Purely scientific research...

[swartzy.baby]

So ( for purely scientific reasoning) I was listening to "Ayo Technology" (by 50 Cent) yesterday at the iTunes store on my Senn. HD 595 headphones, and the bass hits had a very noticeable amount of distortion. I'm still sort of in the process of determining whether to keep them or not, and this worries me a little bit. Has anybody else, either with these phones or others, noticed this same effect? Or, if you haven't yet found yourself drawn to the unmistakable appeal of this song, anybody care to take a listen and see if they also notice this? It's for science, after all

I should note that I don't recall noticing it with my 497's, but the 595's are quite a bit cleaner which, ironically, makes some songs sound dirtier.

 

[jinx20001]

theres distortion thats the poor ability of the headphones, and then theres distortion that was made in the music, it could well be the actual music giving you this effect. but if you hear the actual driver flapping or crackling then theres damage or the headphones cant take the sub bass.

a simple way of knowing is this, play the music at half volume or lower, if it still seems to distort then its the actual music and you should ignore it, if it stops distorting then the headphones cant handle the bass at high volume. if however the headphones are damaged then distortion can happen at lower volume levels.

why dont you try with other phones or a sound system or a car subwoofer system, if they all seem to distort its obviously that song or the poor encoding itunes uses, im listening right now with shure se530 on an ipod in apple lossless and like you on every bass hit its distortionate then the bass reverb is clean, i would say its the way the music was made and thats the effect they went for, ill still kill feat. akon seams to have a similar problem but ayo technology is certainly worse

 

[swartzy.baby]

My first reaction, I think, when I hear distortion is to immediately turn it down. So, I did do that and the distortion lasted. Normally this would make me agree with it being the music. But as long as I've owned them, I've always thought there might be a smidgen of distortion when, oddly, hooked up to my HT receiver (Boston Acoustics AVR-7100). I've not used them with the computer until now (my HD 497's were filling that role until this week when the cable broke), so I'm still paranoid it may be my phones.

 

[intoflatlines]

Are you hearing clipping?

 

[jinx20001]

could well be my friend, what bit rate is the music or are you listening straight off the CD. theres lots of music out there that uses distortion as an effect, especially rap/hip hop because this gives the effect of more powerful bass impact.

i would guess your headphones are in good order. theres lots of things we as ordinary people can do the clean up the sound, one is to keep your headphones clean, make sure no hairs or dust or wax or anything is on the drivers or poking through the driver shielding. two would be use a decent bit rate, low bit rate can take away details and distort the extreme frequencies. and three use good quality sources and headphones and the hd595 dont exactly slouch.

but ofcourse i could be wrong and maybe the headphones are f'''kd

 

[intoflatlines]

As jinx20001 said, make sure that no hairs are poking through to the driver because this can cause a rattle/distortion/buzz sound especially with low frequencies.

 

[swartzy.baby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by intoflatlines /img/forum/go_quote.gif As jinx20001 said, make sure that no hairs are poking through to the driver because this can cause a rattle/distortion/buzz sound especially with low frequencies.

Interesting, I never would have thought of that. I will make sure to check when I get home from work.

 

[carlineng]

If you were listening to 50 Cent, I'm willing to bet that clipping in the music file is at fault. Most of the rap/hip-hop I have clips like crazy unless I have ReplayGain enabled, with a hard -6 dB limiter.

 

[captainbrendo]

are you using your ipod or your computer to listen to this? The ipods EQ will cause distortion unfortunately.

 

[swartzy.baby]

I actually tried it using both computer headphone output and iPod output, same result either way. Kinda the "bad side" of higher-end headphones...stuff like this is more noticeable and really does detract from the enjoyment of the music, one reason I'll never let my 497's go if I can help it. Of course, there are also instances where the music sounds exponentially more enjoyable through the 595's, for instance the (from Guitar Hero 3) In Flames song "Take This Life" sounds much, much cleaner on the 595's than the 497's, also a simple iTunes purchase.