[CarboNSyria]

Hey guys, 
Recently I bought new Sennheiser momentum over ear headphones after quite a long research on different forums and reviews. 
The headphones are great indeed, however I am no audiophile or any expert in this area thus I'm not sure what is right and what not. 
Basically these headphones were an upgrade to my IEM soundmagic e10, which I loved and still love! and frankly I couldn't even notice much of a difference between those two (guess the biggest difference was the price lol ! E10 - 35 euros, while the momentums cost me 200) .. okay the sound is a bit more clear.. .
Now here's a thing I noticed on the momentums, they do play really clear and accurate, however sometimes I get this irritating "sharp S sound" (don't know what's it called in the audiophile community .. I believe it has another term). 
For instance in tracks like Krewella - Human or TyDi ft Sarah Howells - When I go .. it gets really frustrating. I noticed that these sharp vocals are present even when playing them on E10s, however since E10s are less accurate and a bit more bassy, the overall sound isn't as frustrating as on the momentums. 
My question is, is this how these headphones actually should play and I just need to get used to it ? Is there any thing Im doing incorrectly ? Or did I get a faulty piece ? Im not using any audio boost device (Fiio or anything like that) .. I play the music on my PC with an integrated sound card (Asus maximus onboard SC)  and mobile device htc one x. 
Would appreciate any advise thanks ! 

 

 

[Aizura]

Most probably the source, which means bad DAC and/or bad recordings.

 

[viralcow]

I think you've just gotten used to the E10's warmer, less-fatiguing sound (I haven't heard the E10s, just assuming from your description) and when you switched to something with a more forward treble presentation you became more acutely aware of that sort of thing.
 
Still, I didn't think the Momentums were sibilant at all in my experience. Maybe your ears are extra sensitive to treble. I checked out both tracks and while they're filled with s sounds they didn't really bother me until I really raised the volume (with an etymotic HF5, the most treble-forward earphonesI have on me atm). Considering these are EDM-y songs you probably are listening at above-average volume levels to feel the bass thump. Whatever the reason, now you know- you should stick to headphones with laid-back treble from now on.

 

[CarboNSyria]

thanks for the advise! 
do you think upgrading to better sound card would improve the sound ? 

 

[faximan]

Maybe, but I'd first make sure you're listening to a proper source like the original CD and/or try the same file in a different player to see if it's your sound card. But it also might very well be what viralcow said.
 
Btw, the word is sibilant I'm really thinking about getting the original Momentums but I absolutely cannot listen to sibilant earphones, it ruins everything for me so personally I'm hoping it's not the headphones..

 

[bms44974]

At 18 Ohm, the Momentums may be more sensitive to EMI/RFI than other headphones (although, at 16 Ohm, the Soundmagic E10s are also rather low). I recently updated my desktop DAC to iFi iDAC micro and was hearing a lot of hiss (EMI) in my system. It turned out to be the AC power adapter on my laptop and the hiss went away completely when I unplugged the laptop from the AC house current. If your setup is tethered to an AC outlet for power, you might try unplugging to see if the hiss goes away.
 
Cheers... Brian
 
P.S. A single frequency tone can be induced if there is a ground loop in your system, but most people describe this as a hum rather than a hiss.