[Pyr0AWLB]

Hi Everyone
I am a long time reader, first time joining and posting.

I would consider myself an audiophile and I have quite a good range of stereo equipment
I am recently getting into headphones and I bought the Denon AH-D600 for the great reviews all round and mostly the bass as I like to listen to dubstep.
 
I believe burn in is worth it especially with headphones when listening to dubstep because of the very low frequency.
Today, After approx only 10 hours of burn in I decided to try them quietly.
 


I plugged them into my Fiio E10 USB DAC\Headphone AMP and it was on about 6.5\8 with gain set to low and no bass boost, when I changed the audio source it started playing Weather With You by Crowded House at full volume.
It actually hurt my ears somewhat and it took me about 10 seconds to turn it down.
I just played some music and they seem to sound OK but the highs and around 8k are not as recessed and are now overbearing and hurt.
I paid $500 for these headphones and they are less then 2 days old.. what do I do?
 
 
I read this
http://www.head-fi.org/t/594680/accidentally-played-my-headphones-with-max-volume-headphones-ruined
 
but it said on a PC soundcard and those headphones it might be OK. 
What about with a headphone amp on these? 
Should I try to return them on warranty?
Would this cause long term damage to the driver or the coil?
 
Please help as I am at a total loss.
 
Thanks in advance

 

[lin0003]

Ouch! If it sounds off then your best bet is to return them. However, if you killed it like that, they may not fix them since I'm not sure what the warranty covers...

 

[Pyr0AWLB]

but do you think that a short 7 second blast would be enough to kill them?
or at least damage the driver?

 

[ev13wt]

IF left and right works, doesn't rattle or distort at low volume they are just fine.


The only reason you are experiencing a different sound now is because you blasted your ears. Try again in a couple of hours.

 

[kalbee]

Quote:

IF left and right works, doesn't rattle or distort at low volume they are just fine.


The only reason you are experiencing a different sound now is because you blasted your ears. Try again in a couple of hours.

Not necessarily.
I've had some dynamic drivers in the past that still played fine, no notable problems as you noted but the sound is completely abysmal. Reason? the voice coils didn't break but got deformed from the big push/pull that the diaphragm sustained. Your description sounds similar to what became of the AKG K271mkII I had, which went through similar accidents. There's no proper way to test check that out unless you dismantle things a bit, which may make warranty dubious.
 
 
@OP:
How long have you bought them for?
If it hasn't been long and you bought them in a store with decent return/exchange policy, you can always instead of asking for repair:
1) return them under pretense that you don't like them (and buy them again another time)
2) question whether your unit is defective or not, ask for an exchange.
 
I don't know how powerful the E10 is, or how sensitive the D600's are... but generally when I hear stories of headphones breaking like that, it's from amps with much more power. It could also be as ev13wt said and be your ears after getting blasted.

 

[nff]

Quote:

Not necessarily.
I've had some dynamic drivers in the past that still played fine, no notable problems as you noted but the sound is completely abysmal. Reason? the voice coils didn't break but got deformed from the big push/pull that the diaphragm sustained. Your description sounds similar to what became of the AKG K271mkII I had, which went through similar accidents. There's no proper way to test check that out unless you dismantle things a bit, which may make warranty dubious.
 
 
@OP:
How long have you bought them for?
If it hasn't been long and you bought them in a store with decent return/exchange policy, you can always instead of asking for repair:
1) return them under pretense that you don't like them (and buy them again another time)
2) question whether your unit is defective or not, ask for an exchange.
 
I don't know how powerful the E10 is, or how sensitive the D600's are... but generally when I hear stories of headphones breaking like that, it's from amps with much more power. It could also be as ev13wt said and be your ears after getting blasted.

150mw @ 32Ohm.  and  and the d600's have a power handling of 1800mw with a 108db/mw sensitivity  @ 25ohms 

 

[kalbee]

Quote:

150mw @ 32Ohm.  and  and the d600's have a power handling of 1800mw with a 108db/mw sensitivity  @ 25ohms 

:S I... sadly can't tell anything anymore with numbers (not your fault, really. I've because so stupid ever since summer came).
 
The only thing though is applied force vs. impact/hammering force. If he suddenly blasted loud music, the sudden effect sustained is likely to be different than a gradual increase in volume/power (think pressing a nail down vs. hammering it down). Somewhat the same reason, I guess, why some high end speaker owners are a little paranoid of avoiding to play the 1812 overture.

 

[duncan1]

I have had that problem with moving coil loudspeakers on many occasions . IT has allowed me to buy good quality speakers cheaply as one side or two is out.Fixed a pair of floor standing Tannoys . Removed driver and placing my thumbs on the voice coil I could feel resistance[coil touching the magnet] and managed to re -center the voice coil so that it didn't scrape on the magnet.But if the actual coil is burnt out then that's it.You would have to be very careful with headphone drivers as they are sensitive and light but the principal is still the same. Or they can be series resistors etc in some could be burnt out. Its a "last resort " but if the company check them and find they were "abused" then you have no chance of them being replaced free. Don't try to make out that the fault is in their quality  control as that will make them really angry.

 

[lin0003]

Not necessarily.
I've had some dynamic drivers in the past that still played fine, no notable problems as you noted but the sound is completely abysmal. Reason? the voice coils didn't break but got deformed from the big push/pull that the diaphragm sustained. Your description sounds similar to what became of the AKG K271mkII I had, which went through similar accidents. There's no proper way to test check that out unless you dismantle things a bit, which may make warranty dubious.


@OP:
How long have you bought them for?
If it hasn't been long and you bought them in a store with decent return/exchange policy, you can always instead of asking for repair:
1) return them under pretense that you don't like them (and buy them again another time)
2) question whether your unit is defective or not, ask for an exchange.

I don't know how powerful the E10 is, or how sensitive the D600's are... but generally when I hear stories of headphones breaking like that, it's from amps with much more power. It could also be as ev13wt said and be your ears after getting blasted.

I agree with this. If you returned them and said you blasted them, I highly doubt that they'd cover that in their warranty. Try them on again now and see what happens.

 

[wolfetan44]

Why would you say that you blasted them? Just say something like.. The driver is malfunctioning.

 

[lin0003]

Why would you say that you blasted them? Just say something like.. The driver is malfunctioning.

What I'm saying is don't tell them what actually happened.

 

[wolfetan44]

Quote:

Quote:

Why would you say that you blasted them? Just say something like.. The driver is malfunctioning.

What I'm saying is don't tell them what actually happened.

Ah. 

 

[PanamaHat]

Return them. Save yourself a nice wad of cash and buy a refurbished pair instead.

 

[ab initio]

Quote:

150mw @ 32Ohm.  and  and the d600's have a power handling of 1800mw with a 108db/mw sensitivity  @ 25ohms 

 
Quote:

IF left and right works, doesn't rattle or distort at low volume they are just fine.


The only reason you are experiencing a different sound now is because you blasted your ears. Try again in a couple of hours.

 
These numbers from nff are correct
- they check out from Fiio http://fiio.com.cn/products/index.aspx?ID=100000028262517&MenuID=105026003
- they check out from Denon http://usa.denon.com/us/product/pages/productdetail.aspx?catid=musicmaniac%28denonna%29&pid=ahd600%28denonna%29
 
What it means:
The maximum power output by the E10 is 200mW which means you might see a worst-case voltage swing of 2.24 V.
Because the most power output of the E10 is 200mW (somewhere between 150--200 @ 25 ohms) and the max power handling capability of the Denons is 10 times, you can confidently conclude that your headphones are not broken

 
The sensitivity of the headphones are 108dB at 1mW which is the same as 108dB at 0.158 V
We can estimate the SPL blast to your ears as 108dB SPL@0.158 + 20*Log10( 2.24 / 0.158 ) = 108 + 23 = 131dB SPL
 
Therefore, you probably took about 129--131 dB SPL in the ears

 
I'll bet your ears were just ringing. 130 dB SPL is beyond the threshold of pain and some possible hearing damage.
 
needless to say, I don't recommend blasting your self full volume again! You can use a little bit of software volume control on your computer to keep the volume levels from getting too far out of hand again. It will have negligible effect on sound quality, but could save your ears some pain in the future.
 
Cheers

 

[Pyr0AWLB]

I have had them for just under a week.. problem is I purchased them on eBay, so I suspect they will ask me to return to manufacturer. If that is the case they will be able to tell why the headphones are faulty. I am trying them now (a good 12 hours after the event) and the highs are still not as recessed as before. There is no clicking or distortion.. the only issue is the highs are more pronounced. @nff when you say: 150mw @ 32Ohm. and and the d600's have a power handling of 1800mw with a 108db/mw sensitivity @ 25ohms I read that as they could potentially take more.. it may be due to the incident that I am hearing something that didnt bother me before but I dont know. I will start listening to dubstep as the bass generally brings out distortion if there is physical damage. opinions are very much appreciated. Thanks