I quickly noticed that my HD650s started crackling like crazy on certain songs (one example where it was especially noticable was when playing ‘Pink Rabbits’ by The National over Tidal in Roon). I first thought my HD650s were broken but it was the same when using my UE-18 Pros.
After playing around with the EQ settings a bit (and using your bass settings) I am pretty sure that it only occurs when pushing the lower frequencies. As a total EQ-noob I am a bit confused that this would be the case.
My question is, if somebody can confirm that the crackling exists when using the same track with the HD650s or if both of my headphones happen to be broken? Or am I doing somthing else wrong?
Not sure if it matters, but I am using a MacBook Pro -> Mojo -> Headphones.
What you describe sounds like clipping of the signal.
Enable headroom management (at 0db) and turn clipping indicator on.
Then put your EQ to how you had it and you’ll most likely see the red clip light come on. Put it back as you have now and it will go away.
Basically unless you’re struggling for volume it’s safest to just get the entire curve below 0db, and then nothing can be clipped. Otherwise it depends on the music - most ikely your initial clip has strong bass in the original music.
Keeping it below 0 means the PEQ can work within it’s floating point precision so you can go crazy (obviously you’ll hear some distortion if you push things hard)
It was indeed clipping. The red light flashed after I turned it back.
I guess what I do not quite understand is the following though: If I reduce the dB on the EQ and then compensate by turning up the volume on the Mojo, it should produce the same results, shouldnt it? Why does it clipp in one case and not in the other?
Volume increase isn’t clipping - it’s amplifying the signal intact. Clipping is the signal being ‘cut off’ as the amplification has taken it out of bounds. This results in unpleasant sounds (also bad for your speaker drivers) as the waveforms have a sharp cutoff.
