[Stefanmz7]

Ok so I have been trying to get my Audiotechnica headphones to work as expected with no result in the last few months. There is just always distortion and the sound isn't clear. I bought the Fiio A1 and still there is distortion. The sound is better but there is still distortion in some songs at certain points. So I am just wondering. Do I have to buy a freaking 300 dollars DAC or something just to get my 300 dollar headphones to work as expected? I mean can I by any chance get clean audio(I mean perfect audio) with no distortion with the fiio A1? By buying a better cable or something? And if not is there something sub 100 dollars that is gonna make my headphones sound perfect with no distortion when paired with my iPad Air 2?

 

[SonyFan121]

What Audio Technica model is it?

 

[bagwell359]

R U sure the cans are blameless?

 

[Stefanmz7]

Audiotechnica ATH M70x. And I mean that is not in all songs and don't get me wrong they still sound amazing just no completely perfect. I mean in some songs the audio is perfect and I can't hear distortion but in others especially more vocal ones the voices sometime distort. They aren't completely clear in some points of the song(not the whole song). I am using iPad Air 2 with Fiio A1 and Spotify at extreme quality.What do you think? Buy a better cable for the Fiio(a mean like a professional line in cable)? Or that won't help?

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Maybe it’s the bright tilt that does it? This is not exactly an overbearing headphone and will come across crudely if the music isn’t well-recorded. Maybe what you’re describing as distortion actually is the limitations of the recording?
If you have another headphone with a little less energy in the upper realms of the frequency response, it could be interesting to try it out with the songs you find annoying over the Audio Technica

Edit and to be more clear (sorry I didn’t sleep much last night): the m70x has some peaks in the upper mids and treble. The one in the upper mids is even coming from a dip making the bump seem that more aggressive. The mids are where most music happens and is also there we hear the best ie when you encounter peaks in that range it will inevitably add aggression to the presentation.

 

[GirgleMirt]

Ok so I have been trying to get my Audiotechnica headphones to work as expected with no result in the last few months. There is just always distortion and the sound isn't clear.

There will always be distortion, there's distortion with the $50000 Sennheiser Orpheus system, there will be distortion with 300$ headphones.

Can you quantify 'clear'? It's quite subjective, even you said they sound 'amazing'. Btw, what are you comparing their clarity against?

I bought the Fiio A1 and still there is distortion. The sound is better but there is still distortion in some songs at certain points. So I am just wondering.

What makes you think the amp is the issue and not the headphones?

Do I have to buy a freaking 300 dollars DAC or something just to get my 300 dollar headphones to work as expected?

How do you know that they are not working as expected? If you're expecting perfection you're simply not going to get it. Pretty much every headphone has limitations. Closed back headphones are a trade off by design; sacrifice clarity/soundstage/etc for isolation.

Advantages of Open Back Headphones / The Best Overall Sound Quality
In my experience, it is almost always the case that users wanting the best and no compromises sound quality from headphones should be looking squarely at Open Back headphones. Headphones like the Focal , Audeze LCD series and Sennheiser HD800s are easily some of the best sounding headphones in the world today. They have one thing in common, they are all open back headphones. The ability of the driver to breath combined with a usually more out of the head and open listening experience seem to get open back headphones closer to speaker systems that their closed off brethren.

I mean can I by any chance get clean audio(I mean perfect audio) with no distortion with the fiio A1? By buying a better cable or something? And if not is there something sub 100 dollars that is gonna make my headphones sound perfect with no distortion when paired with my iPad Air 2? Buy a better cable for the Fiio(a mean like a professional line in cable)? Or that won't help?

Cables won't help. DACs won't help, amps likely won't help much either. It's a bit like speakers where if your amp can drive the headphones without clipping >90% of the sound you're getting is from room/speakers or in this case headphones. The benefits from amps/dacs are typically subtle. But in this case I'm afraid it's too high expectations for the headphones.

Just consider the fact that there's quite different types of headphones; yours are dynamic, closed headphones. There's electrostatic or planar headphones where a very thin membrane with extremely low mass can move really fast and can create an extremely clear sound. You'll never achieve the same clarity with AudioTechnica dynamic closed headphones...

Anyway, to go back to your issues; you would have to be more precise on what exactly the issue is. Is it a certain frequency? Is it only when playing quite loud? Are you 100% it's not in the recording? Could be as mentioned a peak in the headphone's FR which stands out with certain frequencies, could be in the recording something you've never noticed, could be combination of aberration in recording + headphones which combine to jump out at you. All these possibilities would not get fixed by amp, dacs or cables...

To make sure that the headphones are OK, you could play some test tones and make sure that there's no distortion at certain frequencies. My 1st pair of hifiman 400i had a defect where it sounded fine 90% of the time but distorted sometimes, turned out that there was some issue with the headphones and there were 2 somewhat narrow frequencies where the distortion would become quite noticeable, (like rattle/vibration which would sound like 'harshness' when listening). Returned, got a new pair and they worked fine. Maybe your headphones have issues.

 

[SilverEars]

I'm thinking he means reverb for the lack of better choice in wording. Given M70X is a closed-back and he says it doesn't sound as clear. That's an issue closed-backs generally suffer, inside the cups reverb overwhelming with warmth (if the track pushes a bit of it) and reducing clarity as result.

I recall somebody on the 58X thread said M70X performs better, and I was a bit skeptical to be honest.

@Stefanmz7

You are better off going for an open can if you want clarity, or dig really hard for a closed can that can provide clarity that you are looking for (some headphones are tuned so that it sounds clearer for a closed-back, but it's due to some drawbacks of tuning by dipping certain frequencies). Exchanging the quipment that feeds the headphone isn't going to make a difference as the headphone's characteristic has so much weight when it comes to this.

 

[SonyFan121]

Yeah reverb can be a big problem with certain closed-back headphones. Nothing that some modifications can't fix though.

 

[Stefanmz7]

Well maybe it's reverb maybe it's just from the closed type as you mentioned (I didn't know that between that closed and open types) or maybe just it's the recording of the song itself. Because as I mentioned it's not in every song. And where it is there the problem can be best described as peak I think. The vocals peak. That is my best explanation. And also yes it happens only at certain volume. If I tune it down just once(with one press of a button) it's either not so apparently or gone entirely. Anyway thanks for all your answers(I actually learned quite a lot for them).

 

[SilverEars]

Well maybe it's reverb maybe it's just from the closed type as you mentioned (I didn't know that between that closed and open types) or maybe just it's the recording of the song itself. Because as I mentioned it's not in every song. And where it is there the problem can be best described as peak I think. The vocals peak. That is my best explanation. And also yes it happens only at certain volume. If I tune it down just once(with one press of a button) it's either not so apparently or gone entirely. Anyway thanks for all your answers(I actually learned quite a lot for them).

Well, the uglies from reverb doesn't show up every music. It depends on what frequencies and how much energy is there that triggers it. Like for example, Beats Studio 3 suffer from lower-mids bloom which causes warmth to the general signature, but you won't notice it until you run into a track that brings it out. I'm thinking that's what you are experiencing.

This is why when you get headphones, you test it with various types of tracks to get a solid idea it's goods and pitfalls. Although you will eventually run into it in due time when it's there.

Try this track, and tell me if triggers it.

 

[Stefanmz7]

Well, the uglies from reverb doesn't show up every music. It depends on what frequencies and how much energy is there that triggers it. Like for example, Beats Studio 3 suffer from lower-mids bloom which causes warmth to the general signature, but you won't notice it until you run into a track that brings it out. I'm thinking that's what you are experiencing.

This is why when you get headphones, you test it with various types of tracks to get a solid idea it's goods and pitfalls. Although you will eventually run into it in due time when it's there.

Try this track, and tell me if triggers it.

No not really. I mean doesn't trigger the effect I was experiencing (like the vocals peaking). I can't notice that in this song. The only thing I noticed there was the "s" and "shh" sounds were a little bit too pronounced but I can't tell if that's a bad thing or not.

 

[GirgleMirt]

The 'sss' sound is called 'sibilance'. Can be caused by the recording or the headphones/speakers. It's definitely not something positive, but if it's in the recording, garbage in garbage out like they say. Can be fixed by audio engineers, but it's not the job of the listener, as any gear that would fix sibilance would hurt any other sound with the same frequency. Some headphones have a bit FR spikes that will cause sibilance, and that is really not good as it can be really bothersome.

There's even sometimes clipping in some recordings sometime, which will cause some severe harshness... Anyway, as I asked you earlier, what is your reference for clarity and others? Something you typically learn early in audio is that recordings are often 'the limit'. Most modern music is compressed to hell, and sound quality just isn't that great. So you get into the hobby in thinking buying expensive crap will make everything sound great, not the case... The records which sound fantastic are quite few apart. There's some 'audiophile' recording studios which really focus on sound quality, but then often the music isn't to your liking.

If you're interested Chesky had some test/demo CD (make sure you listen at max quality (1080p) as it affects audio compression), so these kinds of records are usually very clean and well recorded, they can serve as a good base to distinguish speaker/headphone characteristics.

 

[Stefanmz7]

Yup in those recordings everything sounds completely clear. Great recordings! But I guess not all music is made the same so some recordings just won’t sound better whatever headphones you buy because the ecording is what it is. Anyway thanks for enlightening me on this subject.