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
Just got this through the mail after ordering from Amazon (free same day shipping at the same price as MassDrop is pretty handy, not gonna lie) and upgraded from the Fiio E10k (my previous dac/amp combo). I am pairing the E5 and E10k with a pair of Sennheiser HD8s as well as a set of Logitech PC speakers + subwoofer (no model number, sorry).
POSITIVES: I will say that I like the E5's customizability alot especially when coming from the e10k which has none. The included Sound Blaster software packages are very nice and allow you to modify the sound of the music to your liking. The effects of the software are toggleable on the DAC/AMP themselves which makes it pretty handy for modifying the sound on the fly. If you don't use the software you aren't getting the maximum potential out of the E5.
The bluetooth connectivity on the E5 is really nice. Range on it is about 25 feet before the signal gets choppy which is much better than expected and probably much more than I will ever need. The E5 can pair to both Android and iDevices. An additional note on this point is that the E5 also serves as an external battery pack for your phone or tablet by charging the device over usb connection. The ability to take the E5 anywhere and have a high quality DAC/Amp cannot be understated.
DRAWBACKS: Tthe line out port on the back of device is muted if there is a device plugged into one of the two headphone jacks on the front. The means that I cant have both my headphones and speakers plugged into the dac/amp device and only play audio from one of them. This is a feature I got very used to in my Fiio E10k and am sad to see it go. Additionally, I might be missing something but there does not seem to be a way to circumvent the E5 Amp circuit, leading to double-amping from both the E5 and my speaker setup which is non-ideal. Once again, this is something that was present on my E10k and I am sad to see it go. To my knowledge this device only acts as a bluetooth signal reciever and not a signal sender, meaning anyone who has bluetooth headphones might be left high and dry here.
Overall, I think the utility of the E5 makes it much better than the E10k in my eyes. The ability to share tunes with friends through easily changing inputs over bluetooth is pretty handy and its portability only adds to this. The fact that it has a build in battery and doesnt need to rely on USB power is a godsend as well.
EDIT: There appear to be major issues getting the e5 to connect to my tower pc and play audio over usb connection. The e5 works just peachy on my laptop and my sisters laptop. I am still working on potential fixes to the issue but it appears to be software and not hardware related.
Panzerfan, great suggestions. We will keep those in mind for future updates / revisions for sure.
I know that the G5 has rectified this by replacing one of the stereo output with a mic in, but there is an alternate approach where you replace one of the stereo input with a combo jack so that a headset can be plugged in directly into the E5, which greatly helps with both mobile and gaming use. Edit: I want to make perfectly clear that there is nothing that comes close to the E5 as a DAC/amp suite that does it all. This is the Swiss Army Knife in the audio world.