Sennheiser Urbanite. WTF??

nugget2014

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i got my urbanites this morning and took them out with me and played some music and was delighted, decent bass, i even heard some details in tracks i've never heard before, even on my dali zensor 3's which i use for my home cinema. they was a treat, but as soon as i got back home and listened on my sony vaio laptop using a fiio e17 amp/dac it was terrible. worst experience i've ever had..here's why

on my iphone 5s i had to have volume at about 65-70% and this was the same loudness as my old solo hd's on about 90% volume. back home i have my volume on max but 40 volume on amp which is what i've mainly had it on. maxing it at 60 sometimes when want it loud for a little bit

now on 40 volume the vocals are TOO LOUD! the vocal to bass ratio is terrible now im on my other listening setup. at 40 its very loud vocals and 45 is the absolute max i can have it for more pop oriented songs and such.

what happened? and i tried multiple sources, youtube and itunes (256kbps) and even used the equaliser to up to bass to see if it equals out with the vocals ratio but still hardly any change.

is this common? im not used to have vocals this much louder than bass. it's nearly earbleedingly loud in a way. the previous headphones i had were sennheiser momentum (distorted with bass all the time) v moda m100 (wasn't the best), beats solo hd (mainly for mobile use) and most recently razer tiamat 2.2 (40mm dedicated bass driver and 40mm midrange per earcup) never heard anything like this. any tips? its much different on iphone so surely its the amp source? which is my fiio.. i'll try plugging straight into laptop with no amp. and try youtube on my phone.
 

dalethorn

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Based on your many experiences, it seems the FiiO is a problem, possibly reacting negatively to different headphone impedances, or more likely it's the Gain. Try changing the gain lower - there should be settings for -6, default, plus 6 etc. Also check the system settings in the "Sound" setting in Control Panel or whatever it uses for sound. You may have to do some research to find proper DAC settings for your music player on the computer.
 

ID.

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dalethorn said:
Based on your many experiences, it seems the FiiO is a problem, possibly reacting negatively to different headphone impedances, or more likely it's the Gain. Try changing the gain lower - there should be settings for -6, default, plus 6 etc. Also check the system settings in the "Sound" setting in Control Panel or whatever it uses for sound. You may have to do some research to find proper DAC settings for your music player on the computer.

This seems most likely. The other thought that I had was that the amp in the phone mightn't control the bass as much so result in less tight, controlled bass, making it seem like there is more bass, while the dedicated amp controls it better (may have a higher damping factor too) which makes it seem relatively lacking. I may be talking out of my proverbial here by applying my experiences with speakers and amps which might be a mistake when talking about headphones, although I have used a headphone amp with variable damping factor which had an interesting effect on the bass.
 

nugget2014

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dalethorn said:
Based on your many experiences, it seems the FiiO is a problem, possibly reacting negatively to different headphone impedances, or more likely it's the Gain. Try changing the gain lower - there should be settings for -6, default, plus 6 etc. Also check the system settings in the "Sound" setting in Control Panel or whatever it uses for sound. You may have to do some research to find proper DAC settings for your music player on the computer.

gain is normal I just have bass eqed on the amp and I've checked any possible setting. I'll try again later. If I was to get rid of the amp using basic plug in to laptop would mean I'm limited on volume and possible equalisation that I had on the amp itself. Unless there's a cheap amp on the market that works well for headphones like mine which are mainly suited to mobile use and are 18 impedance.
 

JoelSim

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I've got a pair of Shure buds that I love, but when tested with one amp sounded shrill and bright. Yet an inferior and more bassy earphone that I had to hand sounded much better than the Shure through this portable amp. All to do with matching really and getting the right amp.
 

nugget2014

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JoelSim said:
I've got a pair of Shure buds that I love, but when tested with one amp sounded shrill and bright. Yet an inferior and more bassy earphone that I had to hand sounded much better than the Shure through this portable amp. All to do with matching really and getting the right amp.

what amp would you suggest? as i dont really want to buy another but if i had to i'd not spend more than £50..and it'd have to be a bassy amp
 

dalethorn

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nugget2014 said:
what amp would you suggest? as i dont really want to buy another but if i had to i'd not spend more than £50..and it'd have to be a bassy amp

The combination of iPhone5s, FiiO E17, and Urbanite should give an excellent result. Something is off. It's possible to have a bad headphone cable that works but skews the sound, and I've had 2 of those so far. You could try using a FiiO LOD cable with the Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter to connect to the E17 Aux (analog) input - that would eliminate the iPhone volume control from being in play and improve the sound slightly. But if something is defective then swapping devices on all ends with other people's devices may help identify the problem component. The 18 ohm impedance shouldn't be a problem.
 

nugget2014

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dalethorn said:
nugget2014 said:
what amp would you suggest? as i dont really want to buy another but if i had to i'd not spend more than £50..and it'd have to be a bassy amp

The combination of iPhone5s, FiiO E17, and Urbanite should give an excellent result. Something is off. It's possible to have a bad headphone cable that works but skews the sound, and I've had 2 of those so far. You could try using a FiiO LOD cable with the Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter to connect to the E17 Aux (analog) input - that would eliminate the iPhone volume control from being in play and improve the sound slightly. But if something is defective then swapping devices on all ends with other people's devices may help identify the problem component. The 18 ohm impedance shouldn't be a problem.

i dont use the amp with the iphone. i only use the amp when at home doing listening, amp is connected to my sony vaio. mobile use its just the iphone.
 

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