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
For me, personally, I don't want to take anything too expensive in to work in case it winds up disappearing. It _shouldn't_ happen, but that doesn't mean it won't. In fact, a few weeks back our office was robbed and a lot of people complained about their headphones being missing afterwards. Mine were still there, so I was lucky in that regard.
The office also has white-noise generators, my desk is right under the ventilation, and we have an "open floor plan" so all of my co-workers are right around me. So I can't really go with open-backed headphones/ headset at work or I would be potentially disturbing others (or otherwise having to deal with additional noise).
At home is completely different in that I can control most of that. I don't have a ton of noisy people around me, so I can go open-backed if I want and I don't have to worry about disturbing others either.
I'm new to this community (especially headphones) and still learning about headphones and amplification requirements. What's an example of a headphone that can be well utilized by connecting directly to a no-frills desktop or smartphone at work?
Or do you always recommend pairing headphones with an amp?
My recommendation, if you are able, would be to have some headphones that have some sort of noise cancelling functionality with them. Whether that is a closed-back design or active noise cancelling is up to you, but it will help allowing you to focus on your work instead of all the stuff going on around you.
I would also state that I am not really an audiophile. I am just getting my feet wet, but I can tell you that having a dedicated sound card (or AMP/DAC) is a significant improvement even with relatively cheap headphones over onboard audio.
If you are just getting into this I assume you want better sound. Obviously if you've read through this thread and have spent any time looking through the DAC/amps that come up on massdrop you've probably noticed the dizzying variety of models available...most at relatively high prices.
Assuming you want to start on the low price end, I strongly recommend the $100 Audioquest dragonfly black DAC/amp (I personally like the warmer sound of this than the dragonfly red which is twice the price). It's the size of a USB thumb drive. Every time I use it I stare at it trying to figure out how something so small and unobtrusive is SOOO good
Also recommended if you can find a used one on eBay for under $150 is the JDS Labs C5D. This DAC/amp is smaller than a smartphone and is very powerful. I've been buying amps from JDS for several years. IMO no other amp in their price range hold a candle to them. Plus, they have some of the best customer service of any company I've ever dealt with.