[KarateKid]

Just wondering if anything can give me advice on my newly acquired HD650s.

I got them off ebay, used, the owner said it was burnt-in for around 100hours. Today when I tried it, the first thing I noticed was my right side was a lot more audible than my left side. I played around with the gain setting on my amp, made sure it was set to high, tweaked the volume knob, played around a bit with the positioning of the handband and where the speakers are to my ears, making sure they're in relatively positioned correctly.

At first I thought it was just that my right ear was hearing better than my left, but I flip-flopped the two drivers and the right speaker is still louder (slight but notice-able). I've tried to open up the foam and clean out any hairs, which there weren't any, it's very clean. I'm wondering if this is a sign of bad driver mismatching or is it too early to call? Should I continue to burn these in or should I look for a local shop to have them checked out at?

 

[kamal007]

did you try mp3's with them since high end cans will show the true recordings. If theres flaw with the recording the cans will show it. Try with some recordings that you are sure that is balanced.

 

[KarateKid]

I've tried it with mono pinknoises/whitenoises, it's not much of a difference but it is annoying enough to notice. Even in windows when I click on a back and forth button in explorer I can hear the right driver being slightly louder than the left. Maybe I need to give it more time?

 

[KarateKid]

I also think the "fitting" of how the cup molds to the side of your face and position the driver to the ears is important too, but it doesn't explain how it's still louder on the right speaker when I flip-flop the headphones.

 

[Comfy]

Make sure that you have Left and Right channel properly connected everywhere. Source, amp, headphone cable (the cable is de-atachable from the cups).
With some material a L/R mixup could make the other driver sound louder.

It sounds odd that someone would sell a mismatched pair, instead of returning/fixing it.

 

[Rednamalas1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarateKid /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've tried it with mono pinknoises/whitenoises, it's not much of a difference but it is annoying enough to notice. Even in windows when I click on a back and forth button in explorer I can hear the right driver being slightly louder than the left. Maybe I need to give it more time?

I don't know if my experience will help... I had that happen to my sony E-888s and I had to buy 4X new sets (those things are so brittle) In my case, it was wiring coming off from one side (right near the earbuds or at the y-connector) due to wear and tear. You might have those problems as well. Another possible explaination would be from wires coming off of 1/4 headphone jack (from inside the metal part) Those two problems can be fixed by replacing the cable - fortunately, Sennheisers make those cables easily replaceable for a reasonable price.

One other explaination of that problem is from the drivers themselves - they're either broken (you need to send them for repair), have wires coming off from driver from poor soldering (happened to my cm7ti), have a piece of hair stuck in the driver, or those foam pads falling out of place and blocking the driver (not too sure if there are form pads for HD650.

I hope that helped

 

[KarateKid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rednamalas1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't know if my experience will help... I had that happen to my sony E-888s and I had to buy 4X new sets (those things are so brittle) In my case, it was wiring coming off from one side (right near the earbuds or at the y-connector) due to wear and tear. You might have those problems as well. Another possible explaination would be from wires coming off of 1/4 headphone jack (from inside the metal part) Those two problems can be fixed by replacing the cable - fortunately, Sennheisers make those cables easily replaceable for a reasonable price. One other explaination of that problem is from the drivers themselves - they're either broken (you need to send them for repair), have wires coming off from driver from poor soldering (happened to my cm7ti), have a piece of hair stuck in the driver, or those foam pads falling out of place and blocking the driver (not too sure if there are form pads for HD650. I hope that helped

The cable I'm using now is the cardas that came with the phones. Maybe the smurf cable is going bad?

Does anyone know if the connectors that are actually in the headphone drivers, do they degrade everytime you plug something into them?

No the drivers and everything look very clean, no hairs or nothing was stuck in the foam. I believe it's just a driver not "waking up" or just a bad driver (lol sounds like a MAD ad).

 

[KarateKid]

I have a feeling it's the amp that I'm using, it has a slight imbalance, combined with a possible imbalance in the cardas cable, the two make the right channel sound louder.

I've emailed sennheisers, hopefully they can refer a local dealer who can take a look at this for me (if such a place even exists).

I'm just gonna live with this for awhile; gonna get an equinox and a DAC1 and try the XLR to see if it's worth the money!

 

[uglijimus]

hey karatekid, i have a similar problem with my denon ah-g300's. except it's not volume, but bass. There's more low end in the right side than the left. I put felt inside of the left (also the left side was brighter) covering up the high end and creating a new "low" sound, by dampening it. This has helped as before the bass ration was like 65/35 and now it's more like 55/45.

hope this helps

 

[tourmaline]

Never thought of it that there is no real balance in headphones or speakers....most music is louder in one channel then the other due to the recording. A headphone cannot center sound, so it is off center tot the left or right, you'll notice no voice is actually completely in the center for the same reason.

But you'll also hear this on a speaker system. You can see it on your PC in windows media player wich has a graphical equalizer. Most of the time the highest peaks are left or right!

as you can see on this screenshot:

Here you can clearly see that the left channel is much louder then the right channel!

Some pots have better linearity then others.

But most of the time it's also in the recording.

Only binaureal recording are completely balanced and natural for headphones but you won't find those on a normal recording.

 

[wrecked_porsche]

@KarateKid

There was a thread about this(one side softer than the other) about a week or two back, I don't have the link right now.

I think the reason was because the user dropped his HD650 and one of the drivers moved further back inside the hosing or something like that. He opened it up and moved the driver to the correct position and things were back to normal. Do a search and see if you can find that thread?
I hope that helps...

 

[ken36]

I'd make sure the left channel cable is properly seated to the left channel receptacle. wiggle it while listening. Then you might give your ears a good cleaning.

 

[ups767300]

I have noticed the same but with IEMs, on my triple fi's the left side appears ever so slightly louder than the right. On most recordings it seems like I am standing slightly to the right of the band or vocalist if I were standing in front of them. On my Shure E4cs it is the opposite! Could it be that the speakers just aren't created exactly the same(though not on purpose)? It is an almost unnoticeable difference but I am picking up on it. It kind of creates a pleasant more realistic soundstage to me since the difference in volume is so small. Of course, I tried to get someone else to notice the difference and they could not. Maybe I have too much time on my hands right now.

 

[ricmat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourmaline /img/forum/go_quote.gif Never thought of it that there is no real balance in headphones or speakers....most music is louder in one channel then the other due to the recording. A headphone cannot center sound, so it is off center tot the left or right, you'll notice no voice is actually completely in the center for the same reason. But you'll also hear this on a speaker system. You can see it on your PC in windows media player wich has a graphical equalizer. Most of the time the highest peaks are left or right! as you can see on this screenshot: Here you can clearly see that the left channel is much louder then the right channel! Some pots have better linearity then others. But most of the time it's also in the recording. Only binaureal recording are completely balanced and natural for headphones but you won't find those on a normal recording.

Man

that is not the left and right side of the signal! that is the frequencies! from bass to highs!

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourmaline /img/forum/go_quote.gif Never thought of it that there is no real balance in headphones or speakers....most music is louder in one channel then the other due to the recording. A headphone cannot center sound, so it is off center tot the left or right, you'll notice no voice is actually completely in the center for the same reason. But you'll also hear this on a speaker system. You can see it on your PC in windows media player wich has a graphical equalizer. Most of the time the highest peaks are left or right! as you can see on this screenshot: Here you can clearly see that the left channel is much louder then the right channel! Some pots have better linearity then others. But most of the time it's also in the recording. Only binaureal recording are completely balanced and natural for headphones but you won't find those on a normal recording.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricmat /img/forum/go_quote.gif Man that is not the left and right side of the signal! that is the frequencies! from bass to highs!

Oh WOOOW...