[peter73]

Hi Everyone,

Merry Christmas!

I have the HD595 since about an year and it always seemed to me that the left speaker is louder. While I thought that it is my head or years that are not totally symmetrical (within reasonable margins, of course - I am not the elephant man , yesterday I decided to check (the headphones). I made a simple switch that enabled me to cross connect left and right channels and it turned out that the left speaker is louder indeed (by about 1-1.5 db). It also turned out that the left speaker has a lower impedance (49.8 ohm vs 52.3 ohm of the left one, measured at the speaker connection points, not at the plug).

Do you thing that the impedance difference might be the reason for the left speaker to sound louder?

Any opinions will be very much appreciated.

 

[Photofan1986]

It think it may happen. Maybe the difference will settle down after a proper burn-in.

 

[Ilovebeef]

He's had them a year. It won't be fixed by further burn in.

 

[peter73]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Photofan1986 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe the difference will settle down after a proper burn-in.

I can't see how impedance mismatch will be corrected through a burn-in. Plus they have much more hours on them that a reasonable burn =in should require. I wonder if anyone of you is aware of the tolerances allowed by Sennheiser?

 

[xnor]

Send Sennheiser an email and ask them if they'd fix it (warrenty?).

 

[peter73]

The phones are out of warranty and I am thinking of buying HD650 anyway, but I was just curious whether such misbalance is something unusual or it is within manufacturer's tolerance.

 

[xnor]

1.5 dB does seem unusal to me. Bad luck I guess.

 

[spinneresque]

Have you tried them with different sources? I have had this problem and the source was the cause. Also oddly some movies have heavier lefts or rights. Even some music files, I have heard 'shared' compressed music files that have heavier rights or lefts.

A sidenote: Crossfeed Rocks! And is underrated! ( my humble opinion of course.)

 

[peter73]

I have tried with a mono white noise and made an open jack connector so as to be able to shortcut L and R at the phone plug.

 

[spinneresque]

I have had excellent experiences with Sennheiser USA service Dept. Call them on the phone and make sure you get to the actual service people. If you explain the situation with all the technical details and references, they may help you even if your headphones are out of warranty.

If that doesn't work try straight up customer service but ask for a supervisor right away, tell them the 'phones have been like this since you got them but you were not able to do the actual test until just recently.

Good luck~!

PS as a last resort they will repair them, or if they feel like being extra cool they might replace them.