Lougnebo
New Head-Fier
I recently started listening to music regularly on headphones again, after using them far less often (and at lower volumes) for awhile owing to some concerns over developing hearing issues (relating to an amp/dac combo). I had no apparent technical issues with them until about a week ago when I started noticing static on various songs, and usually with just certain notes or parts. I figured my headphones being relatively high quality was just picking up on poor mastering, or I was just hearing intentional distortion at times. This also coincided with my hearing tolerance increasing and me listening at high volumes more regularly, but I didn't realize they were connected until I decided to listen to some of the songs I was having issues with on Youtube, and noticed there was no distortion. I initially thought this was related to foobar (which I use to listen to most of my music) and found others have had similar issues, but most of the results are over 10 years old: https://www.overclock.net/forum/18-...io/357565-music-crackling-through-foobar.html
The thread in question, the person was able to solve it by just lowering foobar's volume and raising the Windows' master volume. My Windows master volume is already at 100. Lowering the volume on either reduces the static all the same, but of course at the cost of the volume being lower than I'd prefer. It seems likely in my case the Windows system volume plays a bigger role than audio player volume as well, but not by much.
However, I went and tried Winamp, Windows Media Player, Bandcamp's player with add-on volume adjustment and VLC media player- these all produce static absent on browser audio. The worst static is easily on VLC though. I realized it most likely wasn't the audio players when I tested out a pair of speakers and my monitor's internal speakers and noticed the static didn't appear on either of them.
Since then I've tested out my headphones on another hard drive with Windows 7 (vs. Windows 10 on my main HD) and the static was the same. I went and tried it on another computer in my house that also uses Windows 7, and the static is the same there too (though with just WMP, not foobar).
I really can't say for sure if it's the headphones or not. I bought these headphones going on 5 years ago (though got them replaced under warranty several months later) and went a long period without using them much. I don't know how I'd really test for any issues with them. I didn't notice this static before because I didn't listen to music at high volumes on these again until recently. The static appears on most songs only if I lower the foobar volume below 4 db. The sound from Youtube probably doesn't produce any static because Youtube sound isn't as loud or high quality.
I literally never used to experience these issues before, whether with or without sound amplification devices. The volumes I raise music to where I usually experience this static is high, but often not *that* high, and it's weirdly inconsistent as to which music produces it. It seems to be certain specific bass frequencies, as some bass-heavy music produces it but others not at all. For reference/perspective, some of the absolute worst static I've experienced of this nature has to be from this song, but nearly the entire album it's from produces bad static:
Ironically, this one from the same album produces no static:
Is there some kind of default internal setting with Windows I need to tweak to reduce this, without lowering volume on the whole or drastically changing sound quality? What I've tried (such as loudness equalization) at best fixes it but causes other issues. Or am I really looking at something wrong with the headphones?
The thread in question, the person was able to solve it by just lowering foobar's volume and raising the Windows' master volume. My Windows master volume is already at 100. Lowering the volume on either reduces the static all the same, but of course at the cost of the volume being lower than I'd prefer. It seems likely in my case the Windows system volume plays a bigger role than audio player volume as well, but not by much.
However, I went and tried Winamp, Windows Media Player, Bandcamp's player with add-on volume adjustment and VLC media player- these all produce static absent on browser audio. The worst static is easily on VLC though. I realized it most likely wasn't the audio players when I tested out a pair of speakers and my monitor's internal speakers and noticed the static didn't appear on either of them.
Since then I've tested out my headphones on another hard drive with Windows 7 (vs. Windows 10 on my main HD) and the static was the same. I went and tried it on another computer in my house that also uses Windows 7, and the static is the same there too (though with just WMP, not foobar).
I really can't say for sure if it's the headphones or not. I bought these headphones going on 5 years ago (though got them replaced under warranty several months later) and went a long period without using them much. I don't know how I'd really test for any issues with them. I didn't notice this static before because I didn't listen to music at high volumes on these again until recently. The static appears on most songs only if I lower the foobar volume below 4 db. The sound from Youtube probably doesn't produce any static because Youtube sound isn't as loud or high quality.
I literally never used to experience these issues before, whether with or without sound amplification devices. The volumes I raise music to where I usually experience this static is high, but often not *that* high, and it's weirdly inconsistent as to which music produces it. It seems to be certain specific bass frequencies, as some bass-heavy music produces it but others not at all. For reference/perspective, some of the absolute worst static I've experienced of this nature has to be from this song, but nearly the entire album it's from produces bad static:
Ironically, this one from the same album produces no static:
Is there some kind of default internal setting with Windows I need to tweak to reduce this, without lowering volume on the whole or drastically changing sound quality? What I've tried (such as loudness equalization) at best fixes it but causes other issues. Or am I really looking at something wrong with the headphones?
