Sennheiser HD 600 - Are they crackling?

Not really. You could plug them into your phone and they might not sound great (well, they might not go loud enough for you). Try them on everything you've got that has a headphone socket. At least (subject to power/volume considerations) they should not make it sound worse.

What were you listening to before? If it did not crackle and the HD600 does... you have a faulty pair. Get them exchanged.

New gear can sound weird just because it sounds different. It can take a while to know you love (or hate) it. At the same time it is hard to believe that something brand new is faulty. Crackle is not some audiophile detail. It is not something we can argue are you even hearing it. It is a fault.

Hope your dealer exchanges and you are soon enjoying HD600s

 

I tried listening to the same track on my phone with the HD600s. The max volume was really low so I couldn't hear most of the crackling, but there was some still. It's important to note that I don't hear crackling on all tracks, there are two or three tracks that have crackling and it's always at the same time every time I listen to them - I think some particular high notes produce the crackling.

I tried the tracks on crappy consumer headsets like the Plantronics .Audio 995H Wireless, some Sony handsfree, I tried the track at a different PC at the office with a Logitech Headset - none of these showed any crackling with The Doors' Soul Kitchen, but the Plantronics also showed the crackling on Dave Brubeck's The Duke, and all of them showed the weird noises on the youtube video from the first post, so I'm confident it has buzzing.

I find it hard to believe that a 24bit 96khz studio album could be released to the public with crackling issues. Why pay from premium quality audio if it sounds like ass?

 

Do you have any idea how recent good stereo recordings are? About 30 or 40 years that that is not long ago at all.

Expect some weird noises on pre-1980 albums because before stereo there was mono and whatever sound could be reproduced "acceptably." Try some old Beatles or Deep Purple recordings and the HD600 will reveal weird shit that people find unacceptable now. As much as I hope your HD600 is fine you do not realise how much detail the HD600 can retrieve.

Really, did you ever listen to some of DJ Shadow's or Burial's work and never noticed the strange noises? They do this on purpose. Seriously...

 

Most of my music comes from the early 70s or even late sixties. The actual media might not date back that far, but I don't find any issues with good stereo sound on either rock or orchestral music. I also seem to be lucky in that the CDs that I have have bought of LPs-I-Knew-And-Loved (and even own) seem very true to records. If remixed at all, they did not have the music compressed to hell out of them.

On second thoughts, my media may not be contemporaneous, but I certainly lived with and experienced recordings that were.

Thing is, I'm assuming that staykoff is not playing music that he is hearing for the first time, but must be listening to stuff that he has heard on a variety of systems, perhaps over a number of years. Oh-my-god-I-never-heard-that-before cannot be ruled out. Nor can Oh-my-god-I-never-heard-that-like-this-before. I recall a certain cough, on a live recording. It was my CD that I had taken to a friend's place. I knew it well, but, on his superb speakers, I turned around to see who was coughing!

We can't know what staykoff's crackle sounds like. Limitation of written word. I'm imagining something very unsubtle; others may be imagining something subtle enough to be revealed detail.

 

Isn't there a way to "clean" such impurities from digital recordings of albums?

I've heard such crackle before on a headphone with a damaged membrane. Sounds like the membrane is unglued and a loose end is flapping from the bass. Since I'm still completely ignorant about headphone structure I might be talking complete nonsense. To be honest I bought some albums for my new cans specifically, but I also bought some wavs of tracks that I enjoyed on YouTube or MP3 before. The first time I heard Dave Brubeck's Take Five on my HD600 I was like whaaat? It was like I was in the recording room with them and that was without a fancy DAC or an amp, even the headphones are not considered that good. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I couldn't see much benefit with movies, probably because their audio is crappy by default.

 

As an aside, I found it initially difficult to get used to my HD600s as they were so different to the Audiatechica that had become my norm. Then I had to get over some pre-amp/amp incompatibilities, then... wow! It was like listening to real hifi speakers! Well, ok, that's impossible, but I had that feeling. I don't have a "fancy" DAC. I have an ODAC and a Geekout V1.

I can't contribute much more on actual audio issues any longer due to a big drop in hearing ability, I can only speak from past experience.

 

be sure theres not hair close to the driver.
my hd650 seemed to make a crackling noise with bass until I removed the drivers from the phones and clean all the hair stuck to it

 

I think the ones under question are new. Would it be possible to get a hair in there so quickly?

 

I don't know about crackling, but I had intermittent sound loss on one side with my HD600 until I pushed in the cables really hard. Harder than I thought about pushing until I read a review saying it was a common issue with HD600.