[housecat]

This is the only set of headphones that I've ever used that does this. It's the Koss BT539iW. A $100 Bluetooth headphone with 3.5mm. I'm using this with an Asus motherboard which has a lightweight amplifier built in and software equalizer, using the 3.5mm. It doesn't do this with my KSC35 or UR40, which can go as loud as you want without clipping until you would blow the drivers out.

It does not matter the level that I set the amp, and seems easily overdriven somehow. This is probably simple to someone who is deep into audio, but I'm just curious why these would do this, and not anything else. Same test, same conditions, only the Koss BT539iW will clip like this. It's difficult to tell in the video, but this is not a loud volume level at all. There must be something wrong with the design in comparison to a traditional headphone.

 

[MindsMirror]

It looks like you may be causing clipping in the digital signal with your volume and EQ settings. You have some EQ bands which are set at maximum, it is likely that this could cause clipping. Rather than boosting certain EQ bands it is generally better to reduce the other bands instead. You have enough room to move all the EQ bands down about 2 notches.

How is your windows volume set? I see the volume in the ASUS software is at about 25%, is that tied to the windows volume? If they are separate I would try lowering the windows volume and raising the ASUS volume to see if that helps.

Depending on how the headphone was designed it could also be clipping at the headphone input. Does the headphone volume control still function while using it with the 3.5mm jack? If it does, then you should try lowering the PC volume and raising the headphone volume.

It sounds like the clipping cleaned up when you lowered the volume in Spotify. Can you just leave that at half and raise the volume somewhere else?

The other possibility is that you're actually just driving the headphones themselves too hard. If the headphone is not able to produce much bass and you try to compensate for that by cranking it in the EQ, that could cause clipping even if it doesn't sound very loud.

 

[housecat]

Thanks for the response. I showed as much info as I could because otherwise there would be little purpose in asking people. I show the Windows volume in the video, it is relatively low. If I swap the volume, low in Spotify, higher in Windows, it does the same thing at the same volume level. The headphone volume control is only usable over Bluetooth (the headset buttons). The thing is about the settings/EQ, it's the same when used with any other headphone here. But without any issue at all... in fact they go MUCH louder and never clip like that.

My guess was that these are just grossly inferior headphones to be overdriven so easily, and that they're setup for the weak wireless amp/battery hardware inside of it but it really didn't make a ton of sense to me because it should be bypassing all of that over the wire.