[cacacacaciiiiii]

Recently gotten into headphone amps and planar headphones. And already made a bit of an oopsie. Trying out a couple of streaming services side-by-side I had forgotten the volume slider on one of them and it was on max.

Volume went to the point it hurt my ears so I got them off me asap, and managed to turn down the volume a few seconds later.

Obviously not pleasant for my ears (do feel fatigue in ears the days after) and the expensive equipment I just bought. So I started wondering - will planar headphones be affected by stunts like this, as I imagine this is not what they are made for? Is there a dimming effect afterwards or is that just a mental response / ears not happy response rather than the equipment being affected?

This was a RME ADI-2 DAC FS on an LCD-X. Not sure where the volume setting was at but the DAC was set to hi-power.

 

[msing539]

I've only experienced them just breaking--in my case, it sounded like distortion from one driver. Hard to miss.

 

[cwoo]

Audio gear is fairly forgiving to an extent. You can blow anything out with too much gain, but as long as you arent noticing an issue like buzzing, chafing, or just a general failure, you should be fine. Headphones and Speakers can last a lifetime in many cases. Bad drivers or issues will happen from time to time, but those are typically well reported issues or just luck of the draw. Planars in general don't go bad or fizzle out any faster than other driver types and can handle a bit of abuse.

 

[jonathan c]

I would also add that running a headphone (planar or otherwise) with an amplifier of insufficient power will produce distortion and a higher likelihood of driver failure.

 

[bagwell359]

Do a level check. Reverse cups. Sound the same?

AFAIK all planars use Mylar membranes. You can pierce them ( at edges sometimes make no difference but closer in? No good.) You can burn out the voice coil. The Mylar is stretched taut, that could become untaut. If you freeze it it might fall into a thousand pieces.

Imo chalk it up and always turn volume off when done and make sure it's off when starting.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I've only experienced them just breaking--in my case, it sounded like distortion from one driver. Hard to miss.

Which brand? There was some discussion of how to fix stuck drivers in one of the several HE6 threads.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Recently gotten into headphone amps and planar headphones. And already made a bit of an oopsie. Trying out a couple of streaming services side-by-side I had forgotten the volume slider on one of them and it was on max.

Volume went to the point it hurt my ears so I got them off me asap, and managed to turn down the volume a few seconds later.

Obviously not pleasant for my ears (do feel fatigue in ears the days after) and the expensive equipment I just bought. So I started wondering - will planar headphones be affected by stunts like this, as I imagine this is not what they are made for? Is there a dimming effect afterwards or is that just a mental response / ears not happy response rather than the equipment being affected?

This was a RME ADI-2 DAC FS on an LCD-X. Not sure where the volume setting was at but the DAC was set to hi-power.

You should not be using software volume control, for this reason and others.

Run your music apps at 100% volume, and control the volume at the amp- in this case, your RME.

 

[msing539]

Which brand? There was some discussion of how to fix stuck drivers in one of the several HE6 threads.

Hifiman! That headphone is long gone now though.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Hifiman! That headphone is long gone now though.

Maybe not broken then, but "stuck driver" hell