I set up my first headphone system about 6 months ago. Early on, I noticed a sort of strange sound that I wrote off to being something else. I finally got annoyed enough at it to take the time to try to isolate which component it's coming from. The difficulty with testing is that I only have one DAC, one amp, and one set of good headphones (the HD600s). It makes it difficult to swap out parts one at a time and figure out which one is making the sound. Using a pair of Apple earbuds and an old, very worn out cheap (~$70) set of Sennheiser headphones from nearly 10 years ago, I think the problem is the HD600s. The reason I'm not 100% sure is that I do have to admit it's possible that none of the other headphones are good enough to reveal this sound. I also don't have anything else that will drive the HD600s to full listening level, so the sound is very quiet when plugged directly into, say, my laptop. However, I think there's no sound using the cheaper headphones and I think the sound is still there with the HD600s when plugged into my laptop directly.
I did some searching on Head-Fi and the noise I'm hearing is NOT what other people are describing. There's a lot of people talking about a rattle on strong bass. My bass is absolutely clear. The odd buzz/rattle I'm getting is in the upper midrange. It's sort of a harsh buzz, almost a clipping sound, on top of strong, pure notes like brass instruments or some synth stuff. If you can imagine what a trumpet with a kazoo jammed in the bell would sound like, you're getting into the right territory. It's definitely a resonance because some tracks drive it nuts and some tracks don't cause it at all. Any passage that gets it going will set it off every time I play that passage.
Any ideas?
