[EinZweiDrei]

i have my ad700 for a little more than a month now.
these days i hear things like strange small scratching sounds.
i let my friend have a listen he said it sounded normal.
i listen to music at around 80 db. on a xonar dx sound card no amp or whatsoever.
i cant tell if my headphone is damaged or its just the recording. when i switch to my onboard and i
still hear the strange small scratchy sound.
maybe its the song
maybe its my ears
hopefully not my headphone

i cant tell if its damage. it sounds like damage and not damage at the same time.
do instruments have sibilance too or just singing?
im not even sure if its sibilance

 

[brydon10]

Do all of your mp3's have the scratch sound or just the one? If it's only one or two of your songs then its clearly the recordings. AD700s are known to be clear so that is why you are hearing these imperfections in the recordings now.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

i have my ad700 for a little more than a month now.
these days i hear things like strange small scratching sounds.
i let my friend have a listen he said it sounded normal.
i listen to music at around 80 db. on a xonar dx sound card no amp or whatsoever.
i cant tell if my headphone is damaged or its just the recording. when i switch to my onboard and i
still hear the strange small scratchy sound.
maybe its the song
maybe its my ears
hopefully not my headphone

i cant tell if its damage. it sounds like damage and not damage at the same time.
do instruments have sibilance too or just singing?
im not even sure if its sibilance

Go to HDTracks.com
 
Play anything that suits your fancy there. Listen to hear if you hear any scratches or imperfections. If you do not, it's your compressed recordings being imperfect or poorly compressed (usually just poor compression).
 
Very best,
 

 

[EinZweiDrei]

Quote:

Go to HDTracks.com
 
Play anything that suits your fancy there. Listen to hear if you hear any scratches or imperfections. If you do not, it's your compressed recordings being imperfect or poorly compressed (usually just poor compression).
 
Very best,
 

is there a comlpex piece with alot of sounds i can test to make sure?
 
 

 

[WashuTaisho]

Define "complex". Just listen to a bunch of different stuff, and it should be pretty easy to determine if it's the cans or the source.

 

[Gwarmi]

Sadly I'd say it is the AD700 - the pair I listened to added a certain grainy texture and 'scratching' as you put it to
the highs on some well known tracks.
 
Is it happening mainly with treble?
 
 

 

[NA Blur]

Could you please give us the track you are listening to?  Perhaps the audible scratches are in the actual recording, even the original.  I have heard similar things in tracks by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
 
You can hear a hot mic right around 23 seconds into the track.  It is not the gear, it is the track.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - [Californication CD1 #04] Otherside
 
It is possible that you are hearing the distortion of the driver at high volume.  Here are the harmonic distortion curves for the ATH-AD700 and AKG Q701's.  The AD700's have a spike in the distortion cure around 10kHz which is probably what you are hearing unless it is the track itself.  See how the Q701 hardly rises at 10kHz.  There will most likely be no audible distortion here even at 100dB.
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioTechnicaATHAD700.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AKGQuincyJonesQ701.pdf
 
Do you have another set of headphones you could test against?

 

[leng jai]

Stadium Arcadium also has it as well. Its not that uncommon these days.

 

[EinZweiDrei]

actually its the track
i've tested it on a friend's ad700 as well with a different source same song. and well as the flac version of it.
i also tested it on a rx700, its there as well but the ad700 makes it more obvious.
so its most likely the recording.

apparently im the only one who noticed it. two of my other friends didnt noticed anything abnormal.

thanks for the help guys

i guess it means that it finally burned in?