[Thujone]

Today i sent the q40 back to amazon uk. I spent 33€ for the shipping I hope they'll refound this too. Anyway that's the second pair that has this annoying rattle. I really love the q40 but I can't stand this. Anyone have a good alternative? I was thinking about the dt770 80ohm...

Personally, I find the DT770/80 to be inferior in almost every way except treble, soundstage, and comfort. The Q40 has better balance, MUCH better mids, and more powerful bass. I also find that M-100 to be inferior in terms of sound. The only other bass-head can that I could recommend that does things as well as the Q40's (and a little bit better at that) is the Philips X1. They have very similar sound signatures but the X1 is an amazing headphone. They are open but the bass is not lacking at all, mids are maintained, and the highs are soft like on the Q40.

 

[374147]

  Personally, I find the DT770/80 to be inferior in almost every way except treble, soundstage, and comfort. The Q40 has better balance, MUCH better mids, and more powerful bass. I also find that M-100 to be inferior in terms of sound. The only other bass-head can that I could recommend that does things as well as the Q40's (and a little bit better at that) is the Philips X1. They have very similar sound signatures but the X1 is an amazing headphone. They are open but the bass is not lacking at all, mids are maintained, and the highs are soft like on the Q40.

 
Philips X1 cost way too much for me and I need closed headphones anyway

 

[peter123]

Swapping pads is quite a subjective thing.

Agreed. I for one love them with the Hifiman leatherpads and hate them with the dt770 pads. I have the exact same impression with the beyer velours as Thujone. I'll guess that there are many variables that could cause this.

 

[Thujone]

Something that just re-occurred to me is that the pad swap will greatly depend on the dust cover used (i.e. the little foam disk that comes with the Beyer velour pads). I just switched back to the stock pads for the hell of it and it's obvious now that the 840 pads, with their thick dust cover, smoothed out the highs pretty significantly. The thinner dust cover on the stock pads and Alpha pads will make the highs much more crisp/detailed than the 840/770 covers. I don't have any 770 pads lying around anymore, but it would be interesting to test how they sound with their stock cover vs. something thin like pantyhose. Maybe the cover is also contributing to the recessed mids I hear... dunno.
 
 
Quote:

   
Philips X1 cost way too much for me and I need closed headphones anyway

 

 Hopefully someone else will have some recommendations. I haven't found anything as impressive as the Q40's under $200.

 

[Thujone]

Agreed. I for one love them with the Hifiman leatherpads and hate them with the dt770 pads. I have the exact same impression with the beyer velours as Thujone. I'll guess that there are many variables that could cause this.

The HiFiMan pads also have thin dust covers and I found that the treble energy is much better on those as well. Are you using the foam ring under the pad with the HFM pleather pads?

 

[374147]

   

 Hopefully someone else will have some recommendations. I haven't found anything as impressive as the Q40's under $200.

 
Yeah these headphones are really awesome. I'd like to try to buy them another time but I'm scared. This problem is really annoying. And I had it on 2 pair...that's really bad! Seems like you all are satisfied and never had this problems.. Am I just unlucky?

 

[Thujone]

I've never even heard of the problem until you mentioned it. It seemed like other users had a similar issue though, bizarre. Honestly, if you didn't have any other issues with the headphone, I would recommend going for a third one. If you can find one that doesn't rattle, you'll save yourself some money since these have such a great quality/cost ratio.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

What kind of rattling are we talking about? The drivers can move around slightly in the cups if you shake them, is it that rattling we're talking about?

 

[374147]

Nope sir. 
When the headphones reproduce low bass the driver start rattle. And it's a loud rattle that's really annoying and ruin the song.
Try with songs like massive attack - angel or the xx - sunset, you'll hear perfect bass, but I'll hear these rattles. Or try this bass shaker test http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php. From 10hz to like 100hz or a bit more my the driver rattle..a lot. And that's absolutely not normal couse when I bought them and tried this test all was perfect

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

 

 
You are not bald are you? If you aren't then the problem since it wasn't happening when it was new is that there is a piece of hair stuck in the driver casing that's starting to vibrate intensively and produce that noise (the famous "Grattle"-issue with Grado headphones for example). On Q40 hair penetrates very easily the protective foam with the stock pads. I've had to clean my Q40 2 times already when starting to hear that rattle. Just remove the pads and remove any piece of hair stuck around/in that driver grille with help of a tweezer for example and you would be good to go again.
 
And yea it happens only with very deep "clean" bass, movie-teater kind of bass. The kind of bass that's present in the first 10 secs of that short intro in this clip for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD5r9QWnnw4 (using that to check if there's any piece of hair that needs to be removed with my Q40)

 

[374147]

I already removed both pads and cleaned them a didn't change nothing. I'm not bald but I've short hair and I wear the headphones trying to keep hair on the outside becouse it bother me
And btw a page ago someone told me that was a common problem couse the driver wasn't glued to the cup and so it moves a meke the headphone rattle. I'm confused :|

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I already removed both pads and cleaned them a didn't change nothing. I'm not bald but I've short hair and I wear the headphones trying to keep hair on the outside becouse it bother me
And btw a page ago someone told me that was a common problem couse the driver wasn't glued to the cup and so it moves a meke the headphone rattle. I'm confused :|

 
Nah, that will only produce "clunk-clunk" sound when headbanging intensively or something from driver hitting the driver casing walls, not rattle. No headphone drivers are able to produce so strong bass that it would be able to cause rattling noise from driver moving around. I've got a ZO with usually set to around lvl 10-12 or so maybe and the bass is stronger than that of unamped XB500 and there's no probs, only hair makes that rattling noise very easily. It's very difficult to remove all piece of hair since not all of them are visible all the time so you may have to blow a few times fairly hard to get them to reveal so u can remove them. I've had cases when I couldn't get it to stop but after a few blowings some additional hair pieces would reveal and after removing those it was fine.

 

[374147]

Well i'll wait the refound and then maybe I'll buy another pair and i'll blow the hell off the pad everyday with my air compressor, just to be sure xD
Btw thanks for help

 

[Omnom]

Hi there folks!

Would just like to say that I have recently jumped on the Q40's as well. I have a pair coming soonish hopefully! 

But having seen how many people have based their opinions of them through amps or dacs, really makes me consider in investing in some sort of that gear. 
I mainly will be using this at my computer, so indoors and stationary. I'm wondering whether I should get one of those portable amps/DACs like the E07K, just to kind of have that feature of portability or use on the go if needed in the future.
 
I have seen that RPG uses the Digizoid amp, and I was wondering, how did you find it at use with your desktop? Do you just connect it into the soundcard from your computer, use it's charge up and then recharge it? Does that become annoying at all? Having to recharge it all the time? 
That is just an issue I thought that may occur, so I was maybe thinking along the lines of a DAC?
 
Anyways, I've got $49 of credit on this electronic website https://www.sonicelectronix.com/  They sell a few amps and DAC's and I was mainly looking to buy here because of my credit. However although I do have this credit, I'm looking to spend the least amount as I can. Would anyone recommend an amp or DAC from them that would help out with my Q40's?
 
I'll hold up on extra pads for now, I'll test out the stock and see how I find them. If not, I can always spend another $15-$30 for some better pads!

Cheers,

 

[Thujone]

The FiiO E7 and E17 should be great options. I have the E17 and it's nice having the EQ options as well as a portable DAC and headphone amp. Keep in mind that these headphones definitely do NOT need an amp. They are very sensitive and can get to loud volumes easily out of a portable player.