[Goit]

I just had this problem with the HD555 today, the left cup was louder. Do all brand's headphones have some imbalance problem, or is it just sennheiser?

 

[mechtech]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lornecherry /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tilt your head to right while listening, this will cause sounds in the 80Khz and above to follow the natural slope of gravitational fields within your listening environment; thereby filling in the perceived discrepancy of channel imbalance.

This just gives me a hilarious image of some guy tilting his head totally sideways to try and balance his headphones.

 

[rds]

Weird stuff. I can't add much here. I have used lots of equipment and the only time I've experienced this kind of thing is when the pot is causing it.
I assume that gravity bending sound waves is supposed to be a joke.
Anyways good luck with sorting this out.

 

[chris_ah1]

Ditto on the pot. you can hear it the most when volume is low.

I personally think it's the recordings more than anything and other cans that sound balanced are just compensating for it.

I know it drives me crazy with IEMs sometimes if the seal isn't perfect and there is an imbalance in the sound AND with a poor recording.

Foobar crossfeed is very subtle but works well too.

 

[TheMayorsAid]

I really needed to reply to this thread. Necro this because it is important. For those who don't read just skip to the bottom somewhere.
 
I ran into the issue of imbalanced hearing on my HD650's. But I wouldn't accept this. These are quite expensive and quite impressive. I have no warranty. What I do have is not a lack of hearing, but analyzing power!
 
I almost thought I could buy into these posts about hearing being the problem. If you have HD600 or 650's, I assume(assume not know), that your hearing is quite keen. So when you(generally anybody not YOU) hear the imbalance, it is in fact the headphones most of the time.
 
What nobody does or seems to do is look at their headphones with their eyes. Upon losing my left sides power by what felt like 30%, which I think everybody else is experiencing. The reason this happened is quite simple, very simple actually. This may solve a similar issue for other brands, but this text wall is focusing on the HD650's.
 
So back to looking with ones eyes. I examined for perhaps 2-3 minutes the two female end connectors between both L and R. I was determined to find the problem, initially thinking that perhaps the pins were not fully connected on the L than on the R. Though knowing some of the classical physics from study, one recalls that the connection is there hence the clean but "under-powered" so it cannot be an issue with power or electricity or connections. Static would be the result of unstable connections. Nobody here claims static(I think, maybe they did and I missed it) they only notice a clear db change from L to R.
 
Good so far.
 
So then I inspected further into the female connections. Now I was thinking perhaps there was something up with what appeared to be the three metal pin connections inside each of the two holes. They almost looked as though one was jammed away and only 2 were connecting. Though this doesn't make any sense either, as we are talking about just a left hole and right hole within the L female connection, those pins although three in each hole all represent the same connection.. simply just power. Again this wasn't the issue.
 
Now came the time to youtube a video to dissect my headphones. The way the guy on youtube handles his made me feel as I treat mine like the only remaining pair in existence. Hell, if my left speaker is already 30% less overall than my right for whatever unknown reasons then why not crack these open and take a peek see. What harm will come of it? None. Only the answer to perhaps all our problems, I do hope.
 
This whole issue happened when I was diddling with taking out my L cord for reasons I can't remember. Putting it back in and then hitting play to my video I noticed it that moment, why is my L so sucky? Well it is the speaker driver itself and the housing inside your impressive 650's.
 
If anybody still owns these headphones, dust them off and get ready to fix them. Dissect them fully on L and R. Look at the drivers themselves. They are being held in place by four plastic arms. For my headphones these four arms weren't even locking down the driver. I initially didn't see this, but what led me to that was the female connection wasn't lining up right. I took the speaker and thumbed down with a good bit of force on the drivers plastic housing. If you have success as I did, the four small plastic arms resting around your driver will click over-top its plastic housing and of course putting the driver in its correct position. So knowing full well my L speaker wasn't even in place properly and by seeing it alone it appeared this was the fix. I was right. Feels so good to be right, you know? But then this leads one to the R side, and even that side wasn't fully seated into its plastic locking arms.
 
So perhaps I have solved somebody's issue with poor L or even poor R performance that happens without static and randomly. I assume since these clips see a lot of random movements with headphones being dropped and the use of the cords being inserted with too much force that they naturally come loose like that. Or will I be flamed by a few? 

 

[HAMS]

maybe in your head, like me it goes like this: my first phone sound normal then I bought the same phone as spare, I thought my second was imbalanced, after few weeks compare between two now my first phone louder on left so i move on second phone. after sometimes listen again to my first phone What  its slighty louder on the right now.... if I focus vocal on the left side vocal can place on right. so I thought it just imbalanced syndrome. my theory: if you believe your ear/phone are balanced then you can hear sound balance even if your phone/ear are slightly imbalanced. then if you believe it imbalanced then you hear imbalanced sound in normal phone and ear.
 

 

[Senman]

Hello everyone ,
I had the same problem with my HD650 . One side seemed to play clearer and more quiet than the other. I managed to find the solution to my problem .
Take out the foam out of both ear pads , and look the driver membranes that are visible . Pay attention to the height of the membranes "bubbles" .
I have found that my "bad" ear pad had a visibly higher level then the "good" one , it was a little closer to the plastic decoration . That was the key to my problem .
I took out the "bad" driver and gently pushed on the membranes ring made of wires until it stayed evenly in the lover position (take care of the 2 thin wires!).
When I returned the driver to the ear pad , I saw that the membrane "bubble" had the same height level as the other one , and when I played the music , the headphones sounded evenly loud and clear .
So every time you blow up the pressed membrane , make sure to adjust it to the correct position.
 
Hope this helps.

 

[droopy1592]

I have two pairs of those Sony XB950BT whatever they are called and both have one side louder than the other and it flips when you flip the phone

 

[MilTech]

Over a year ago I bought the HD650 and after few months I noticed, that the right side was louder. (This is very obvious when I turn the headphones the other way round on my head). The shop replaced the HD650 for me and at first I didn´t notice anything and kept on living...


But now I noticed this same exact thing, the right side is LOUDER again!

I´ve also noticed this same annoying thing with my HD600, that´s one of the reasons why I actually bought the HD650. What is it with these Sennheiser headphones? Do they just suck? Or am I just very very unlucky? Or is it just "all in my head"?

Run a 200Hz test tone that is just audible on the good side, or hold just that cup to your best ear, then try the same with the other side, this may help in diagnosing the issue.

 

[Swiftfalcon]

Sorry for posting on such an old thread but thought I had to get my experience out there.

I have noticed channel imbalance with all Sennheiser headphones that I listened except IE800. They all sound right dominant. Its only when you listen to music, not when you perform the channel balance tests. Also its not strictly a dominance in loudness per se - it sounds like all the more impactful sounds are coming from the right and all the background stuff have a left preference.

I first noticed this with HD598. I was distraught as they were my most expensive cans then. When I got an HD650 later, they seemed to show this right dominance effect more and interestingly HD598’s imbalance faded. It was still there but didn’t seem distracting anymore. Same story with HD800S a near intolerable right dominance - the 650 seemed okay now unless I really focused on the channel balance.

Again when I tested the channels separately using online tools, they are balanced. So I played around with the 800S headphone positioning on my head and noticed that the asymmetry is sensitive to fit and positioning. If the headphone is well positioned with the lower and back sections of the cup’s insides snugly against the lower and back of my ears respectively, the asymmetry actually works well with the imaging. Its a pleasant revelation. I think maybe the positioning and orientation of the left and right cups might be affecting the directionality of sound thereby playing tricks on ear/auditory cortex.

So I think at least some of the reports of channel imbalance might have something to do with a combination of factors including imaging characteristics of the headphones, sensitivity to positioning and fit on head and unique interaction with individual auditory anatomy.

 

[BalboaNL]

So perhaps I have solved somebody's issue with poor L or even poor R performance that happens without static and randomly. I assume since these clips see a lot of random movements with headphones being dropped and the use of the cords being inserted with too much force that they naturally come loose like that. Or will I be flamed by a few?

Thanks, You have made my day Your fix solved my problem.

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

I really needed to reply to this thread. Necro this because it is important. For those who don't read just skip to the bottom somewhere.

I ran into the issue of imbalanced hearing on my HD650's. But I wouldn't accept this. These are quite expensive and quite impressive. I have no warranty. What I do have is not a lack of hearing, but analyzing power!
...
If anybody still owns these headphones, dust them off and get ready to fix them. Dissect them fully on L and R. Look at the drivers themselves. They are being held in place by four plastic arms. For my headphones these four arms weren't even locking down the driver. I initially didn't see this, but what led me to that was the female connection wasn't lining up right. I took the speaker and thumbed down with a good bit of force on the drivers plastic housing. If you have success as I did, the four small plastic arms resting around your driver will click over-top its plastic housing and of course putting the driver in its correct position. So knowing full well my L speaker wasn't even in place properly and by seeing it alone it appeared this was the fix. I was right. Feels so good to be right, you know? But then this leads one to the R side, and even that side wasn't fully seated into its plastic locking arms.

So perhaps I have solved somebody's issue with poor L or even poor R performance that happens without static and randomly. I assume since these clips see a lot of random movements with headphones being dropped and the use of the cords being inserted with too much force that they naturally come loose like that. Or will I be flamed by a few?

THANK YOU! Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you. I paid $450 for these in 2006 and was not looking forward to trying to figure out how to replace them suddenly! I was so bummed that my old HD-650s seemed to be broken when I pulled them out and started fixing them up after a period in storage. Thinking I must be wasting money trying to refurbish them with new ear pieces, headband, etc., but I remembered their amazing sound and near to wept at how screwed up it had got over the years, with this inexplicable channel imbalance but no apparent distortion or damage...

Then I read your post, looked up how to safely open 'em up, and lo and behold the driver that had terrible bass shyness and sounded so off was off the clips! Two of them weren't on it anymore and the other two were out of place. I popped it back in gently and it sounds PERFECT, sounds like new. Well, as close to like new as any 15 year old cans can hope to, natch. Boy, they sound great. Better than they have in a long time. Thank you so much for this great and informative post on how to fix this pernicious problem.