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Headphone amp stereo balance drift issue

spicolie

New Member
Rig:
Computer running Spotify>USB-C cable>Schiit Modi DAC>Monster RCA cables>Schiit Magni Headphone Amp
Two headphones being used: Sennheiser HD6XX (from Drop, but basically an HD650), and Shure SE215's

After listening for several hours as I work all day, I will experience a stereo balance drift from balanced to 100% in the left ear. It usually only takes a couple few seconds from me noticing it happening to being completely in one ear. Unplugging the headphones and plugging them back in resets the balance. I have been corresponding with Schiit, and they keep asking me to swap cables, but I have only ONE USB-C digital cable of this type, and I can't imagine how this would affect stereo balance anyways, since it is only carrying a digital signal. The RCA's are all of a foot long and never touched, so I don't know what they could have going on that would cause this. So it is either the DAC or the amp, and since re-plugging in the headphones is a temporary fix, I have to think it is the amp (as I don't know what effect this would have on the DAC output). What would cause this issue?

It only happens once every day or two (sometimes twice a day, sometimes as long as 4 days between occurrences), so changing components would be a lengthy process waiting to see if the problem resurfaces. It happens with both headphones.

Thoughts?

-Jason
 
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