K271 distortion?
Jan 30, 2006 at 7:12 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 7

wirednemesis

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I bought a pair of these over the weekend. When I first put them on right out of the box I heard some distortion in the high mids at a higher volume but I just turned off my EQ and threw them in the closet to begin my burn-in.

These phones really began to mellow out about 20 hrs. in, not harsh like when I first listend to em. Earlier today I popped them on to see how they were doing. I was listening to Mad World off of the Donnie Darko ST and I heard just a little distortion in the low mids on a few notes. That kind of irked me. Then I threw on some Radiohead to see if it did the same thing but it didn't.

I think I'm just being overly paranoid, I've never read of anyone else having distortion problems.
 
Jan 30, 2006 at 10:25 PM Post #2 of 7
I never had any distortion problems when I owned a pair. There may be some oxidation on the headphone plug that may be causing it, so I'd clean it with either cloth or tissue paper/paper towel (both 1/4 and 1/8 plugs).

Also, fyi, those have a little switch thingie that cuts the sound off when they're not on your head. So if you want to burn them in without listening to them, you have to somehow remove or disable the little switch.

Oh, and welcome to Head-Fi, and sorry about your wallet! (standard greeting here to new folks)
 
Jan 30, 2006 at 10:50 PM Post #3 of 7
The K271s are extremely clear. Chances are its ether you source or other equipment. With a good set of cans, you'll hear problems further up the chain. :p At least that is my case.

Try listening to them flat, no eq, dirrect from source. You're ears and brain will need a little "burn in" time, but you'll be blown away how good they sound. Just takes a little time psychologically to adust.

Most EQs/Signal Processors just end up removing resolution and muck up the quality anyway IMO.
 
Jan 31, 2006 at 3:40 AM Post #4 of 7
Yeah I'm just running them thru my pc w/winamp mostly. No Eq.

I'm lovin them already, I was listening to A Perfect Cirlce yesterday seeing how the burn-in was coming along and it almost made me cry how great it sounded, well, not really. Ok, really.

I'll invest in a new cable and some better source equipment sometime in the future. Right now I need to prioritize the other gadgets on my shopping list.
 
Jan 31, 2006 at 7:19 PM Post #5 of 7
The K271 sounds great in my work system (I'm actually enjoying it as I type this). My soundcard is the E-MU 1212M and the amplifier is the M-cubed. The interconnects are custom 1/4->RCA Belden 1505A cables. I also have the new velour earpads and a Headphile replacement cable from Larry for the K271, and that eked out the last bit of performance from the headphone (though it probably due to the shorter length more than anything).
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Feb 1, 2006 at 12:29 AM Post #7 of 7
The velour earpads were $16/pair and they are much more comfortable - they do attenuate a bit less, however (I was told they also fit the K240 variants and even the K340).
 

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