My X-FI Music & HD595 is clipping/distorted

[Lunix]

Hi all,

After lurking on here aongst other places for a good while I decided to go for a pair of Sennheiser HD595 headphones(50 ohm impedance) to replace my aging PC151's which I got yesterday.

I plugged them using the included adapter straight into the X-FI at the back of the pc and they sounded terrible, even on 10% volume it sounds like music is clipping/distorted.
Turning down the bass etc though creatives software doesn't make a blind bit of difference.

In total I,ve tested them plugged into a ipod/tv/old sony stereo/onboard sound & a old Sb Auidgy and it sounds normal through all of them.
I,ve even reinstalled Vista to cancel out any software problems.

Is it something silly I'm missing?

I can't figure out for the life of me why the old pair works fine but why the trouble with the new pair though the exact same card?

At the moment I'm half tempted to order a Prelude as I,ve just had enough but I don't want the same issue again.

Thanks for any help.

 

[uraflit]

maybe the x-fi is broken?

 

[Agnostic]

Did you test the X-fi with another pair of headphones?

 

[Lunix]

My old Senn Pc151 headphones work fine with the x-fi still, its just the hd595's it doesn't get on with.

 

[Bizzel]

What kind of music do you listen to? Perhaps it clips and the PC151s are less revealing of it.

 

[Lunix]

All types from rap to trance.
Even with the volume level set low(10-15%)its unlistenable.

I,ve been listening to the hd595's though my audigy 1 for the last hour or so which work fine on anything I can throw at it.

All I can possibly think of is that something on the x-fi is faulty/damaged which is causing it not to drive the newer ones due to the impedance being higher so I,ll probaly end up ordering one of those new Prelude's in the morning unless someone has any better ideas.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Just a question about gain staging... Have you determined that your computer's software volumes aren't at levels that could cause the output to clip?

 

[Lunix]

I,ve tryed muting everything else in all control panels etc with no change.

Also reinstalled vista, put it in different pci slots, swapped my 8800gfx for another card incase it was strong interferance causing it which some people have had trouble with.

The old headphones work fine every time on the x-fi each and every time I change things around.

I,ve also noticed that I can get much higher volume levels out of both headphones using the audigy compared to the x-fi.

I only have to turn up the volume by say 20% on the audigy on either of the headphones and its more than loud enough for me whilst on the x-fi using the old headphones I have to turn up the volume up by at least 60-70% to get the same results.

I'm pretty convinced its a output fault of some kind on the x-fi itself for it to behave like this and I presume the only reason the old pair work is because their lower impedance (32ohm) compared to the hd595's (50ohm).

Just deciding over the Prelude at the moment as I'm out of things to try.

Thanks everyone for the replys also.

 

[LawnGnome]

Try defaulting the drivers.

I found that sometimes the levels can get really messed up and gets really distorted, reseting to default always fixes it.

 

[Lunix]

Just tryed it, no difference at all unfortuently.
As soon as I turn the volume up so I can hear music/sounds properly I can hear the clipping/distortion.

 

[LawnGnome]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lunix /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just tryed it, no difference at all unfortuently. As soon as I turn the volume up so I can hear music/sounds properly I can hear the clipping/distortion.

Do you have the newest drivers?

The old ones had a problem with crackling and popping.

Hopefully it's something that can be figured out.

 

[Lunix]

Tryed various ones mate from the oldest to the latest ones.

I wish I could record the sound I get when the 595's are plugged in.
Its far worse than crackling/popping.

The ironic thing is I have have 4gigs of ram and I,ve never had of the popping/crackling issues some people get with thier x-fi's on any of their drivers I,ve used.

 

[LawnGnome]

I have an idea, do you have a mini to mini cable?

Can you do an RMAA loopback test? Might help isolate the problem.

It could be the capacitors, I bought my card used, and first thing swapped all the caps, and I noticed a few of the old caps leaking from the rubber seals on the bottom. You couldn't see without taking them out, because they weren't bulging, but they definitely leaked brown crap out their bottoms.

 

[Lunix]

I don't think I have one of those cables sorry.

I,ve had a look at the card and like you said its impossible to see if the capacitors are damaged/leaking without taking them off.

Edit: figured out how to use it, going to swap the cards again and run a loopback test now.

 

[Yukon Trooper]

Vista and the X-Fi have handshaking issues under a lot of certain conditions. You might want to google around. Try forums such as xtremesystems.org and other computer related sites. They will have more info on the matter.