[Zurpx]

Hello, I'm having an issue with my new set of cans, They sound a bit quiet and the audio is crackly and hisses on loud parts of the music. Also, the vocals in music sound far away and barely audible, as if I'm hearing them through several walls. At some points, I can't hear the singer at all.
 
My old pair of headphones, a cheap pair of Sony's MDR ZX100s sound perfect when I plug them back in.
 
I'm using the front headphone jack of my PC. I've read that these headphones shouldn't really need an external DAC or anything, and my motherboard's onboard audio should suffice to power them. If it helps, my motherboard is MSI's Z-170 A PRO.
 
I had updated to the latest version of Realtek's audio drivers, and have played around with the audio manager, to little avail.
 
At this point, I think I received a bad set of cans, and am considering RMA'ing them.
 
Does anyone have an idea what it could be?

 

[serman005]

  Hello, I'm having an issue with my new set of cans, They sound a bit quiet and the audio is crackly and hisses on loud parts of the music. Also, the vocals in music sound far away and barely audible, as if I'm hearing them through several walls. At some points, I can't hear the singer at all.
 
My old pair of headphones, a cheap pair of Sony's MDR ZX100s sound perfect when I plug them back in.
 
I'm using the front headphone jack of my PC. I've read that these headphones shouldn't really need an external DAC or anything, and my motherboard's onboard audio should suffice to power them. If it helps, my motherboard is MSI's Z-170 A PRO.
 
I had updated to the latest version of Realtek's audio drivers, and have played around with the audio manager, to little avail.
 
At this point, I think I received a bad set of cans, and am considering RMA'ing them.
 
Does anyone have an idea what it could be?

Do you have another source you can plug them into to see if it continues to occur? That would be helpful.

 

[Zurpx]

Sure, I've tried them on my laptop and my brother's. The problem is there but not as pronounced (loud?) I suspect due to their weaker on-board audio.
 
Strange thing I've discovered however, the headphones only sound bad when their balance is close, if I set one to 0 and the other to 100, it sounds quite good actually, but of course through only one ear. I can set either to 0 or 100 and get the same result, same thing happens with the laptops, so I suspect it's the headphones themselves. The closer I adjust the balance to be the same number for the left and right, the worse it sounds.

 

[Kammex]

Did you try using the other cable that comes with the headphones?

 

[Zurpx]

I have not, I'll try those and get back to you guys. Thanks a lot for helping me.

 

[Zurpx]

Just checked, the same issue with both cables.

 

[Kammex]

I think it's a faulty cable connector in the headphones. You should return/exchange them.

 

[Zurpx]

I see, if it does come to that, would you recommend any headphones other than these? With no DAC?

 

[Kammex]

These are pretty good for the price, no amp needed.
DAC is just for better sound quality, but onboard is good enough. An amp is useful for headphones that aren't efficient or have a high impedance.
Maybe look for Sennheiser HD598 if you can go with open-back, it has better soundstage.

 

[Zurpx]

Thanks for the advice and the help guys, I'm just gonna return these, maybe buy some at a later date.

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