrive at Christmas. It seems you know this stuff pretty well... Are there any amps you'd recommend that would power both the K7xx and the HD6xx well? For under $300?
Though I tend to agree with Frosty on some level. Power and quality are not the same. Power will get rid of clipping distortion, but quality and musicality can vary between amps. For a $500 headphone, you really need some quality gear.
I generally double or quadruple the required power and use that as my minimum rated power required for an amp . The higher the rated power the more effortless it can drive speakers/headphones. Looking for exactly the needed rated power should be enough on paper but the problem is there's no guarantee a company reports the specs of their product properly. Also, distortion becomes significant near the max rated power. Thus, the 4x rated power minimum.
A lot of the other specs become increasingly hard to hear. Long as it's solid state and a non-retarded design an amp should be fairly "transparent" to most consumers. Many low budget amps use cheap power supplies (a buzz ends up in the audio->which is audible with super sensitive headphones/IEMs) or might have high output impedance (affects the dampening of headphones). Some of these things is marketing but sometimes not. The THD might be listed as well. It's hard to hear/justify objectively some of these things and extremely "easy to hear subjectively"->my belief why $1000's amps exist.
Beyond 4x power requirement I'd say the benefits becomes extremely marginal requiring hypothetical golden ears to hear (for most people-my belief). k7xx and hd6xx headphones aren't crazy hard to drive so you have lots of "good enough" options. Even the Objective 2 amp "should" be plenty of power/transparency but the volume control method seems goofy to me on it (I don't own it - budget option $75 ). I do constantly see the Schiit stack being recommended ( Magni 2 and modi 2 (ubers?) ->$300 b4 shipping). You may not need the DAC but if you have the cash it's like as good as it gets with sanity in mind. If you don't mind a mini space heater (waste a little energy - idles at 12W or something ->compare that to the heat of a light bulb -$330) and willing to put up with the hassle of ordering crap from China the audio gd nfb 11 http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFN1128/NFB1128EN.htm seems to get top praise for value (it's an amp/dac combo with much higher power handing than the magni 2). Once again I don't own it but the nfb 11 is what I think I'd get just because it's slightly different technology to what I have-peaks my interest.
To properly recommend something one would have to own the crappiest of the crap to pinnacle of perfection, own everything in between, and test these specific headphones for hours if not weeks to pick up on the subtle differences. Not too many ppl have done that, have an objective mind set (unbiased), and have done proper ABX testing (helps remove bias-extra unjustifiable cost just to test?). You're going to get all kinds of recommendations all over the map because of this.
In any case, I would prefer to buy an amp without a dac so I can switch dacs if I want to later. I've only been into audiophile equipment for a few months but I plan on buying a lot of equipment over time. It's a hobby I know I'll be interested in forever!
True, distortion increases exponentially at 50% of peak output, however the inverse is also true. Get an amp that is much more powerful than your headroom requirements, and you end up with more or less the same distortion as if it was performing at peak output.
We'll have to agree to disagree on quality vs power, I'm not going to debate this, it bores me as it usually goes into the same fluff that goes on for pages and doesn't add anything useful to the conversation.
I'd say just get whatever amp that fits into your budget, without anything else to compare with, your reaction is always going to be "wow!"
Sound is personal, if you had the chance to go into a store and audition, please do. What sounds good for me, or Michael, or Frosty doesn't mean it will sound good to you (no offense to you guys, just making the point).
Long expensive hobby indeed.