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Hello community, Im new on this forum!! I dont know if there is a place when you introduce yourself, didnt found it. Please tell me if i need to
 
This is my problem, I hope some one can help me, is killing me!
 
Last week i bought an ATH-AD900 headphone, and a focusritte 2i2 for 2 reasons, one i need it to record some chamber sessions (I´m a violinist) and i was hoping it will provide a decent DAC.
When I started listening to the AD900, i was amazed! I couldnt believe what this cans can do, not too much bass but great treble and mids.  Cant believe how articulate where them. BUT after a short period i start to feel very fatiguing and my left ear kind of pain... i wasnt playing it too loud, so I couldnt understand what was happening. After a few days, i realised that this articulation wich i was so impressed was killing my ear. It was some kind of sparkly sound that was getting more and more insupportable.
For my surprise, this problem wasnt so noticeable with mp3 music, still there, but not as fatiguing as eac flac files.
So i decided to try another source, this time my iphone. That wasnt fatiguing at all, but there was a diferent source and only mp3 files, dont have flac there.
Trying my 2i2 with speakers was fatiguing too... so i get the conclusion that the combination of this cans and that sound card was the worst for my ears.
Still dont know what the problem really is, i hope that reading this some one can help.
Tell my your thought
Thank you very much to all!
I´m very pleased to be a part of this comunity

 

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up!
 
Anyone?

 

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Up!

 

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no one?????

 

[adamlr]

fatigue is nasty, i get it myself sometimes. im afraid im unfamiliar with any of your equipment, but i can offer what i do know about fatigue and its causes:
(keep in mind this isnt scientific fact, its just what i managed to gather from forum posts and some google searches)
 
prolonged listening - it may be good to give your ears a rest here and there. take 5 minuets of silence after an hour of listening perhaps? i have no formula, just try and see if you like.
 
distortion and/or ringing - said to cause fatigue, i have no way of knowing for sure. the only solution to this would be using equipment with low distortion and ringing. finding actual measurements of these can be hard though. try inner fidelity, tyl has a section with data sheets for a good number of headphones. i think headroom also has alot, give it a look and see.
 
spl - if you listen too loudly, its no wonder your ears will take a toll...
 
frequency spikes - this is where my money is. especially in the treble area. i think (ie, dont take my word for it) high frequencies are more detrimental to ones hearing, and even if im wrong, our ears are more sensitive to high frequencies (google "equal loudness contour" for a more detailed explanation on this). one way or another, the way to fix this is equalization. i know i used to get really bad fatigue after a really short time (15-20 minuets), but after eqing my headphones, and getting rid of a 7db frequency spike in the treble range, i can now listen to my music for ALOT longer (about 5-7 hours) before getting any fatigue, so long as i take a break for a couple of minuets here and there. here are some links to equalization threads, which i recommend you take a look at. 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial
http://www.head-fi.org/t/587703/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial-part-2
 
another solution to fatigue is using crossfeed options, available for free as software (plugins for foobar for example) and some amps have a crossfeed switch built in. i understood what it is and what it does better when i was "researching" fatigue myself, but for the life of me i cant remember. tbh, this option was of no help to me, but a simple forum search will reveal much on crossfeed and its uses.
its also possible your headphones are just too bright for you, and you should take a look into a pair with a darker signature.
however, i HIGHLY doubt that file formats have ANYTHING to do with it, and i dont think different sources have anything to do with it either, unless they add to the brightness of your headphones.
 
i know this wasnt the most in-depth explanation, and that you were probably expecting a different answer, but thats all i can give you, i hope it helps, good luck.
 
cheers

 

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Thanks! I will experiment all you said and i will tell you how it works.
I was thinking about selling this cans 

 

[adamlr]

Quote:

Thanks! I will experiment all you said and i will tell you how it works.
I was thinking about selling this cans 

no problem mate, glad i could help. 
i suggest you try equalizing first, thats what did it for me and i remember how relieving it was for me. the threads i linked may seem very long and complicated, but i promise its really not THAT hard. perfecting it may take a long time, but the initial difference can be achieved in a relatively short time and, to me, was the very definition of light and day. interesting how some never get fatigued at all, while others suffer from it so badly...
 
anyhow, best of luck to you
 
cheers

 

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Hello again!
After several month of struggling with this i get to a conclusion that may be the answer. I tried all the eq that you mentioned before but they dont seem to really convence me, was difficult to cut the peaks without affecting other frequencies so i was a little disappointed.
I went to the sennheiser store and try some of their cans, and finally decided to go for the hd600 (not very happy of spending so much money, but WOW they sound great). Reading a lot about headphones impedance, because i have to be able to drive a 300 ohms headphone, I strated to wonder, Why if  Focusritte 2i2 is giving the ad900 more that it can handle, so it starts to distort the sound making it to bright and harsh.
So i decided to give them a last try with my iphone, just plug them in and listened to the same music as i did in my computer. Somehow it aint as fatiguing as i expected.... so may be, this is the problem, the source is making it to bright in that spots where is difficult to notice, and fatiguing me so much!.
Just Wondering, what do you think about that?
Thanks!

 

[adamlr]

well, different sources may sound different, true. but with modern sources i believe the biggest differences would be due to impedance missmatches. as is written around this forum, the general rule of thumb is a ratio of 8x1. so if your headphones are rated at 300 ohm, theoretically, 300/8 = 37.5, so whatever your plugging your headphones in should have that impedance or lower, in order to get the "proper" sound. again, by adjusting the Q, or bandwidth if you will, of the eq cut, you should be able to effect the least amount possible. detecting the center of the peak your trying to get rid of is also important for not effecting unwanted areas. but hey, if getting a different pair of headphones works, as it should since different headphones have different signatures, then why the hell not? and if changing source/amp works, why the hell not? im a strong advocate of equalization, which is why i recommended it. but different options are available for sure. so long as your ears dont hurt - its all good =]

 

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Yap, i was thinking you mentioned eq just to save some bucks. The thing is that ad900 headphones are 35 ohms, and my source is giving them something like 80... thats why i thought that can be the problem. I keep trying another solutions, but senn hd600 can be the solution i need.
Thank you very much for all your help!!