Sennheiser HD 558 makes strange sound

I bought the Sennheiser 558 a few days ago but I've noticed that it sometimes makes distorted sound when I connect it via the audio jack on my laptop. It's not a problem with a song or a video because even when I play games, sometimes the sound is distorted. I had no problem with Apple earphone at all so it's quite strange. The Sennheiser has a big audio jack (probably for amplifier?) but it also comes with a 3.5mm adapter so I'm not sure if this is the cause.

I also noticed that when I plug the Sennheiser in my laptop, it's kinda flimsy and loose so this might be another reason.

I bought a USB hub with audio jack on Amazon and tried plugging the Sennheiser in. It doesn't make distorted sound anymore, however, sometimes it sounds like a fraction of a second of the song is skipped and the song just fastforward. I don't know what this is called but hopefully you guys can understand what it is.

I've also tried the headphone with my phone and it sounds just fine, no distorted sound or skipped anything. And all the distorted sound and skipped are random so it's not because of the song. I download foobar2000 and it seems it makes distorted sound and skips more often than with Windows media player for some reason.

 

Is it still loose when plugged into the USB hub w/audio jack?

 

It seems pretty tight. I tried with apple earphone and it works fine with the USB hub.

 

It is either a loose jack or there something causing electromagnetic interference to the headphones from the laptop. By the way, there should be a cable with a 3.5 mm jack available for those headphones just like there is one for the HD598. That could help with the issue, if the 1/4" jack is anything like that on the 598, with the adapter it ends up being pretty big and could easily put some strain on a slightly loose jack which could lead to poor contact.

 

I don't see any extra cable with 3.5mm jack anywhere. Only the 3.5mm adapter. I don't think the cable on my headphone is detachable either.

I disable all sound effects in the speaker properties menu and it seems it gets better. Not sure if my problems are completely gone.

 

Here's said cable: https://en-us.sennheiser.com/hd-5x8-short-cable

The headphone side of the cable needs to be turned to be detached, it's not a push/pull type of connector, it's meant to not be easily detached.

While the cable may not fix your problems, it is definitely very convenient to have.

 

what is the chance of my headphone being defective? I really don't want to buy a $12 cable to test it out. I also sent a ticket to Sennheiser and hopefully they'll answer. I bought this from BestBuy so I may actually just refund.

The headphone works fine with my phone but it just doesn't work with my laptop.

 

Have you tried any other device than the phone and laptop. That it works fine with your phone leads me to think that there is more than just the headphones at play, but it can sometimes be difficult to gauge.

 

Try propping the jack up with something to see if it's strain on the socket with the adapter.

The sounds your picking up, could be electrical interference that higher end headphones are more sensitive to, and would recommend trying a DAC to remove this potential. A quality DAC and AMP combo can be had for $100 and are worth it, not just for now, but for future headphone purchases.

The skipping, could be because the USB transfer of the audio, into the jack, the cable may not be fast enough to translate the information. What's the USB cable type? The removal of the distortion could be because the hub is acting like a DAC.

Can you do a test for me. Plug the headphones into your computer. Have no music or sounds playing, but turn up the volume. Keep going until you hear any hissing or popping.

If you get the hissing and popping, it's strong evidence of electrical interference. pending on your model, some laptops and desktop motherboards have a built in DAC, not all, however they will vary in effectiveness while crammed in among everything else.

Finally, while it's popping and distorting, can you wiggle the jack slightly to see if it changes while moving it. This will finally decide if it's the connection or not, however from what you've already described I doubt this is the problem.

Hope this helps mate, don't be discouraged as the 558 is not a bad headphone.

 

I tried this headphone on a different laptop and I still noticed some strange noise. Much fainter and less often though. However, I listened to the song on youtube so not sure if that's the cause.

Thanks for detailed reply. I didn't notice any hissing and popping for both laptop audio jack and the usb hub. For testing distorted sound, it's really hard because it occurs randomly and not that often. My usb hub uses 3.0 usb and I believe my laptop only has 3.0 usb ports (Clevo P670SE).

I'm mostly concerned about whether my headphone is defective since I can still do an exchange at Bestbuy. Also, do you have any recommendation for a DAC + amp combo <$100. I'd like to look into them.

This is the USB I'm using btw https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Exter...26597&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+hub+with+audio+jack

 

If there is no hissing and popping then it's not interference. I think take them back and test another one. perhaps take your laptop into store and see if their other one has the same issue, it could be a batch problem or a random one with that headphone.

If you decide to go the refund rout, I did just post about a great buy in the headphone question thread. These would be a significant upgrade to what you have currently and I'd gladly recommend them.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/headphone-advice.805176/

DAC + AMP....

There is this cool little AMP from JDS labs from $60USD


https://www.jdslabs.com/products/1/cmoybb-v2-03-headphone-amplifier/


There is the Fiio E10K for around $100


https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone-Amplifier-Black/dp/B00LP3AMC2

You can upgrade slowly and do a schiit stack, buy the amp first, then the DAC down the line. Lots of people rave about them.



http://www.schiit.com/home

I spent a little more and got the OBJECTIVE2+ODAC REV B as it's an all in one unit. Also if you buy from JDS you can get free laser etch. (Wait for this to go on special if you don't want to spend the money, but it's worth it) These start around $280USD but second hand options and other sellers may have cheaper.



https://www.jdslabs.com/products/48/objective2-odac-combo-revb/

There are probably more out there, but these I will recommend over anything else as I've tried them all. I can't speak for any of the others.

Hope that helps.

 

To add to the above, there's also the Schiit Fulla/Fulla 2 and the AudioQuest DragonFly Black, which should be more portable than everything in that list except the Fiio E10k.

 

Ahh, I was trying to remember the name of the DragonFly... But would recommend the Red over the black, but again prices.

As the Fulla requires a powered usb, I'd not really call it portable, but I guess it's more portable than the above with a laptop over a phone. I travel with the ODAC fine with my laptop, but yes extra cable for power.

 

Not sure what you mean by "requires a powered USB"? Fulla and Fulla 2 work fine plugged directly into the laptop, I own both.

 

yes, laptop will be fine, however not all phones will have power out via the usb... from Schiit's website:

That's all I mean.

 

Ah yeah, for phones/tablets there are battery-powered options like Fiio E17k and Oppo HA-2SE. By portable I meant not requiring an external power supply like a wall wart, although I know the Chu Moy amp and standalone O2 (not O2/ODAC combo unit) can be battery-powered as well. The Fulla 2 actually has a separate, optional USB power input which is convenient if your system has noisy USB ports. With the original Fulla, I had to use a powered USB hub on some computers to clean up the static.

 

I am using a FiiO E17 for my HD598 at work, the E17k is the replacement: https://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E17K-AL...UTF8&qid=1503081784&sr=8-1&keywords=fiio+e17k. Note that you will be paying more because of the extra hardware, like the fact that is has an oled display, battery, etc.

I have actually seen this happen before, but I had a dac hooked up to a USB2.0 hub that was running a kb, mouse, DAC and was also handling data transfer from an external hard drive. Unless the USB is solicited by another device or the cable is bad itself, I don't see throughput being an issue.

 

I just notice the apple earphone might also be suffering from the skipping when plugging in the usb hub. I don't know if changing the usb port would fix it but I'll try when I have time (currently plug in the powered USB 3.0 port - no idea what difference, probably for charging stuff, I usually plug my mouse there since it's on the left side).

the USB hub only handles the mouse (logitech g502) and an xbox wifi adapter. I don't think I have any issue with my mouse (in fact, been playing overwatch better ).