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
YMMV for preference, but the DT 880 has less mids presence and a sharper treble spike, both have a nice natural sounding amount of bass.
Currently the the DT880s are the most comfortable long-session cans I've worn so far (even better than my old Sennheiser HD555s and definitely better than my AKG K-240 studios). I don't think, even once they're properly broken in, that the HD6XX's can beat the DT880s for comfort, but who knows (they are pretty comfortable though).
My thoughts for a long time were “Find headphones that feel like clouds, that you can forget you’re wearing them.” My first “serious“ headphone was the Audio Technica ATH-AD700, which were super light, suppposed to be circumaural, and the Wings were supposed to feel like not wearing a headband at all. It never really got to the point where I forgot I had them on though... that has only happened (much later) with the Sennheiser HD 800.
Fast forward to October last year, where I couldn’t pass up on picking up the famous HD 650. Fresh out of the box, yes the clamp was strong, but the padding was also good so I didn’t feel like my head was being crushed. I also watched videos of how to carefully stretch the headband, which I did manually... I didn’t want to crush the pads on some books. Just pull out the extensions to max, and gently straighten the curves of the metal extensions and the plastic headband, only enough force till resistance is felt and hold it there for a few seconds, testing it out along the way to make sure I don’t go too far and never flexing it enough to crack anything.
End result: pretty much one of the headphones I can wear the longest. It’s still fairly snug and I don’t forget I’m wearing it, but it never causes my jaw or muscles to become sore, and the divot in the headband plus the soft padding up there are IMO better than the padding on the DT 880 I used to have: the padding never gets hard like the leather-wrapped memory foam of the DT 880, and the divot creates a break right where the DT 880 headband would cause a hotspot after an hour. I have started becoming even more critical of headbands lately, as my hair has been thinning and my bald spot has been growing in the past few years. The circular DT (and AKG K712/Q701/K612, and Audio Technica) pads extended further forward and back on my head from my ears, hitting points on my head that are a bit softer and squishy (and beard-y), so I like the oval pads better. Plus, at under 300 grams, the HD 650 is really light. Put it all together plus the refined and beguiling but smooth sound signature, and the HD 650 is my first headphone I go for to wear while working or relax with after work.
At home, I use a Sennheiser HDV 820 for all my headphones. Very dynamic and really good with any style of headphone signature I’ve thrown at it, and more than plenty powerful enough that I don’t hit any limits with regards to headroom. This means, as an amp/DAC, it basically brings out the full performance of most headphones (unless I want to buy a super super high end DAC) while being neutral enough that I can actually get a great feel for the headphone’s “natural” response.
On the go, there’s something really exciting and addicting about the HD 650 paired with my FiiO X7 (first generation) DAP with an AM2A amp module. I often let people try out the HD 650 with the headphone jack in their phone, and that is enough for people to lose their earginity. The response is usually “Wow, this is so different from $300 Beats/$30 Sony,” but then I make them try the same song on my X7, and that’s when I know I won’t get back the headphones for a few minutes :D
The HD 650 generally sounds detailed but dull and “flat” like a soda without the fizz on most smartphones, same with cheap amps with about as much output power as smartphones. The phones usually fair better than laptops and most desktop computer headphone jacks too. They respond best to amps that are a bit punchy with good dynamics between loud and soft, but essentially they’re not picky once you have a powerful enough amp. I like my HD 650 on my Cavalli Liquid Carbon, PS Audio Sprout II, Creative Sound Blaster X7, Yamaha home theater receiver, Chord Mojo... the list goes on and on. For the price and convenience, I was even impressed with the little Bluewave GET (recently on Massdrop), which sounded better than my iPhone 6S’s headphone jack despite being a little Bluetooth receiver/DAC/Amp about the size of a BiC lighter.
I used to be into tubes and a good tube amp can have great synergy (there’s that word!) with the HD 650. I’ve read really positive reports of pairing with tube amps from Garage1217, Crack, Schiit, Donald North Audio, Glenn audio... and the list goes on and on. I had a custom single-ended-triode tube hybrid that sounded amazing (and less microphonic) with Russian tubes, but I got annoyed with rolling tubes, changing the bias, interference from WiFi and cellphones, and just in general they’re a bit fussy. The magic is there in nice tube amps, but it’s also in good Solid State amps.
Not all smartphones are built equally... but the audio components were getting better and better as they realize the headphone market is growing. The E10k is a small upgrade from what’s built into a phone. Now, the X7 I have... it’s the first generation model, so it takes like 45 seconds to start up, and it’s a little slow in some other areas, but it was also like half off bought used, AND you can detach the amp module for upgraded modules, or amps dedicated for IEMs or high impedance headphones. I like the modular upgradability. You can use it to play audio from a Computer via usb, audio from a MicroSD card, WiFi Streaming (though shorter range than a smartphone), or as a dedicated transport to play music off the X7 but connect it to a home desktop DAC or Amp. The markII version of the X7 is faster, can hold 2 microSD cards, and is supposed to sound better, but costs more. If you want to use your phone as a player instead, you should look at the FiiO Q5, but I prefer to have my music, storage, and battery away from the notifications on my phone.