[giovanni]

Hi all,
so here I am, received my first ever good pair of headphones and on to the experiments.

On the fun part, huge wonder/scare, where is the switch on my pre-amp to turn off the speakers ? searched and searched ... I had to go get the manual where it said that there is a dedicated amp for the headphone hence one can simply turn the amp off to only listen to the phones. Ok.

First test, made it simple, some house music: I turn the volume up, note on the cd-player, wow, huge farts on low frequencies ! then, w/o really knowing much at all about these things, I decide to leave the volume on cd in peace and use vol control on pre-amp: a lot better, I should say, no more farts.
Now I was moving up on the difficulty scale, put the 9th (a very good recording..), oops more farts, it looks like on a very specific set of lower frequencies. In fact I know which instrument I believe it is the drums (the classical ones) and some instances of the basses (the huge one that seats on the floor). By the way sorry for my lack of terminology (first it is lack of technical knowledge and then my english in this area is very weak !).

So, what do you think ? I know it could be a number of different reason this is happening. I was told to be patient because these phones have to break in, is this part of it ? I would doubt that. It could clearly be source/amp. But what really matters is, how can I establish that the phones I got are ok ? I should add I hear most of the farting (really, for lack of better term, but it is a pretty good indication) comes on the left channel and I know my pre has some issues...

But, ANYWAY, I do like the sound so far, except may be a bit too much "bass" that tends sometimes to over soften strings (which, sure must be soft but here seems a bit too much).

Anyway, those ears surely are going to get used to this things on top of them soon or later: the area around my ears including my jaw, hurts !!!


The hardest test, vocals and violins, will come tomorrow.

best,
giovanni

 

[Howie]

This might sound stupid but have you check to see that your phones are properly plugged in as well as your adapter? I took the adapter off my HD600 to plug into my MD and I didn't bother to plug the adapter back in fully. When I plugged it back into my amp it was like all distortion and I was like whoa what's going on.

So you are plugging the phones into your cd player and preamp headphone jack? How loud are you listening to? Is the volume turned all the way up?

 

[wallijonn]

do you have a bass switch on? are the bass and treble flat?

 

[giovanni]

yes, there is a button that "turns off" those controls, all should have been flat.

I have a denon mini-stereo, may be I will try the same cd's there tomorrow, at least it is a completely different set-up; it is in my son's room, so can't try it now, it is 3 am

best,
gio

 

[giovanni]

HOWDIE,
yes, actually as sound quality was not too good, checking plugs in one of the things I did. As I mentioned, plugging inot the cd-player is out of the question since results were disastreous; so I was plugging in the pre-amp (it has its own headphone amp) and things were better, I certainly tested mostly at high volume, but I am pretty sure it did not matter except that at lower volumes I would hear some more similar to static, while at higher volume it was clearly a distortion. My hope is that the two can be related (technically I have no idea) because that would point pretty clearly to problems with the pre-amp. Or no ?

ciao,
gio

 

[pedxing]

Did your headphones behave the same way with your son's Dennon mini system?

 

[giovanni]

I will try later today, when I get hom. It is a decent mini, will be a good test. No matter what I have decided I will take the Adcom pre-amp to the shop, it needs some "cleaning". For example sometimes when I move certain controls and particularly the balance, I get statics, often lose a channel...something must be wrong.

ciao,
gio

 

[psyco1]

Dust in the control pots. It happens. They can either replace the pots or clean them out, if they can be opened.

 

[Sovkiller]

I never experience any of these sounds with my HD600 during the burning process, nor after it, wait till the preamp controls are clean, and if this continue happening maybe the headohons are defective, is very extrange, but not imposible. one thing is clear, it is not supposed that they distorted so obviously, at least not the HD580/600, this is not one of their weakness, at least not at normal listening levels, but if you cank it up all the way up, maybe you will get this distortion, or get a permanet hearing damage, this isn ot normal at all, most be something wrong on the preamp, try them in another setup to see if the problem persists, and if it does, there si no doubt then, you got a defective pair.....

 

[ooheadsoo]

Distorted bass, imo, is a clear sign that your amp doesn't have enough power...that's what I'm thinking, at least. I haven't had any "farty" bass with my 580s listening to any kind of music except when I had it plugged into an underpowered source without an amp and turned it up high.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

I agree with ooheadsoo, you are probably lacking power, or, more specifically, voltage. With high impedance headphones like the Senns, 300 ohms, it takes a lot more electricity to run them. Some components can't put out enough voltage to properly power them, especially at lower frequencies.

If you have another set of headphones sitting around that are lower impedance, see if you get the same results.

 

[guitarpsyence]

Quote:

Originally posted by giovanni Anyway, those ears surely are going to get used to this things on top of them soon or later: the area around my ears including my jaw, hurts !!!

This happened to me too. I hear no distortions in my hd580, but then the area around my left ear always gets sore after a while. This wasn't the case a few months ago when I got them, and only started recently. I never listening to them at above moderate volume.
I wonder why that is....

 

[giovanni]

ok,
experiment done - on my mini Denon, there are no distortions whatsoever and sound is good. I really only focused on those distortions so just listened to the same exact pieces I was listening last night.
So, I guess my poor old pre needs some repairs, now I got to find a shop in ny that can take care of that. Thank you all very much for the help/support. I value all your inputs

like a good "beginner" .
If I can repair successfully the pre (if I recall it was well considered when it came out) it would be cool 'cause I will then spend some money on a new cd player which I think I need to do. And then I would love to buy a dedicated amp !!! .. I am diverging ...

best regards,
gio

 

[Geek]

Congratulations on your purchase, giovanni. You will grow to love the HD580 sound, especially as it does improve over break-in.

I have not found a headphone yet which has a more natural sound, complete with excellent detail and a neutral, slightly-laid back presentation than the HD580/600s. You should buy an amp and some cables for them now

.

Cheers,
Geek

 

[giovanni]

thanks Geek.
When you, like others, mention cables, are you thinking the cables that connect cd player to pre-amp (or headphones amp if I manage to get one), as well as other stereo components ?

ciao,
gio