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distortion on my new ultrasone 750s

post #1 of 11
6/23/08 at 6:21pm
Thread Starter 
Hi everybody

Just discovered this forum through the ultrasone website. I just got my new pro 750s and so far love 'em but I'm discovering at moderate volumes, certain program material is distorting - sounds like harmonic distortion. Not necc. unpleasant, but when I lower the volume a bit it seems to go away, so clearly not in the original program. Material I've noticed it on is the new NIN Ghosts I-IV release as well as a couple tracks on the demo CD that came with the phones themselves, particularly piano and bell sounds. Is this due to 'burn in'? Or should I assume that they are defective? The source is iTunes on a Macbook Pro. Thanks for any help or suggestions.
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post #2 of 11
6/23/08 at 6:59pm
You may need a headphone amp to drive them, since the laptops cant. Unless your problem is the headphone it self.
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post #3 of 11
6/23/08 at 7:33pm
My laptop drives them better than one portable amp I have, so it is not that straight forward.

They are relatively power-hungry headphones -- most likely the laptop has problem driving them. If you don't have a dedicated headphone amp, you could try them with some other devices with headphone output to see what kind of difference it makes.
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post #4 of 11
6/23/08 at 8:26pm
To tot:

C'est tout à fait incroyable～

Personally i don't think that a laptop can drive the 750s well without a DAC....

Mine is ASUS G1S,
My 750s sounds terrible on it !

But with my Predator it sounds outstanding.
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post #5 of 11
6/23/08 at 9:08pm
Is this your first set of highly resolving headphones? I say this because IME there is so much in terms of distortion and clipping that shows up on CDs because of crappy recording/mastering. I was truly amazed at what is sometimes allowed to slip by. I can't even listen to a couple of CDs of one of the classic jazz recordings, Kind of Blue, because of the distortion.

It might be the laptop source as is being suggested here. But make sure that it is truly the HP/amp (or lack of amp that is the problem). Sometimes the distortion is subtle enough that with a slight volume adjustment you won't notice it. Or in my case, I never noticed the distortion on Kind of Blue with my Senn 600s until I got the even more resolving Ultrasone Edition 9s. Once I identified the distortion with the Edition 9s, I could then spot it with the Senns because I knew when and what to look for. The 750s have a pretty good high end, so I expect that sooner or later you will hear the kind of thing that I am talking about.

And if you get an external amp (a good idea anyway) and it goes away you'll know it was the source that was the issue.
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post #6 of 11
6/23/08 at 9:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 521ztz View Post
Personally i don't think that a laptop can drive the 750s well without a DAC....
I didn't say well. Besides, there must be a DAC inside since I get sound out

Mind you, I don't really listen the laptop or 750s, I just use them for monitoring purposes. For that is sounds perfectly ok, given that the laptop (Dell Precision M90) does internally 192/24, something a portable usb/dac/amp combo can't do.
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post #7 of 11
6/23/08 at 10:35pm

Reply to mixmasterdsr

Quote:
Originally Posted by mixmasterdsr View Post
Hi everybody

Just discovered this forum through the ultrasone website. I just got my new pro 750s and so far love 'em but I'm discovering at moderate volumes, certain program material is distorting - sounds like harmonic distortion. Not necc. unpleasant, but when I lower the volume a bit it seems to go away, so clearly not in the original program. Material I've noticed it on is the new NIN Ghosts I-IV release as well as a couple tracks on the demo CD that came with the phones themselves, particularly piano and bell sounds. Is this due to 'burn in'? Or should I assume that they are defective? The source is iTunes on a Macbook Pro. Thanks for any help or suggestions.
I suggest you use another pair of headphones to listen to the same audio. If you still hear the distortion, you will know the source of the problem is not the Pro 750's. If you do not hear the distortion in another headphone, the problem could be with the 750's but to make sure try something else first. Plug the Pro 750's directly into the headphone outlet of your DAC or any integrated headphone outlet, play the same audio and see if you still hear the distortion in the Pro 750's. If you do not hear the distortion the problem may be that your amp, in some way, is defective or there may be something wrong with the Pro 750's connection to the amp. Also, check your cable on the Pro 750's. Connecting at the ear cup, the connection needs to be SCREWED IN SECURELY. I have seen this particular problem before, people didn't realize that the cable needs to be screwed in. And, just like you are saying, there was a problem with the sound as a result of the cable not being screwed in.
If the Pro 750's are defective, don't worry. There is a 2 year guarantee on them and from everything I've heard, Ultrasone definitely does stand behind their products.
Let us know what happens.
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post #8 of 11
6/23/08 at 10:55pm
The Pro750 is a truly revealing headphone set; hence, it brutally shows any flaws that your source has which may have not been so apparent previously. Even for me, there are quite a few CDs to which I now refuse to listen through my Proline 750 simply because the 750 have revealed to me how badly they were recorded, a fact which was not so apparent using other headphones.

When I say "source", I am not limiting it to music source only. Amps, interconnects, and all things between the original sound to your Pro750 will be revealed to you. By trying out the 750, you may have just opened your door to "wallet destructiondom"......

Welcome to Head-fi, and sorry for your wallet.
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post #9 of 11
6/23/08 at 10:58pm
noticible harmonic distortion is a source problem. or maybe amp.
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post #10 of 11
6/23/08 at 11:32pm
yes, and iTunes was a bad player...you should try CogOsX, better than iTunes...almost equal or near Foobar2000, cmiiw...
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post #11 of 11
6/24/08 at 12:19am
Or Winamp using the ASIO plugin if your laptop sound card supports ASIO. XMplay is another one with a ASIO plugin.
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