[billyshears]

Wasn't sure which forum this should go in because I'm actually not too sure what the problem is. I recently purchased HE-400s along with the Schiit stack. These are my first legit headphones and I've already made more mistakes than would seem possible.  My main concern however has arisen twice and I'm wondering: 1) if any damage has been done and 2) what I need to do so it doesn't happen again.  On Thursday or Friday, I placed my headphones down and left the room, and upon returning I find that the left can(?) sounds "choppy" and the right one is completely silent.  After unplugging my headphones and finding the same problem with my old headphones (to my relief), I replaced my USB wire with another and it was fine. Okay, problem solved... except it happened again today. This time I replaced the replacement wire with the original wire and it started working properly again.   
 
So can anyone enlighten as to what's going on? Also, is this doing any damage to my headphones?  Thanks.

 

[mbkennel]

Are you connected to a computer? 
 
I suspect it has nothing to do with the hardware (which is probably OK), it is a computer/driver glitch.  When you removed the cable and replaced it, you disconnected the USB and when reconnecting it reset something.
 
I've had that happen before, I would have to reset my windows machine (sometimes reboot) and then all would work fine for a while.  Never figured out what the problem was, eventually changed to a different DAC which didn't cause the problem. 

 

[billyshears]

Yea, I am using a computer. I ended up talking to Jason from Schiit and he first thought that maybe my USB was "falling asleep."  Made sure it wasn't powering off but it was still happening. I actually tend to think there's some sort of magnetic/electrical interference going on. I heard in my headphones a few days ago sounded like this odd echo. Also getting static shocks.