[1212magicman]

So I bought a Hd-555, and the right ear cup would always make a cracking sound with loud bass.
So I got the Hfi-580. Now these make cracking sounds with loud bass. All I'm using is my E5 with bass boost. I thought these were somewhat high end headphones?

 

[Nagasaki_Kid]

might be your source/mp3 player/sound card. remember garbage in garbage out.
There are 2 probable causes:
1. your music file is of poor quality or recorded poorly  and your old headphones glossed over them because they weren't as detailed.
2. Your sound card/ mp3 player is distorting at high volumes because you're pushing it to hard
 
 
Of course there is the unlikely but possible that you have gotten 2 headphone with manufactor defects
Amazon doesn't sell fake headphones

 

[rawrster]

I think it might have something to do with the E5 you are connecting it to.

 

[DaBomb77766]

Well, sometimes Amazon sellers in the marketplace sell fake stuff.  Be careful with those, and always look at their ratings.
 
And I'm inclined to believe it's the source.  Do you have some sort of EQ going on with your source?  Sometimes that can do it.  If you EQ music too far it can introduce clipping.  I've found that if I bump up the bass boost in music that has a compressed dynamic range it gives you the "crackling" sound, which I'm inclined to believe is clipping in your case.

 

[1212magicman]

Is there some sort of amp, or impedence adaptor that can fix this?  Because I've seen people around the forum having the same clipping issues. I didn't know these headphones couldn't handle bass boost, because without bass boost it doesn't clip. Wierd

Edit: Just tried my E5 on Flat EQ and it has like 98% less clipping at max volume through PC and Amp. (Which is not that loud)
So I also put my Turtle Beach DSS and used it's bass boost and put it at 50% volume (otherwise it would clip again)
Now I got good bass without clipping.

Warning: E5 bass boost is not recommended for high end headphones!

 

[DemonicLemming]

It's not the headphones that clip, it's the amp.  If you're inclined to use bass boost, use a parametric software EQ, and EQ downwards - instead of increasing the lower frequencies on the EQ, pull all the other frequencies down a bit.  That way, you're much less likely to get clipping (assuming moderate listening levels) than by using the bass boost function on the E5.
 
Quote:

Is there some sort of amp, or impedence adaptor that can fix this?  Because I've seen people around the forum having the same clipping issues. I didn't know these headphones couldn't handle bass boost, because without bass boost it doesn't clip. Wierd

 

 

[charli3]

Clipping is bad, it happens when they are driven beyond their capabilities. Try using Software EQ like Lemming said.