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
Any comment?
So I wouldn't write off anything based simply on a picture of the build (unless it is clearly junk). The performance and sound are king, in my book.
The SBAF discussion after the photo is interesting as well. It goes into a lot of detail about the ZDT Jr.
No one buys Grados anymore, but it looks as though my hoary RS1s would pair as well with this as my HD650s.
Hey, Grado! Why not start a side business selling non-disintegrating earpads?
You've just hit on another reason to buy the Jotunheim: It can experience human emotions like pride, which is an unusual feature for an amp.
Have you ever wondered why, if Schiit is a proudly American business, all of its products have Nordic names? You'd think that the founders were proudly Swedish, wouldn't you?
Yes, Schiit is pronounced shit. Yes, their first product, the Asgard, can also be considered a joke in the same vein. Who the hell cares? Is Duke Cannon struggling to sell their stuff because of the tactical everything gimmick? No? Having something people remember your ads for is a sign you’re doing something right with your marketing. If your products can keep people coming back, you’re definitely doing something right.
Please do not automatically assume anyone is an "internet wannabe", at least not until you really know... then by all means,, take the gloves off. FYI the top unit is a 20KW synced substrate bias supply to the HiPIMS. These power supplies show exquisite workmanship, they are the most perfectly engineered & built supplies, I have ever had the pleasure of using.
The glue looks to be isolation, keeping you from bending the leads on those diodes and shorting something. The newer picture of the ZDT has them mounted flat, rather than vertical, so no lead bending possible, and thus no glue. You could use some fancier insulation, but why bother if it’s just a mechanical stabilizer that’s really only doing anything if you open it up and proceed to fat finger it and bend a lead?
The “frayed” wires I can see look like the shield wires on the cables. I‘ve yet to see somebody make those look good. It’s bare spiral wrap around the other wires. I guess you could insulate it with heatshrink or something, but it’s not a power or signal carrier, so why bother?
I‘m not saying it couldn’t be cleaner, nor am I saying that this is the ideal way to do things, but I don’t see any real issues with how they’ve done it.
Too bad I can't find a meme to direct at you saying something to the effect of: "I can not create it because I don't really understand it, so I just assemble it on spec for people who do understand...then I get on the internet and spray about it to make it seem like I do really understand."
I've read enough of Feynman to know that he would just roll his eyes at you and chuckle at your inane bloviating as he walked away...which is what I am doing now.
Lesker is more R&D so if you are looking at general systems, the supplies are smaller, though the sputter cathodes are as well. So in conventional DC magnetron operation, we both fall into the same power density brackets. All is still dependent on materials, cathode style etc. Sputtering is not the most efficient of processes in energy consumption, as most goes into waste heat, the actual sputter component is sorta the weak link in the circuit... This puts practical limits on power density levels, we have to cool stuff or it melts; or recrystallizes targets causing uniformity issues; or just blows it to bits after arcing and cratering it, lots O' stuff happens when you push it. We do R&D as well, but call it Research & Deliver, more at the make a buck level, but some pure research as well.
The HiPIMS supply you see is a 10KW unit that can operate in a pulse mode at up to a 1MW level. So here we can now operate at very high effective power densities, while only having to cool at sustainable average power levels. The benefit here is the increase in the ionized ratio of the vapor flux, we can go from <10% to over 90%. This is an enabling effect, we can bias substrates to direct & accelerate the flux, and when it coalesces, it has the energy to find better bonding sites i.e. increased surface mobility, thus increased packing density, better step/via coverage, lower bulk resistivity, better adhesion and smoother films.
Kudos to you, I did not call the thing in the picture a coating system, and you can only see part of it, are you in the biz?
And funny you pick Lesker of all system Mfg., we compete with them at some levels, though with respect, and have the tradition of dinning together once a year in San Fran during the SEMICON show. KJL's history goes back to 1954 and ours back to 1957, we share some history.
To answer your other question, this particular system will be doing through hole & blind via seed layers for HDI, High Density Interconnect, as well of course area deposition for the same, mostly Ti & Cu work. Similar work is TSV, Through Silicon Vias, then you have the vias on the IC's themselves. "There's plenty of room at the bottom" RPF
I will still likely get the ad hominem, but to bring this back to Audio; besides the fact that all of the IC's, power transistors, diodes, thin film caps and resistors involve sputtering... I see a unique application for this relatively new HiPIMS capability we have; resistors, those noisy buggers, current noise that is, plus thermal "popcorn". I visited a small company in CA a few years ago, that I really did not know much about. I learned that they made custom op-amps, small lots of near perfect ones, a term would be boutique . So I asked who the customers were... they said singers... I must have made a bit of a quizzical (read dumb) look on my face... so they nicely explained. They can tailor a circuit for a particular voice... yeah how custom can it get? That custom, hidden away in those nice mics we see. Noise in resistors is basically caused by imperfections, any type, be it actual contaminants or structure, and by structure I mean rough edges at the sub micron level (hundred angstroms RMS), packing density, crystallography & the lattices within. HiPIMS can help produce near perfect films to reduce many of these imperfections, yes, I am trying to entice these folks by offering to do some gratis lab work, we'll see. A bit of a pet project, for what we all want, more perfect recordings.
Rick_T if you are reading this, I have a real interest in your answer here; wouldn't you rather use a deposited thin film low TCR/precision,, a stable & quiescent (not a metal foil) resistor over a carbon one? I know most thin film ones are surface mount or those MELF things, which keep almost all of us re-workers out, but you can still get dual axial lead ones. Some self interest here, but Vishay does make nice ones.
Again Anent, thanks for the interest and insight into an incomplete picture, and an odd acronym...
I did just get my new travel rig today: Korg DS-DAC-100M & matched Phonon SMB-02 DS-DAC Edition cans & matched player Audiogate (had already for the 100 DAC), will report back on them in a new post,, not here...
Agreed from an audio POV, but contested on the level of unconstructive glee.
"If they are called Nero, Atila or Socrates I'm not interested."
The name of a piece of equipment means nothing in terms of its sound, durability, integrity of design, etc.
However, the name does mean something to me in terms of amusement. Look up Roland Barthes' Mythologies, read the last essay online at your leisure, and you'll see that the language of symbols used in virtually any kind of marketing can be fun to analyze.
People who say marketing that annoys them makes a product itself not worth buying are just as addicted to consumerism as those who buy the product because they're impressed by the marketing. But people who deconstruct the marketing apart from the product entirely are probably trying to inject levity into threads involving warring audio factions and adamant peeing contests of various kinds ("my urine is special!").
"this subject is something I have had exposure too for many years, in my foil resistor days we sold many parts to a guy in UK called David Heaton, he ran/runs his own business and makes serious high end amplifiers, that cost 8-10K sterling back then, 15K USD. he would use foil resistors, ALPS potentiometers, gold plated wires, and his amps were like rolls Royce cars, decadent and well built... I went to his home one time and he sat me down in his ‘listening room’ and at a low level the sound was out of this world, so rich and hard to describe.... "
"So the best resistors are the foil ones they use the homogenous foil and are pure, there is even a school of thought that uncoated foil parts are better, they started calling them naked Vishay’s , there is lot of chat and argument on the forums, and Charcroft here in the UK sell the naked Vishay’s under their manufacturing licence agreement, www.charcroft .com in UK I’m not convinced that the removal of the coating makes a difference....the foil itself is the key part IMO."
"Based on what I have heard and experienced, the best upgrades come from the VPG product, if you can afford them... http://www.vishaypg.com/foil-resistors/ "
So then the naked's (foil) win for critical path usage at least, and the next in line are the CNS HVPS and RN60 which are thin film deposited films, for Vishay products.
Noise in resistors comes primarily from defects in structure, both intrinsic & surfaces, impurities plus interfaces- terminations/contact/phases. Here I find it interesting that the resistor foil still win in the noise bracket, but I think I can now compete here with new thin film tech we have now, some work ahead...
I see a lot of carbon about, but really don't see it as something to go for, in the direct signal path. Though the Dueland cast carbon/silver products look interesting for crossovers; http://duelundaudio.com/resistors/ But again here they talk about a "Cast Carbon Sound"... another imposing signature...
Foil video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E3zFVgeOjo
Interesting simple audio study/experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IErowRoM2-E
Parts links: http://www.partsconnexion.com/resistors_vishay_var.html http://www.texascomponents.com/store/VishayFoilResistors.asp http://www.vishaypg.com/docs/63140/var.pdf
Then it goes on to interesting things such as these Tantalum - Silver Audio Note resistors, first I have seen these, these they say are resistance - with no resistance to sound, no mention of noise level, pure silver is just always nice of course:)http://www.partsconnexion.com/resistors_tantalm_silver_two_watt.html
Very nice custom solid Ag connection construction, but again the Ta, which is actually TaN i'm quite sure, is still likely a bit noisy and could be improved upon: http://www.audionote.co.uk/comp/resistors.shtml
SiCr from my experience is the lowest TCR and a very quiet film, what the THAT thatcorp.com folks use also. I was introduced to it working with IBM Almaden Research, making their quietest, most stable devices, many years ago. I think this is a good candidate, but we can sputter almost anything, with almost perfect structure now. These new films can also have very low intrinsic stress, which also plays a factor in noise, often overlooked.
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Will let you know if I get traction on this endeavor, wanted to respond regardless.