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
Given that: 1) The front switch has only 3 gain positions. Each has corresponding sensitivity. So you can't choose gain & sensitivity independently. 2) The amp output voltage in single-ended is ~7 Vrms. 3) The architecture doesn't permit gain much lower than 0dB... we might be able to squeeze down to -3 dB minimum. And we presume many users want a 0 dB (1 V/V) gain position to make good use of the volume pot. 4) This amp will be driving all types of headphones incl sensitive IEMs, planars, and high impedance e.g. HD6xx. 5) This amp will be used with a variety of DACs. 6) Most DACs with studio level output have a lower output voltage setting too. And this often has lower THD, at expense of slightly worse SNR.
I suppose then that the +19 dBu maximum input signal is due to the input being buffered prior to attenuation (in a manner similar to Bruno Putzeys' balanced volume controller or otherwise), and is therefore limited by the supply voltage? If so, I would have instead liked to see a 28V or 30V supply being used for greater head room, but given the ubiquity of 24V power supplies and the cost increases associated with using a higher supply voltage I understand the design choice.
Would it be feasible to have the same gain settings on the SE and balanced outputs?
Speaking of attenuation, I wonder what kind of volume potentiometer will be used, and whether there will be room inside for those of us who are DIY-inclined to swap it out for something higher-end like the TKD CP2500 series? If PCB-mounted, that probably precludes the possibility of swapping for mechanical reasons. However, it seems to me that such high-performance active circuitry deserves to be paired with first-rate passives, in particular the volume pot, where tracking, rotation noise, etc. can play a significant role in the overall performance.