K 271 endurance

[creaze]

Hi everyone.

Tonight there's been an unpleasantness with my K 271 headphones that i'm worried about, if it will have consequence. At one point i suddenly gave to my vocalist, who was wearing them, so much loudness, that i've heard the membrane cracking with a bright sound. The guy also complained 'hey, i think your headphone's gonna break', altough the loudness was far from deafening him. It lastet for about 1 maybe 2 seconds.

I was stupid enough to forget to cut basses and mids on the output of my cubase. This is the basic thing you should do to transform you arrangment to standart quality sound. And i ran it through a hifi amplifier, and the thing is powerful.

So i'm wondering: could i have damaged my headphones?
They seem to sound alright, at least i don't notice any decrease in sound quality now at moderate loudness with slightly saturated basses. But that's just my ears.
Maybe you can suggest, what kind of record i should listen and what kind of artefact in sound i should look for, to determine if there is a damage after that incident?

Thanks!

[CptKlotz]

Hello,

you might want to take a look at my reply to this user who had a similar question:

http://www.akg.com/forum/index.php/topic,3728.0.html

The guy in the other thread used a laptop computer which should have a weaker signal than most HiFi amps.

I think it is possible that you have damaged your headphones, but they can take a bit of a beating, if you don't do it too often or on purpose.

If in doubt, you might want to try the method I suggested in the other thread (and be extra careful!).

The good news is that your headphones are fully serviceable and you can replace one or both capsules if you really have "fried" them. If you know how to solder, you can do this yourself.
Just have a look at the service documents available here on the AKG page (Pick your model: "S" or "MKII"; the transducer should be the same anyway).

The AKG distributor in your region can order the required parts for you. They will also be able to thorougly check and repair the headphones in case you're not quite sure what to do.

If you do order parts and you have used the headphones heavily for some years, you might want to consider replacing the elastics (the little "rubber bands" that keep tension on the inner headband), the foam disk that sits in front of the transducer and the earpads. They are not very expensive and easy to replace.

Good luck with your headphones... I'd sure like to try the 271. I couldn't resist buying a used K 171 a while ago and I really like the clear and neutral sound (it's pretty much a smaller version of the 271).


Kind regards,
Stephan

[micdoctor]

Hi,

If you wanna be sure that your K 271 is okay you can sweep a sinewave tone from 20 Hz up to lets say a few hundred hertz and listen if there is any unnatural sound beside the sinewave.
There is a built in wavegenerator in Wavelab, maybe also in Cubase.
If you have no chance to listen to such a generator I would listen to heavy bass music at a moderate level - any crackling noise beside is a sign of a blown driver...

kind regards
micdoctor

[CptKlotz]

I just checked whether Audacity (which is Open Source) can generate sine sweeps, but it can't without a plugin.

Adobe Audition (formerly CoolEdit) can do it, but it's not free.

Maybe these WAV files will come in handy:

http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_sinesweep20-200.php


(moving the mouse cursor over the speaker/VU meter symbol will play the sound, clicking the symbol lets you download the actual WAV files).

@creaze: Be very careful with the volume if you play these. The very low bass at the beginning is a lot louder than it sounds to the human ear and *will* make your headphones work quite hard, so raise the volume level slowly.