[lwest]

When I put on my holiday-gift-to-myself Sennheiser HD558 headphones, I occasionally hear a clacking or popping noise from the headband.  I have narrowed the noise down to coming from the area of the headband where "HD558" is written on both sides of the headband, near where the headband intersects with the adjustment sliders. Here's a picture of where I think the sound is coming from on the headband: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2938963/hd558.jpg
 
I think it is the headband slider clacking around in the top headband so I don't think it is creating a stress crack on the earpiece like the picture in this post: http://www.head-fi.org/t/538329/sennhieser-hd-558-review (although this reviewer mentions the same noise I hear from the headband).  I have made sure I am not in the middle of an adjustment notch so the headband sliders aren't slipping between notches.
 
Is the noise coming from the headband normal?  I have searched this forum and others and have not found a comment about it other than the one I linked.  I hope this is normal because I don't want to return them, but the cracking issues of the HD5xx series has me a bit worried.

 

[NA Blur]

Could it be one of the pieces of the sliding adjusters moving as you place it on your head?  Perhaps the mechanical parts are just slipping to a new position?

 

[lwest]

That's what I initially thought, but the adjusters aren't sliding when I hear the noise.  It's like the clacking noise happens when the sliding adjuster is attempting to rotate, not slide.  It happens when I have to move the ear pieces apart to put the headphones on.  

 

[pornstarxkr]

Quote:

That's what I initially thought, but the adjusters aren't sliding when I hear the noise.  It's like the clacking noise happens when the sliding adjuster is attempting to rotate, not slide.  It happens when I have to move the ear pieces apart to put the headphones on.  

same here ,i have the hd 518,,and the sound you mentioned comes from the left side i
when i move my head,but when the whole pad touches your skin specially the padding towards the headband slider then the cracking sound goes away.
So i have 2 adjust the headband tilting a bit forward,still i feel bad because its was my first good HP.
 
Bit late,still at least i'm not the only one.