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
If you're gonna spend $500 though, I wonder how the Schiit Jotunheim stacks up against the m9XX. Anybody just happen to have both?
"magni will amp ANYthing you need at all." Technically, all amplifier well, amplify anything. I think what you're trying to say is that it will drive everything you need. Even that it is not true. It definitely cannot drive Hifiman HE-6 for example. Driving it is one thing, driving them well is entirely different thing.
"isn't driving sennheiser or beyerdynamic headphones." Those two headphones are not very hard to drive in the sense that they require a lot of power. A Mojo(which is less powerful than M9xx) will power them sufficiently.
FYI, depending on the headphones in use, Magni is not much more powerful than M9XX, For example, into 32ohm load, Magni outputs 1.2W RMS per channel while M9XX output 950 mW @ 32 Ω. Not a big difference. If 950 is not enough to drive a particular headphone, 1200 will not change much.
Again, we all know you're trying to be helpful and we thank you for that but be more careful about giving accurate advice. It's unfair to the product and to potential buyer.
magni will amp anything you need. Ok, and it will! If you're running an he-6 out of a magni you've lost your marbles! If an amp will amplify anything, than just use your smartphone. That is the logic you are using here.
While I'm at it the m9xx won't amp the he-6 well either, as well as most Sennheiser/Beyer cans and the like. We know that different headphones will receive either proper power or not from an amp or not. And what about the m9xx's power output compared to the magni at 300 Ohms, the magni puts out 260mw @ 300 Ohms and the m9xx 115mw @ 300? I'm merely pointing out the fact the m9xx doesn't have enough power to fully drive a lot of headphones on the market that are worth owning. That's it. You seem keen to point out flaws in what I'm saying despite the fact I'm sitting here looking at my schiit amp and my m9xx right next to it. I love my m9xx. I listen to IEMs and some headphone out of it. But for the rest I use a schiit amp for obvious reasons, the m9xx simply lacks I'll send dated pictures if you'd like.
And my advice is what I would call the most objective when it comes to wanting the best amp matching for your specific pair of headphone(s).
Either way the magni and the m9xx pale to that new Jotunheim. Cheaper than the m9xx yet more power than either and it can even drive those he-6's everyone has. Amazing. And it's even cleaner than the magni. If they had options for integrated multibit I would drop 800 dollars one one instantly. Maybe even a thousand because schiit deserves all my money.
"And what about the m9xx's power output compared to the magni at 300 Ohms, the magni puts out 260mw @ 300 Ohms and the m9xx 115mw @ 300?" I totally understand this. Yes M9xx is 2x more powerful @ 300ohms. But it's not fair to say that 115mw is not enough to drive. it's a good amount of power. Chord Mojo has less power but it can still drive 300 ohms headphones quite well. Also i was quoting at 32 ohms to point out that it's not fair to say that "m9xx doesn't have enough power to fully drive a lot of headphones on the market that are worth owning.". For those that have planars, M9XX power is not too far off a Magni. Unless you don't consider planars "worth owning." Even then, most people think planars are fantastic. I actually am not a big fan of planars.
I'm not agree or disagree with your other comments as they are your opinion and i respect that. I own Schiit products before and many other amplifiers so i do like them. My issue is mainly with some of your claims that are technical and objective. I think a more fair comment would be that M9XX is sufficiently powerful for most cases but if you like more dynamics, go for a desktop amp (whether it's magni or jotunheim or whatever else).
As a side note, power is not everything. Asgard 2 has a lot of power but very poor transparency and noise level. Mojo has way less power but it's many levels clearer. Try it for yourself. The main reason why very expensive amps are recommended is because of transparency and clarity that they give. As you mentioned, magni can drive almost anything so there's little reason so get anything more powerful.
Still the magni is cheap and the modi multibit is only 249 dollars and uses the same chip. Schiit is really stepping up here. I think the schiit stack is a much better value than the m9xx, and it's modular which is a plus. M9xx isn't that portable anyway and realistically is just going to be sitting on a desk 90 percent of the time. Might as well go for the schiit stack. But even then why not the Jotunheim. It can power any ortho, any iem, any dynamic, has a low noise floor and defeat the entire purpose of this conversation. Which is what is best value for the money.
"For those purposes I think the magni even is better in terms of amplification than the m9xx. No actually, it is. I'm merely saying if you're running high impedance cans it isn't worth it out of the m9xx, that's all." Okay. If you're saying that M9XX power is not sufficient for performance level of your taste, i'm not going to argue with that. That's your opinion. I personally enjoy that too. But a lot of people will disagree and are willing to accept less dynamic sound. That's the reality. It does't mean that they are less discerning user but they might be more sensitive to things like transparency and detail. So i think it's not fair to say that m9xx is not good enough. I think it's fairer to say that you like more power but you understand that most people are satisfied with less power.
"modi multibit is only 249 dollars and uses the same chip." Same chip as what? definitely not same as m9xx or jotunheim. The DAC chip used is not a good indicator of performance. Putting a ferarri engine in a corolla makes it a nightmare car.
"M9xx isn't that portable anyway and realistically is just going to be sitting on a desk 90 percent of the time. Might as well go for the schiit stack." Good point.
"But even then why not the Jotunheim. It can power any ortho, any iem, any dynamic, has a low noise floor and defeat the entire purpose of this conversation." Jotunheim DAC is not as good. You could use it with modi multibit but it takes a up significantly more space, and cost a lot more than m9xx. I think at the end of the day, they are all good options. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.
modi multibit uses same chip as the m9xx but with better implementation hence the multibit. I really want a multibit dac, but I'm going to go for the bifrost multibit. I have so many headphones that need to be sold off, though.
really I want to keep my m9xx but currently if I use it to feed my lyr 2, so much electrical noise bleeds out in high or low power mode. My computer isn't that noisy I shouldn't need to buy something to clean up that power supply because the unit itself sucks. I'll note though that using the m9xx alone there is a very low noise floor and not much noise at all :p. But as a dac.... rip. Even worse is I've tried several cables so that isn't the issue. It's just bad at cleaning up that signal. Even my much cheaper odac outputs MUCH less noise as a usb dac. Honestly they don't sound far off between each other either.
From the schitt website, these are the following DAC chip that they use. Modi 2: AKM AK4396 Modi 2 Uber: AKM AK4490 Modi Multibit: Analog Devices AD5547
It does't sound right that your m9xx is that noisy. i can't assist you in this since i do not have m9xx. Do note that if the DAC line out is too loud, the amp will clip produce a lot of distortion. It will sound broken.
There are lots of good choices. Also, how much power do you need?
For that budget, i like Burson Audio Conductor V2+ and Marantz HD-DAC1 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier. They both have very good transparency and will do justice to the best headphones. There are obviously even better amps but the law of diminishing returns starts to hit hard at this point.
Modern DAC ICs are extremely transparent. The biggest differences you will hear between various designs are a result of the circuits surrounding the DAC and not the IC itself.
As for headphone power levels and the m9XX... I am puzzled by the comments that the m9XX is not capable of driving high impedance phones. I use the HD600 and HD800 more than any other phones and spent plenty of hours listening to them during the development of the m9XX. I normally listen at levels between 85-90dB but sometimes will turn it up in to the mid 90s for limited periods. This still leaves more than 25dB of dynamic headroom for faithful transient and dynamics rendering. (in the rare case of a recording with that much dynamic range!)
I get that there will be folks who listen louder but to be pushing the limit of the m9XX on these phones certainly puts the listener in to permanent hearing damage territory. REMEMBER: There is plenty of medical evidence that sustained exposure to sound over 85dB will cause permanent hearing damage. At 1mW of output power the HD600 is already playing at 97dB, a level that will cause hearing damage in 30 minutes time. At 115mW that is 117dB
I guess there is a propensity for people to dwell on amplifier power specifications as a measure of quality. That may be true to a point, but I think the conversations really needs to be about protecting your ears for a lifetime of music enjoyment. The m9XX with HD600/HD650/HD800s greatly exceeds what is safe for your ears. Happy listening! -Michael