[Chris4891]

I don't mean to be an alarmist or anything, but what just happened confused me enough that I just had to put it out there. I've had the denon d2000s for about 2 months now and have been enjoying them a lot more than my hd650s. I got them to use at work, but they haven't actually made it there yet. In any case, I just got back from a beer run and sat down at my computer. Instinctively, I put my headphones on and started listening to music.. only this time something was different. Nothing was coming out of the left channel!

I couldn't explain it, nothing had changed since the five or so hours of listening I had done yesterday. Didn't drop them. Didn't unplug them and forget to push the miniplug in the whole way.. I just can't explain it. So I plugged my hd650s into my amp instead and sure enough the left channel was there.

First thing that came to mind was that at least now I have an excuse to recable them. So I promptly took the left earcup apart. The only explanation I could come up with was that somehow there must have been a break in the cable somewhere. Maybe I inadvertently rolled over the cable with my chair? Idk. So I checked continuity between the miniplug and the solder pads on the speaker and to my surprise everything was as it should be. So while everything was still apart I plugged them back into my amp and it was working fine again...

I don't understand.

I'm full of mixed emotions right now. I'm not sure if I'm happier that theyre working again or if I would have been happier and more satisfied if I had actually found a problem and fixed it. I'm also somewhat disappointed that I've lost my excuse to recable them. Regardless, I'm still annoyed at the fact that I don't know what was wrong in the first place. Any suggestions?

 

[Shahrose]

i'd be a little disappointed by the general durability/build quality of the phones if i were you. but then, just be happy they're working again

 

[warrior05]

Any chance the plug was pulled out slightly from your source? Or perhaps you have a short someplace which may not necessarily be with the Denons. Did you happen to try them with a different source before opening them up?

I would be happy that it is working again. I had a driver go bad on me similar to your experience. One day it was working fine. Picked them up the next day and I got nothing out of one of the drivers. Unfortunately for me, it was the driver and I had to replace it.

 

[Chris4891]

I grant that its possible theres a problem elsewhere, but since they were working yesterday and I hadn't touched anything since then I kind of just disregarded that possibility. its something ill be mindful of if i have any future troubles. as soon as i tried another set of headphones in the same amp and they worked fine, i assumed something had happened to either the driver or cable.

 

[vcoheda]

more problems with denons. not surprised.

 

[IPodPJ]

I have a feeling its an issue with the plug on the Denons. I had a similar issue with my D5000 and my Go-Vibe V7 amp. Only when I started rotating the cable did the left channel come back. However, I've never had that problem with the D5000 on another amp, and likewise not had that problem with another headphone on any amp except the V7. I've never had this problem while using the 1/4" adaptor though and since the Opera is the only amp I use now, it's not an issue for me anymore. I think it's just a design flaw with the Denons. But the sound quality is so much better than any other dynamic headphone I've tried, I would never think about replacing them. I think a recable will fix that problem for you.

Also of note, this problem only occured when I first got the Denons. It has never come back since. Maybe there is some kind of coating on the miniplug that just takes some time to wear off.

 

[dw6928]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif more problems with denons. not surprised.

I have had D2000s for months with absolutely no qualitative issues whatsoever. I have had them recabled by Moonaudio which only enhanced them.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Most likely the plug or plug adapter. Recabling should fix it.

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif more problems with denons. not surprised.

You mean ..... something inside the Denons might be as crappily constructed as the connecting jacks for your Senn cables?
Bummer.
Beating a company in the crap realm that refuses to fix a known annoying flaw for more than 10 years now is not easy though.

 

[vcoheda]

between my 580/600 and 650 i have 10+ years of senn ownership and never once had any problem with any of them. the denons have been out for a relatively short period of time and during that short period, it seems that numerous quality issues have been reported.

 

[facelvega]

From the OP's description, I also don't see any reason to believe that this really was a problem with the Denons. Sounds like just a plug issue. My policy if I've got one channel completely out goes:

1. unplug and replug (reset circuit and reseat plug)
2. try another headphone in the out and another amp for the headphone to see if the problem is reproducible with one or the other side.
3. if the problem follows the headphone or recurs, try wiggling the plug in the socket and the cable where it enters the plug, divided into a Y, and reaches the suspect earpiece.
4. if there is still no clear culprit, take apart the earpiece and inspect the solder points and outer strand of the coil going to the leads.

I'd never reach number 4 until I'd spent a half-hour determining that I couldn't find the problem anywhere else. I've had a LOT of old headphones, and in my experience, this kind of problem is 85% of the time a bad connection at the plug, 12% a bad connection somewhere in the cable, usually near the plug, 3% something wrong inside the earpiece. it's that last one that's a real killer, because the only solution is to get a new element for that side, or better a pair of elements to make sure they match.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma /img/forum/go_quote.gif You mean ..... something inside the Denons might be as crappily constructed as the connecting jacks for your Senn cables? Bummer. Beating a company in the crap realm that refuses to fix a known annoying flaw for more than 10 years now is not easy though.

You've got to admit this is funny. The only time that 3% I mentioned above has happened to me was because of the crappy design of Senn connecting jacks, which strained the coil leads where they exited from under the diaphragm. There's nothing worse than complicated, pretentious design that still breaks. Which is not to say that Denon QC is up to snuff, just that Senn's design department for all their pretence isn't up to AKG, Beyer, or MB reliability.

 

[dw6928]

There was a first release issue with loose screws, but I believe that has been resolved as the number of "complaints" seems to have disappeared.