[Nx-1]

I got my HD650 not too long ago, and ive been noticing in many songs a subtle crackling noise/slight distortion at certain points. This sound is very very annoying, subtle tho it may be, its agitating. It ruined a couple of my favorite songs because its so distracting. Its most definitely not due to volume since i listen at very reasonable volumes and Its not my EQ'ing. 
 
Please chime in if you know what could be the cause, its driving me crazy.
 
P.S. Im driving it with the udac-2, (i know thats not enough power, im upgrading soon.) and I listen to .wav, FLAC, Apple lossless, and 320 kbps mp3.

 

[TMRaven]

What songs?  Also, is this your first pair of hi-fi headphones?  Many hi-fi headphones are detailed enough to bring out the subtle crackling in recordings that have clipping in the recording itself-- subtle tho it may be.  I trust you that it's not your source of EQing, that brings about very obvious crackling.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

I got my HD650 not too long ago, and ive been noticing in many songs a subtle crackling noise/slight distortion at certain points. This sound is very very annoying, subtle tho it may be, its agitating. It ruined a couple of my favorite songs because its so distracting. Its most definitely not due to volume since i listen at very reasonable volumes and Its not my EQ'ing. 
 
Please chime in if you know what could be the cause, its driving me crazy.
 
P.S. Im driving it with the udac-2, (i know thats not enough power, im upgrading soon.) and I listen to .wav, FLAC, Apple lossless, and 320 kbps mp3.

Is this with all songs? Or only a select few? Be critical here. You need to know it's not your source audio versus your headphone.
 
Very best,
 

 

[Head Injury]

The uDAC-2 has enough power, but I'd recommend you upgrade anyway.
 
Turn your digital volume down 1dB if you don't have it turned down already. 0dB signals can cause the uDAC-2 to clip. That may or may not be the problem you're hearing. If you're EQing up and not down, that will only exasperate the problem. You can turn the volume down with ReplayGain, or your player or OS volume.

 

[Nx-1]

Quote:

What songs?  Also, is this your first pair of hi-fi headphones? 

Well its most definitely the best pair of headphones ive had. I previously has the allen & heath: XD-53 (you may cringe at that but they're honestly extremely underrated headphones.) and ive borrowed my friends 595 for a while and used it on this same set up. So yes, first pair of real hi-fi headphones.
 
Just to name a couple songs:
- Pyramid song by Radiohead (the crackling first occurs in spot when the vocals come in around 0:18 - 0:33.)
- Zu Fuss (Mutter Mix) by Extrawelt   (starts to occur around halfway through then continues throughout... if you havent heard this song i would strongly suggest it, its incredible. Make sure to listen to the Mutter Mix though, not the original, the original is horrible.)
- Treefingers by Radiohead

There are several more though, thats just naming a few.
 


Quote:

Is this with all songs? Or only a select few?
 

Only a select few. But the select few are produced by very talented and respected producers, so i dont think they'd let mild clipping in their songs slide.. 
 


Quote:

 
Turn your digital volume down 1dB if you don't have it turned down already. 0dB signals can cause the uDAC-2 to clip. That may or may not be the problem you're hearing. If you're EQing up and not down

I have the digital volume down far more than 1dB.. and I EQ down. 
 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Only a select few. But the select few are produced by very talented and respected producers, so i dont think they'd let mild clipping in their songs slide.. 
 

Heya,
 
Are those select few compressed or from original source? Seriously, check with an original source (aka, CD). Otherwise, a bad moment of compression may be to blame (FLAC is compressed by the way, simply considered lossless).
 
Very best,

 

[Nx-1]

Quote:

Heya,
 
Are those select few compressed or from original source? Seriously, check with an original source (aka, CD). Otherwise, a bad moment of compression may be to blame (FLAC is compressed by the way, simply considered lossless).
 
Very best,

None are .wav or FLAC. All are either 320 mp3 or apple lossless ripped from a CD.
 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

None are .wav or FLAC. All are either 320 mp3 or apple lossless ripped from a CD.
 

Then listen to the same track on the CD and make sure it crackles on the CD too. If it does, it may be your cable. Or worse.
 
Very best,
 

 

[Nx-1]

Quote:

Then listen to the same track on the CD and make sure it crackles on the CD too. If it does, it may be your cable. Or worse.
 
Very best,
 

Ya, im really hoping its no the "or worse" but im still under a 30 day return policy so if it is then its not really an issue. 
Ill check it out on the CD and hopefully its just due to compression. By the way is Apple "lossless" similar to FLAC in the manor that its just considered lossless?
 
Thanks for all you help man

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

Ya, im really hoping its no the "or worse" but im still under a 30 day return policy so if it is then its not really an issue. 
Ill check it out on the CD and hopefully its just due to compression. By the way is Apple "lossless" similar to FLAC in the manor that its just considered lossless?
 
Thanks for all you help man

Yes, Apple just have their own proprietary codec and do not support FLAC on their portable devices.

 

[Nx-1]

hey, just checked the CD. To my surprise, the crackle was still there jut very very very faint, it was subtle enough to begin with but straight from the CD it is almost unnoticable.. yet i still heard it. You know whats most interesting about all this, this happened with me XD-53's as well, but on the XD-53 is was sooo noticable, the clipping was very prominent, where as on the HD650, its still there in all the same songs that crackled before, except there is waaay less of it and its much more quite. 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

hey, just checked the CD. To my surprise, the crackle was still there jut very very very faint, it was subtle enough to begin with but straight from the CD it is almost unnoticable.. yet i still heard it. You know whats most interesting about all this, this happened with me XD-53's as well, but on the XD-53 is was sooo noticable, the clipping was very prominent, where as on the HD650, its still there in all the same songs that crackled before, except there is waaay less of it and its much more quite. 

Ok,
 
So it's your circuit. Some where in the chain of music, you have a problem with hardware. Check source DAC, amp, etc. Try using your HD650 with that CD track that crackled, on a completely different source. See if it persists.
 
Very best,

 

[Nx-1]

Its probably the DAC, but ill check. My circuit goes: Macbook Pro > iTunes (.wav, FLAC, Apple lossless, 320 kbps mp3.) > udac-2 >HD650

 

[Nx-1]

So i just got out my old headphones (since theyre low impedance and can be run straight from the computer.. kind of) and plugged them into my computer to eliminate the udac-2 from the equation, then played the songs that clip... still clipping... god damn it. 

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

So i just got out my old headphones (since theyre low impedance and can be run straight from the computer.. kind of) and plugged them into my computer to eliminate the udac-2 from the equation, then played the songs that clip... still clipping... god damn it. 

Can only mean one of two things then
 
~ bad rips
 
~ resource issues, try rebooting and only running your tunes player as the only application.