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Sennheiser HD560s Owner's Thread.

Ufasas

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I got hd560s! Bro, it's amazing, detailed, and perfect soundstage. My best sennheiser i have ever had. Thinking of keeping it for gaming and music listening daily. Schiit Fulla & Shanling UP4 BT is driving it very comfortably
 

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Phoney

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Yeah, there's nothing really wrong with doing that, the only problem with digitally reducing the volume is that you're decrease SNR and losing a bit of dynamic range. To compensate for the lack of dynamic range, or in other words to make loss of dynamic range virtually close to zero, then you can just set your soundcard to be in 32bit mode in Windows or whatever OS you're using, that way you're not losing any real dynamic range. The SNR reduction still exists though if you're digitally reducing volume, which you can prevent by hooking up your DAC to a headphone amp with an analog volume pot - this way you can run your DAC at it's optimal high output to preserve SNR & indeed SINAD and then you reduce the volume using the analog volume pot. The problem with analog volume pots is that they can potentially have some channel imbalance. If you have a very good measuring DAC with a high SINAD and SNR then using digital volume control whilst in 32bit mode is fine because your DAC already has the SINAD & SNR extra headroom that your experience won't be negatively affected by worsening those 2 variables through digital volume control, and of course the 32bit mode means you preserve enough dynamic range as previously said.

TLDR, if you've got a pretty good measuring DAC then -12dB digital negative preamp is not gonna cause any problems.

EDIT: just researched your Audioengine D1 - well it's got the analog headphone amp already included. As long as you're not running the volume pot close to zero volume then channel balance should be fine (normally), because channel balance on volume pots is often bad when it's close to it's lowest volume level position. So assuming that 6 o'clock was your volume pot zero position, then you might want to ensure you're running at least at 9 o'clock with the volume knob. And in fact I'd rather do that and keep the negative preamp as close to zero as possible - or infact keeping the Negative Preamp at -2dB will ensure that you account for intersample overs, which is another topic......so I'd run a negative digital preamp of -2dB (maybe up to a max of -5dB) and then twiddle the volume knob on your DAC.

Is it adviced to use less pregain if possible? For example I use 2 low shelf filters on my HD800 to boost the bass by a total of -6.5db. Will there be an improvement in dynamics if I just use one peak filter at 20hz that will be similar (slightly less accurate) and bring the pregain to -5.5db or -6db instead (with slightly less sub bass)? I listen with my RME at around -40db, so I have lots of headroom with that -6.5db pregain.
 

GalZohar

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I'm not sure, from the Oratory filter setup it seems like it tries to have no net gain. Might be a "just in case" / "best practice" thing. As far as I can tell, the potential disadvantages of boosts are headroom and distortion related, if you don't run into a problem with either of those, then I suppose you should be fine.

This does make it so that the levels are not matched with filter on/off, I had to disable the pregain in order to be able to compare EQ vs no EQ, where I could hear major differences playing pink noise, but other than the bass boost it was difficult to say what actually sounds better with actual music. Even in pink noise, the EQ version seems better, but it's hard to say without some kind of reference pink noise.
 

Robbo99999

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Is it adviced to use less pregain if possible? For example I use 2 low shelf filters on my HD800 to boost the bass by a total of -6.5db. Will there be an improvement in dynamics if I just use one peak filter at 20hz that will be similar (slightly less accurate) and bring the pregain to -5.5db or -6db instead (with slightly less sub bass)? I listen with my RME at around -40db, so I have lots of headroom with that -6.5db pregain.
There's no real reason to use a larger negative preamp than you need to cover the EQ boosts and if you like an extra -2dB for covering intersample overs. So if your total EQ curve was showing a max boost on the curve of +6dB, then you should run a Negative Preamp of -6dB to -8dB. It doesn't really matter how many different EQ filters you use, what matters is the Total EQ Curve once all those filters have been summed together.
 

Phoney

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There's no real reason to use a larger negative preamp than you need to cover the EQ boosts and if you like an extra -2dB for covering intersample overs. So if your total EQ curve was showing a max boost on the curve of +6dB, then you should run a Negative Preamp of -6dB to -8dB. It doesn't really matter how many different EQ filters you use, what matters is the Total EQ Curve once all those filters have been summed together.

Oh, I absolutely get that. What I'm trying to say is that I'm using two shelf filters of +4db and +2.5db. I could instead use a broad peak filter of +6db (or even a slightly broader +5,5db filter) at 20hz with nearly the same result, but in this case I can use a smaller negative pregain and still eliminate any chance of clipping. But, will it matter in reality? Is there any benefit of allowing myself to use a slightly lesser negative pregain by changing the EQ a bit?
 

Robbo99999

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Oh, I absolutely get that. What I'm trying to say is that I'm using two shelf filters of +4db and +2.5db. I could instead use a broad peak filter of +6db (or even a slightly broader +5,5db filter) at 20hz with nearly the same result, but in this case I can use a smaller negative pregain and still eliminate any chance of clipping. But, will it matter in reality? Is there any benefit of allowing myself to use a slightly lesser negative pregain by changing the EQ a bit?
Those small changes in negative preamp have no effect in any kind of extra perception of dynamic range if that's what you're asking - if you set your sound in Windows to 32bit then you won't really lose any "theoretical" dynamic range anyway almost regardless of what kind of sized negative preamp you run. As for "dynamics" that you mentioned earlier, that could mean almost anything - but if you change the Total EQ Curve to something else then it is gonna be changing the sound in one way or another as long as it's a significant enough change.

EDIT: re a seperate point on bass & replacing Low Shelf Filters with Peak Filters - I normally prefer to use Peak Filters on the bass and especially for headphones that show some fair distortion in the bass - that way you can boost the bass up to the part of the Harman Curve you like and still have the bass rolling off at 30Hz or 35Hz or 25Hz (whatever), but at least that way you're not boosting say 20Hz by a massive amount which would be more likely start introducing distortion related issues. In my subjective experience some headphones are more affected by this than others, my HE4XX headphone for instance likes Harman Bass all the way down to 20Hz, but my HD600 (& K702) not so much! Given that this an HD560s thread, I can use Low Shelf or Peak Filters on the bass of the HD560s, the bass is defined enough & distortion free enough for me that it can take 20Hz Harman Bass, so I don't have to feel that I need to use Peak Filters on the bass to ensure the bass rolls off before it gets down to 20Hz.
 
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LoudMime

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Hi Everyone,

I am new here. I just bought a pair of hd560s and they sounds awesome, but I keep getting a static pop every 20-40 seconds. I have them running through a behringer U-phoria UM2. I also have a mic setup through this same amp (connected to my pc). Not sure if the amp is my problem or the headphones are faulty. Does anyone else have a similar issue with these?

thank you,

Jay
 

solderdude

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For sure has nothing to do with the headphone. Is probably an OS problem.
 

solderdude

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I am no computer wizard and use Linux or W7 (not connected to the web) for some windows programs.
When you are not bothered by the somewhat elevated upper mids/lower treble then I would not bother.
 

Robbo99999

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Hi Everyone,

I am new here. I just bought a pair of hd560s and they sounds awesome, but I keep getting a static pop every 20-40 seconds. I have them running through a behringer U-phoria UM2. I also have a mic setup through this same amp (connected to my pc). Not sure if the amp is my problem or the headphones are faulty. Does anyone else have a similar issue with these?

thank you,

Jay
I used to get static only during the act of plugging in my HD560s to my JDS Labs Atom Amp (whilst it was turned off of course), so it was fine during playback & use & when idle, it was just on that initial plugging in - it was something I didn't notice in any of my other headphones. Since then I bought a longer interconnect cable that runs from my DAC to the headphone amp (for desk placement reasons) and my DAC no longer sits on top of the headphone amp, I've also routed the longer interconnect cable away from any power bricks - since then I don't notice the static during plugging in the HD560s anymore.....so I don't know if that is coincidence or what, but it's not something that happened with my other headphones, and it's fixed now with that different DAC placement & cable routing. @solderdude being an electrical guru will know what might be going on here or if it was just coincidence, but I thought I'd let you know my experience for the outside chance it might be related in some way to what you're experiencing. Note though that the static literally only happened when plugging the headphone in, at least I didn't notice it at any other time.

EDIT: static sounding pops & crackles can also be caused by your software environment, I remember having a notebook which had high latencies which can cause audio disturbances - you can download some software to analyse which drivers are causing the issue, and then you'd either remove the offending software or update it, etc, following is the software that analyses your latencies:
 
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Mulder

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Thanks for the response. Do you know of any fixes for windows 11? Do I need an EQ?
Does it require a special driver? If so, not sure if the existing driver is compatible with Win 11. On Thomans I read that it is compatible up to Win 10, it doesn't say anything about 11. Also try unplugging the microphone and see if that makes a difference. Windows can be tricky when it comes to handle outgoing and incoming digital signals simultanously. I also think this is software related. Can you check against another computer if it's the same problem? If you run it through the Windows built-in mixer, it can also be about the settings for this.
 

Lilith

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@all: I have slightly rattling noises when playing loud Sine waves between ~50 - 150 Hz. It's on both sides. I took away the pad, but the three screws holding the driver unit are tight. I tighten it a bit more. Can you check if you have similar issues:


Can be that you need to exceed some volume threshold. Thinking about exchangeing them, but it could be that it's a common problem due to the plastic design.
 

usern

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@all: I have slightly rattling noises when playing loud Sine waves between ~50 - 150 Hz. It's on both sides. I took away the pad, but the three screws holding the driver unit are tight. I tighten it a bit more. Can you check if you have similar issues:


Can be that you need to exceed some volume threshold. Thinking about exchangeing them, but it could be that it's a common problem due to the plastic design.
Can be hair touching against vibrating membranes. Or wires. I sometimes had similar rattling noises, but got rid of them after shaking the headphones hard.
 

Lilith

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Can be hair touching against vibrating membranes. Or wires. I sometimes had similar rattling noises, but got rid of them after shaking the headphones hard.

No hair. It's also very very subtle and maybe normal?
 

usern

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No hair. It's also very very subtle and maybe normal?
Not normal. My 560S can play clean bass to head pounding levels. Did you try shaking your headphones?

Another issue could be digital clipping when applying software EQ boost to bass. If you lower volume in OS, but compensate in amp, does the noise go away?
 

Lilith

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Not normal. My 560S can play clean bass to head pounding levels. Did you try shaking your headphones?

Another issue could be digital clipping when applying software EQ boost to bass. If you lower volume in OS, but compensate in amp, does the noise go away?
It is only recognizable with clean Sine tones. If the headphone for sure. When I press them against the head it's gone. Seems to be.an issue (see reddit)
 

Robbo99999

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It is only recognizable with clean Sine tones. If the headphone for sure. When I press them against the head it's gone. Seems to be.an issue (see reddit)
I just tested this on most of my different headphones just now using the following tone generator:
What I will say is that in all of the headphones I noticed that there was other stuff happening rather than the pure tone at very loud volumes. A higher pitched buzzing that was there to (I'd say) the same degree in all of the headphones I tested (and happening in sync/rhythm with the sine tone). HD560s, K702, closed back NAD HP50 which is famed for very low bass distortion, and planar HE4XX. I was running windows volume at -3dB to make sure there was no digital clipping (I think that's valid) and was running the online tone generator at 100% volume on it's web page setting. Either the slight high pitched buzzing I was hearing was a defect of the website or a distortion artifact in all the headphones I tested, or there's something else going on - but the HD560s wasn't worse than the others in this regard. There might be something else going on here - I'm not concerned about my HD560s though, it is practically the best headphone I have for bass playback in terms of an open backed headphone - equal to the planar HE4XX in that respect in my experience. I think you're probably overthinking & over-testing your headphone given my experience right now.....afterall we know the HD560s measures as a low distortion headphone across the whole frequency range, including the bass.

(EDIT: I have long hair - in reference to solderdude's idea below.)
 
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solderdude

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It is only recognizable with clean Sine tones. If the headphone for sure. When I press them against the head it's gone. Seems to be.an issue (see reddit)

Sounds like a seal issue.
Wearing glasses or hair between the pads and the skin ?
I don't think it is a driver issue as the chance of both drivers failing the same way (but not when pressed to the head) are non existent.
 

DarrylG

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@all: I have slightly rattling noises when playing loud Sine waves between ~50 - 150 Hz. It's on both sides. I took away the pad, but the three screws holding the driver unit are tight. I tighten it a bit more. Can you check if you have similar issues:


Can be that you need to exceed some volume threshold. Thinking about exchangeing them, but it could be that it's a common problem due to the plastic design.
No rattling when I tried it. The only problem I have with mine is with the connection between the right earcup and the the headband. Sometimes when it shifts, it makes a dull click (if that makes any sense) that can be heard and felt.
 
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