Like I said I'm just wondering how gunk seepage could lead to electrical failure? As it happens I still have my old gunky Utopia pads in plastic bags, so I checked with a ohm meter just now, sticking the probes into seeping gunk at close proximity. It measures open circuit. Being non conductive...

Yeah, I've seen a few reported over the years. I can see how gunk seepage could make the HP unserviceable - requiring driver replacement - but I'm wondering how that condition would lead to the electrical failure experienced by the OP?

I think I called it a suspicion not a thesis.:wink: I also live in a temperate zone, but it gets hot in summer and that's when I noticed mine. Hence my suspicion that ambient temp and added body heat was a factor in the breakdown. I've seen pictures (here somewhere) of the goo migrating to the...

Definitely worth checking. My 2016 pads deteriorated and caused a sticky mess under the pads, though it never migrated and caused a functional issue. I would have thought you'd have to wear them to initiate the breakdown as I suspect heat was a factor. Maybe if stored in a warm climate/location?

Begs the question how that would happen. Cables/connectors don't go faulty stored in a box - unless at the bottom of the sea. Maybe the OP tried to force the Lemo connectors off damaging the cable? Though the force would be pretty extreme. Checking the continuity of the cable with a multimeter...

Sorry, but it sounded extraordinary. Is there some detail missing here?

So you bought $4000 headphones new back in 2017, connected them the wrong way round, used them for a bit, never worked out how to unplug the Lemo connectors, then boxed them up for years and now they're not working? Maybe they died of neglect?

7+ years of ownership here and no issues (except the sticky goo on the inside of the OG pads). From my point of view the durability issues are overblown :dt880smile: - but I don't drop them, hook them up to speaker amps, subject them to turn on transients or otherwise abuse them.

This is true but not all speaker amps have mute circuits to eliminate transients when switching on/off or other appropriate protection for sensitive headphones. It could be expensive if a mistake is made. Even more so when you are alternating a sensitive HP like the Utopia with something like...

When I owned the HE6 I experimented with various power amps, however given the sensitivity of the Utopia I'm not sure why you would want to do this? It must be frustrating for Focal having to deal with warranty claims caused by such unnecessary experimentation.

Empirical results. I own both headphones and have used them on multiple sources including my phone, laptop, DX3 pro and Benchmark HPA4 among others. The 58X plays notably louder for the same volume setting and sounds less compromised by weaker sources. Due to the impedance differences the K712...

I haven't heard the AD900x but I previously owned the AD900 and prefer the 712pro. I found the AD900 to sound 'lightweight' and a bit boring. However the k712pro will be significantly less sensitive to drive, so performance is more dependent on having a decent HP amp (doesn't need to be...

I bought a DAC3 back in 2018 and have been very satisfied with the sound over the years. Last October I got the itch to try something different and bought a Holo May L2, a highly regarded (pricey) discrete R2R dac that also showed excellent technical measurements. The May L2 sounded really...

I bet I know what John Siau's answer will be.:wink: While I haven't experimented with fuses in the HPA4, my own feeling is that if it did change the sound its likely to be of the 'relatively minor and soon forgotten' variety. Also because its difficult to do a quick A/B comparison there is a...

Thanks for the speedy solution John, Benchmark is certainly at the top of the pile for customer support.:thumbsup: I'll be ordering the firmware update kit. Meanwhile my early run HPA4 still works fine with the updated 2.2.1 software - so long as I don't adjust the balance function. :wink: I can...

@unicore I have emailed Benchmark about the issue referencing this thread. Both our units around the same build date are behaving the same - so points to a definite issue. Benchmark are usually pretty fast to fix problems so lets see what @jsiau comes back with.

Throwing caution to the wind I decided to update the software (1.02) on my 2018 HPA4 to the latest 2.2.1 Everything went apparently smoothly with the update process which is fully automated. I then changed the option to large text. The volume function appeared to be working as expected with the...

Thanks for the link to the software update, I had a brief look on the HPA4 page but couldn't find it. My HPA4 would be from the initial production run in 2018. I currently have software version 1.02, firmware version 1.01 Mine has been 100% reliable in operation, no software glitches or issues...

My HPA4 is also from 2018 - I wasn't aware there was any software update available? Was your HPA4 malfunctioning before or after playing around with the SD card?

Yes, I think Jussi suggests that the 'mixing/mastering errors' indicated by the counter mostly manifest as some brightness or HF distortion. Whether this is noticeable or bothersome in a particular instance probably depends on the type of material and likely the characteristics of the system and...

I get that - in the sense that they are long, high tap number, linear phase filters. It was Jussi who referred to Sinc-L and Sinc-Mx saying "Both types are extremely long, but that's pretty much the only common thing" Yes, I've observed the count indicating that an apodizing filter would...

Yes, I've read Jussi's rationale that the apodizing filters correct recording filter artefacts in some content. To be honest I haven't looked into it enough to know what I should be listening for and I can't say I've noticed anything jarring while listening. I could use an apodizing filter to...

@kingoftown1 I think Sinc-L, LNS15, 1.536Mhz is now my favorite too! Spacious, detailed with great realism and very solid imagery with the least amount of digital shimmer. Bass is super solid and punchy too. The only down side is that being a very long filter it has most delay at...

That's >4 million taps at x32 - is that what you are using? I assume all the Sinc filter algorithms are essentially the same except for number of taps(?) - which accounts for any differences in sound. I haven't conclusively decided, but I may prefer Sinc-M (million taps) to Sinc-Mx (2 million...

I've just been adjusting the volume manually to compensate for the difference when using SDM upsampling - I suppose setting the compensation would be easier. Probably part of my 'issue' may be that I was using the recommended Gauss filters, per above, with x256 - not the Sinc-M/Mx filters I've...