Koss Porta-pros

[cgibsong002]

Hey, just have a question about my current set up. Does anyone have these headphones ( or any headphone for that matter as it might answer my question..)? When listening to CD's on my laptop through my headphones, i always get a slight static/fuzz in the background of the music. It's not there when there are pauses in the music, only in the music itself. I'm running my laptop to my Presonus Firebox, and have my porta-pros connected to the firebox. I'd imagine the firebox is more than good enough to get decent sound.. so I guess my only problem should be in either the headphones, or possibly the cd drive itself? Or is this slight static just normal?

thanks.

[markw]

I've been using the Porta-pros for several years now and never noticed any fuzziness. If it is your headpones, i'd say you either got a lemon or seriously overdrove them sometime in the past..

[cgibsong002]

I've been using the Porta-pros for several years now and never noticed any fuzziness. If it is your headpones, i'd say you either got a lemon or seriously overdrove them sometime in the past..

nope, have only had these for a few months and am a generally quiet headphone listener. is this something that koss would replace? they come with the lifetime warranty..

[poppachubby]

Are your settings all good and fine from your source? Sounds like perhaps you have a gain up too high, or some kind of effect used to colour things?

Porta Pro are highly regarded, possibly Koss' finest hour for cans. Check all of your audio related settings in the laptop and the program you are using.

[cgibsong002]

i get the same thing regardless of whether i go through my firebox or straight into my headphone output on my laptop. i also get the same thing regardless of how i have the output volume on my laptop. i get slightly different result if i change my mixer (windows media center/player) to default settings.. but i believe that's because it just turns to mud and i can't distinguish the crackle.

only other thing i can think of is that i have my firebox hardware settings set to 44.1Khz playback, which is the lowest setting. this is the only setting i've been able to get to work for some reason, the firebox won't sync if i try another setting. but regardless, i get the same results straight through to the laptop, so... not quite sure.

[markw]

Try 'em on a portable CD player, an MP3 player that has good copies, or some other device. That's the first thing I would have done to isolate the problem.

If the problem doesn't go away, avail yourself of that lifetime warranty and see what it takes to use it. IOW, contact Koss.

[cgibsong002]

ha, i forgot i had an mp3 player! it doesn't seem to be doing this on my mp3 player. but then i went and played the same song on my laptop, and nothing. i don't have the time to fully experiment right now, but now that i think about it i think this only happens when playing cds. hopefully it's a dirty lense?

[cgibsong002]

so update, it's definitely the cd drive (or it definitely appears so). i tried blowing off any dust and gently went over it with a soft cloth... still nothing. is the laser lens possibly scratched, or likely just a bad cd player?

[Headphone_Guru]

Well, computers in general are giant boxes of electromagnetic interference. Even thouigh you have an amp and the static is present at odd times... it still doesnt surprise me you are getting static.

I can't tell you how many set-ups I've tried trying to get rid of it altogether, but to no avale. I have had some success reducing it and making my headphones sound better when the music is actually playing though with a few amps.

If you have any interest in getting a new amp there are some inexspensive ones that are highly regarded at a similar price range such as the emu-0404 and the totalbithead which would go well with a laptop.