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Topic: ATH-M50x sounding weird when connected to a phone (Read 3693 times) previous topic - next topic
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ATH-M50x sounding weird when connected to a phone

The sound is incredibly thin, and there is a slight echo, but not as bad as one would get if the plug was not fully inserted. I can correct the utter lack of low frequencies by EQ, but the echo remains. According to a review of my phone, it has a huge spike in crosstalk when driving headphones compared to being connected to an active amplifier (bottom of the linked page). The headphones are only 38Ω, and they sound just fine on a regular line out on my PC, so I'd expect my phone to be able to drive them just as well.

I have absolutely no idea what crosstalk sounds like, so I don't know if getting a headphone amplifier would solve the issue.
If yes, any suggestions on which one to get? I don't need anything fancy, just something to fix the issue, not degrade the sound and have a decent battery life.

edit: I don't know what happened, but the bass is back. However, the echo still remains, it sounds similar to effects like stereo widening/crossfeed/3D emulation. I double checked the built-in effects and they're all off.

ATH-M50x sounding weird when connected to a phone

Reply #1 –
Well, this is interesting. After updating to the 5.12.22 firmware, the problems went away. Maybe there was some bug in the effects module that got fixed, but the changelog doesn't state anything.
In any case, both the echo and lack of bass is gone.

ATH-M50x sounding weird when connected to a phone

Reply #2 –
Those are all symptoms of a "vocal removal" effect, which can be caused by a broken ground connector (assuming it's not a digital effect).    You could have an intermittent connection in the phone although it's more likely to be the headphone cable (because the cable gets flexed).

Quote
According to a review of my phone, it has a huge spike in crosstalk when driving headphones compared to being connected to an active amplifier (bottom of the linked page). The headphones are only 38Ω, and they sound just fine on a regular line out on my PC, so I'd expect my phone to be able to drive them just as well.

I have absolutely no idea what crosstalk sounds like,
Crosstalk is when the left signal leaks into the right channel and vice-versa.    If you have an audio editor to make a left-only or right-only file, you can check for sound in the opposite ear...  I'd be surprised it it's that bad...  And, that wouldn't cause loss of bass or reverb, but it could make the sound mono-like.   

The missing ground (or vocal removal) also creates a mono sound with the same sound in both ears, but it's a modified mono with the left & right subtracted so everything in the center (like lead vocals & bass) is removed.  Often the vocal reverb is out-of-phase, so it doesn't get subtracted and is often enhanced.  Crosstalk adds, rather than subtracts the left & right.

ATH-M50x sounding weird when connected to a phone

Reply #3 –
I did try to flex the cable and the plug itself (carefully) and wasn't able to reproduce that effect. It also never appeared on other devices, so I don't think it's the cable.
The socket is a bit loose, yes, so anytime the plug loosens itself, I get pulsating brown noise in one of the channels. There is no such effect when the headphones are plugged in correctly, though.

Thanks for the explanation on crosstalk, I guess the way GSMArena writes about it just makes things seem worse than it is.