[Valn]

Hello all, sorry my first post on the forum is a help thread, and I hope to engage in other ways going forward. By way of introduction, I'm new to the hobby and got my first pair of high fidelity headphones last November. I went with the HiFiMan Edition XS despite some rumblings about QC issues, and that may have come back to bite me. Though I don't know if I'm just being stupid or if there's something actually wrong with the headphones.

Basically, the gist of the issue is that that the low-end cuts out in a weird way. It feels like the base/subwoofer literally stops vibrating, as if someone put their hand on it. When this happens, I get a physical sensation akin to someone cupping their hand over my ear, and the headphones feel like they turn into closed backs on the affected side. The mid-high range seems largely unaffected when this happens, and it's happened on both sides, though not at the same time. The low-end doesn't always cut out completely. It sometimes just gets muted and the vibration stops. I don't get quite the same degree of hand-on-ear sensation when this happens, but it does feel like something has moved physically closer to my ear inside the headphone.

I read somewhere that something like this can happen when the headphones get dirty, so I started blowing canned air into them as a solution. This surprisingly almost always works, and when I do it the low-end comes back and they sound better than before the problem occurred. Though I have to do this frequently enough, about a few times a week, that I suspect is isn't just dirt.

I'm not sure if this is indicative of an issue with the headphones or my setup. I'm using a Behringer using a Behringer U-Phoria UM2. I know that's not a great DAC/AMP solution, but it seems to do surprisingly fine with driving the headphones. I do need to crank the output up to about 75% to get full sound, but I can live with that. I don't have a better amp or a non-integrated amp/DAC stack to compare to, but it sounds great to me when they're working properly. Full disclosure, I also have an XLR mic hooked up to the same box.

Anyway, I had the DAC/AMP on my desk next to some electronics up until recently, and I was dumb enough not to notice the interference/static that was causing. I moved it to another table a few days ago and haven't had the problem with the low-end/base or the static since, but I can't explain why blowing canned air into the headphones consistently solved the problem. I described all this to customer support and they very quickly offered to RMA the headphones, but I think I'd prefer not to if this is setup related. I don't want to risk getting a set of actually defective replacements if it is.

Any thoughts as to what might be going on here? I've tried searching around but haven't found much in the way of similar issues. Thanks all!

 

[dunring]

I have an Edition XS and that interface probably doesn't have enough current to keep up with them. With the XS even I have to push the volume wheel higher than with the Ananda (using a balanced amp/DAC). What you have is USB 2.0 powered, so you're not getting much voltage to work with for a planar magnetic. Something like the HE400se is a pushover to power, but the XS isn't. Even a used JDS Atom typically $80 on eBay, or Magni Heresy will make them sound great. Do you have a friend with an old receiver that has a headphone out to test?

 

[Valn]

Unfortunately no, but I recently sprung for a Fiio K7 and just started using it today. I'll update if the problem persists, but I brought this up with someone and they mentioned it might be the membrane sticking to the magnets. That would probably explain why the canned air tends to fix the issue, though I don't know enough about the mechanical elements of the headphone to say if that's true or not. Any thoughts there?

 

[BS5711]

Unfortunately no, but I recently sprung for a Fiio K7 and just started using it today. I'll update if the problem persists, but I brought this up with someone and they mentioned it might be the membrane sticking to the magnets. That would probably explain why the canned air tends to fix the issue, though I don't know enough about the mechanical elements of the headphone to say if that's true or not. Any thoughts there?

That Dac/Amp looks like it is entirely USB powered.

My guess is under higher load with the volume up on bass heavy sections of music the USB can't supply the power for the amp to supply the current to drive the planars so they simply cut out or the bass goes soft.

I had exactly that issue running an ifi Zen Dac of USB driving Dan Clark planars. The Zen Dac can be powered with a separate power supply which cured the problem.

I suspect your issues will be fixed with the K7.

I most certainly would refrain from blowing canned air into the ultra thin planar membrane !!

 

[Valn]

Thanks! I'll definitely stop blowing air into it. Had no idea the membrane was so thin. Just hope I haven't damaged them already, though they sound good with the K7 so far and the issue hasn't come up again yet. It has only been a couple days, though.

Any way to tell if I've borked the membrane already or would it be pretty obvious?

 

[BS5711]

Thanks! I'll definitely stop blowing air into it. Had no idea the membrane was so thin. Just hope I haven't damaged them already, though they sound good with the K7 so far and the issue hasn't come up again yet. It has only been a couple days, though.

Any way to tell if I've borked the membrane already or would it be pretty obvious?

They are extremely thin, if the order of 2 microns or 0.002 of a millimetre or 8/100,000 of an inch depending on what system you are used to.

I think it would be obvious if you had damaged something insofar as they would not work.

I would be extremely surprised if there was something amiss with the headphones and, based on my very similar experience, I would be very surprised if the K7 doesn’t fix the problem because I believe the problem was entirely the USB power to the other DAC/amp.

 

[Valn]

They are extremely thin, if the order of 2 microns or 0.002 of a millimetre or 8/100,000 of an inch depending on what system you are used to.

I think it would be obvious if you had damaged something insofar as they would not work.

I would be extremely surprised if there was something amiss with the headphones and, based on my very similar experience, I would be very surprised if the K7 doesn’t fix the problem because I believe the problem was entirely the USB power to the other DAC/amp.

Thanks, this is extremely helpful. Going on 3 days with the K7 and no issues so far, so you're likely right! Glad I checked in rather than just RMAing them. Should've done more research about driving these things before buying, but lesson learned.

 

[Valn]

Well, mystery is back on. Was using the headphones this evening with the K7 and the effect happened again. The vibration in the left ear got noticeably weaker, and I could no longer hear the base as clearly. Seems like the magnet is probably not vibrating correctly. Feeding it more volume through the K7 didn't fix the issue, nor did cycling the power on it or my other DAC/AMP.

It's strange. I felt an unusual pressure on the left ear even before plugging the headphones in.

Assuming the K7 is powerful enough to drive these (which seems to be the consensus), I can't think of anything that'd be causing this other than some defect with the headphone itself. Otherwise it doesn't really make sense for the sensation to arise before I put them on. Despite my better judgement and with a healthy dose of desperation, I used the canned air again but held it far away to minimize pressure on a single spot. Worked like a charm and the base went back to normal.

Perhaps the magnet is loose or something and gets knocked out of place? No real idea what to make of this.

Edit: Just adding that I slightly changed my setup not too long before this occurred. I'd been keeping the K7 on a table away from other devices to minimize interference, but I put it back on the desk near my monitor/microphone and everything was fine. I then took the headphones off, unplugged them, and placed them on a stand (again, away from other electronics), and when I came back I felt the sensation in the left headphone. Not sure if interference could've somehow triggered this, but either way it doesn't seem normal.