[GaryJW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by talkingparrot /img/forum/go_quote.gif So your saying listening to my Senns through my Cowon D2 is Kosher for now . That would give me a huge sigh of relief sir.

Pretty sure of it, so long as the distortion is from the source and not from overdriving the headphones - which it sounds (no pun intended) to be. Pushing the Senns. into distortion would probably also involving destroying your ears as well as the headphones!

 

[talkingparrot]

So I have one yes and one no.

I know the distortion isn't coming from the driver itself, its a clipped signal sent to my headphone. I have listened to the 650s on a Home Theater reciever and the same songs are perfectly fine. Hopefully you guys understand why I'm worried since this was such a significant investment.

 

[talkingparrot]

This is the official response from Sennheiser:


Hello- if you are overloading the input signal then you are not causing any
damage to the headphones...they are merely reproducing what has been given
to them. However if the headphones are distorting after a normal signal is
fed to the headphones and then they are turned up too loud you run the risk
of damage. Turn them down to a lower level.


---

I have no idea what that means, any takers :-/.

 

[jezz]

The faithful reproduction of a sound, clipping or otherwise, cannot damage any headphone or speaker driver. Overdriving a headphone typically involves such stupidly high volumes that I would simply be impressed if anyone could do it while wearing them.

To prove it to yourself, you can try this: hook the Cowon up to an input on your home theater and set it to the same volume that causes the clipping you hear. Now play with the volume on the home theater setup. You should still hear clipping, just at different volumes. This applies regardless of what you're driving with the home theater.

You might consider a used amp for the HD650 as well; straight out of the Cowon should sound fairly good as it's a very good DAP, but the HD650 really does benefit from an amp. Try tracking down a used Mini3; they're incredible value for the money and can often be had used for around $70.

 

[GaryJW]

Could ask for reasoning or a pointer to a reliable reference for some statements On many forum sites I often see many assertions that are neither backed up by any reasoning or can point to reliable sources - which to me is a pretty good definition of how "old wives' tales" start.........

 

[GaryJW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by talkingparrot /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is the official response from Sennheiser: Hello- if you are overloading the input signal then you are not causing any damage to the headphones...they are merely reproducing what has been given to them. However if the headphones are distorting after a normal signal is fed to the headphones and then they are turned up too loud you run the risk of damage. Turn them down to a lower level. --- I have no idea what that means, any takers :-/.

Pretty much what I was saying; "overloading the input signal" would refer to causing the clipping in the source - i.e. it is being asked to produce a signal outside of the range of what it can produce. "distorting after a normal signal" is saying that you are feeding a clean signal to the headphones but is too loud for the headphones to reproduce and hence they are distorting.

 

[the_equalizer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by talkingparrot /img/forum/go_quote.gif My question is would that damage the speaker itself?

VERY unlikely. It could damage the player, though, as you're pushing the little amp to it's limits.

I mean, DAP amps are designed to withstand quite a bit of abuse (plugging in and out of the headphones while operating, having two headphones connected with a splittter, etc), But any intentional, sutained abuse is likely to damage a circuit.

I would advise you not to pump up the volume so hard in your player. If you need more volume (something that might also be unwise, depending on the level you're trying to achieve), get a Cmoy.

 

[fjrabon]

No, you can't damage your headphone by just reproducing a sound that is already clipping. The sound of an amp clipping is well within the realm of what a heaphone can easily handle. Now, if you are actually making the headphone clip, that is certainly bad for the headphone, but unless you are using your headphones for desktop speakers, you aren't making your headphones themselves clip.