[bigshot]

I think it's a flaw in the recording. If the flaw wasn't there, you probably wouldn't have noticed a significant difference between either sets of cans. You would have just heard a different response curve.

 

[bcaulf17]

I think it's a flaw in the recording. If the flaw wasn't there, you probably wouldn't have noticed a significant difference between either sets of cans. You would have just heard a different response curve.

Well, it does sound a lot smoother on the K371 overall. If I weren’t paying attention I probably wouldn’t notice it. It sounds less “digital” in those parts but I can hear where it’s happening still, I think, although less frequently (it happens throughout the entire verse on the 177X almost, but only a couple spots on the K371). But I think I see what you’re saying. On most of my music I don’t hear anything like that, just the response curve differences. Hope I’m explaining it correctly lol.

 

[bigshot]

You've established that there is some sort of artifacting. The most likely kind of artifact would be compression artifacting, but you say it is a high rate AAC file. That makes me think that it is clipping.

 

[bcaulf17]

You've established that there is some sort of artifacting. The most likely kind of artifact would be compression artifacting, but you say it is a high rate AAC file. That makes me think that it is clipping.

Yep, definitely something like that within the recording/mastering. Just heard it in my IEM too, about in the middle of the two full sized cans I used, and the differences in tuning/peaks exacerbating it.

Thank you again for your help!

 

[Killcomic]

This is exactly the same issue I was having.
I now use Musicbee to analyse the volume of my files and create gain tags. Then, I got myself a player with replay gain and problem solved.

 

[bigshot]

Was the clipping happening in playback or encoding? I've run into clipping on encoding a couple of times, but it is very rare.

 

[Killcomic]

Was the clipping happening in playback or encoding? I've run into clipping on encoding a couple of times, but it is very rare.

It was on the AAC file, which had no problems with MP3 encoding. I assume it was the NERO AAC encoding. Replay gain fixed the problem though.

 

[christianmc]

Dumb question I didn't see answered elsewhere in the thread. How diverse was the recordings you were listening to?