[jonstatt]

Just received a pair of these with Amazon.com's reduced pricing and they are faulty!! USB is fine but there is the most peculiar problem with analogue in. Sounds that come from the centre like vocals sound recessed and echoey. And sounds that are from left or right only are fine. I tried multiple cables and sources but it seems like there is an internal wiring issue with the left and right channels being out of phase from each other!! I now have to figure out how to return them back to US Amazon from the UK! Very disappointing.

 

[mabernat]

Could be someone’s return or if its “new” it could simply be faulty. If you purchased from amazon and they were rthe seller then you should not have an issue. If you purchased from a 3rd party, they should accept the return and pay shipping. Its not like you have buyers remorse, the product is faulty and not as described.

 

[jonstatt]

Could be someone’s return or if its “new” it could simply be faulty. If you purchased from amazon and they were rthe seller then you should not have an issue. If you purchased from a 3rd party, they should accept the return and pay shipping. Its not like you have buyers remorse, the product is faulty and not as described.

It was definitely new and Amazon direct. Its just a bit painful with international returns even then. Very unexpected to have a faulty headphone. I know every product has faulty ones....but AKG has a good rep. Just unlucky and hope there isn't a batch with wrong wiring!

 

[mabernat]

I hear you. Ive had my set for a couple years now—probably first production run units.i carry them in the leather pouch and “stuff” them inside a pocket on my backpack i carry daily. They are still in new condition and still work beautifully. I really love these phones and enjoy the sound they provide.

 

[masterfuu]

Jon, try auto adjustment by pushing and holding button to right and playing around normal studio and surround mode by pushing and releasing same button fast ?

 

[jonstatt]

Jon, try auto adjustment by pushing and holding button to right and playing around normal studio and surround mode by pushing and releasing same button fast ?

Thanks for the suggestion. I had tried recalibrating and cycling through the modes. No matter what I did it was the same and only for analogue in. Bizarre fault really.

 

[AKGunkie]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had tried recalibrating and cycling through the modes. No matter what I did it was the same and only for analogue in. Bizarre fault really.

The analogue in port goes to a ADC and then go to all the same processing and hardware chain that the digital signal would. If something is wrong with analogue only its the Input jack or the ADC. I believe there was a firmware update on these way back when in 2016 but I have no idea if you can re install firmware as the user.

 

[masterfuu]

What firmware version do you guys have ?

 

[AKGunkie]

Firmware Version B1.01

 

[mabernat]

hi,

How are you able to ascertain the firmware in these units? Have AKG released firmware for these?

 

[jonstatt]

hi,

How are you able to ascertain the firmware in these units? Have AKG released firmware for these?

B1.01 is the only firmware. There is no download anywhere. You can tell the firmware via a USB connection to the PC. The version appears next to the name of the sound device, such as shown in the control panel.

 

[jonstatt]

My replacement N90Q is absolutely fine. No weird out of phase sound! The hiss does take some getting used to!

 

[ephemere]

Hello all. I just got a N90Q last night. It sounds great!

Has anyone else experienced pops or dropouts when using USB?

Through my Mac's USB, I get a click/pop every few seconds. This is using the Qobuz web player streaming a 44.1/16 source. I opened Audio MIDI Setup and experimented with settings:

• 44.1/16: No pops after 10 minutes of listening. Yay!
• 44.1/24: Stretches of several minutes without pops.
• 48/16 (default), 48/24, 96/16, 96/24: Constant pops through the music.
  
• 88.2/16, 88.2/24: Doesn't work -- no sound.

From my Pixel phone, again USB, I get no pops but random dropouts of about .5 sec every minute or so. It's the same with the Qobuz app (44.1/16 stream) and the YouTube Music app (lossy stream).

I'm wondering if the Android system is upsampling to 48 kHz or something through the USB and somehow that's causing the dropouts.

Has anyone encountered this problem? Any advice on solution? I'm thinking to try USB Audio Player Pro, which is supposed to work with Qobuz and I think gives control over USB playback rate.

 

[masterfuu]

Hello. I wrote about exact same problem check the thread. But let me summarize it real quick anyway. I got my akg from b&h photo for $650 and was excited to listen to these headphones. Just as you explained the MacBook Air also only accepted 44.1khz via usb. Great sound ! But I was soon found disappointed that 96khz experienced pops and cracks to sound. I took the headphone to my friend to see if it will work on windows. Unfortunately the windows machine can’t even recognize the device. I reached out to tech support but you know how that goes (waste of time ).

Ended up returning them for full refund.

It’s a shame because the sound is amazing and I welcomed the NC feature for my apartment. Good luck.

 

[ephemere]

Thanks for the response. I'm actually happy with 44.1 from my phone if I can get it to work without the occasional dropouts. I plan to listen only to Qobuz 44.1kHz/16-bit streams.

I only tried it through my laptop for testing purposes. I never listen from my laptop.

Perhaps I'll try USB Audio Player Pro. I read in this post that: "USB Audio Player Pro is afaik the only app that has a separate driver for USB output on phones which will send bit-perfect signal to an EXTERNAL dac."