Hi,

just got a brand new Babyface and a pair of K551 headphones.

The phones are supposed to be 32 ohms and fairly sensitive at 114 dB SPL/V.

I was expecting magic sound but what I experienced was pretty distorted sound - almost like a sound effect was active making it sound like it was played in a tin can.

I have a very old pair of Sony MDR-V50 and a pair of Sennheiser RS-170 wireless - and they sound OK (well - the Sony's rattle/resonate a tiny bit because the foam and probably part of the driver has dried up and crumbles and the RS-170 have a tendency to power off on low/no sound passages because the babyface is so quiet ).

The AKG-K551 seem to sound OK on the direct Macbook Pro audio out (the tin can experience is not there).

I was hoping the K551 would be a decent match for the Babyface having read that it needs low ohm phones (and the K551 specifically mentions that it will work with e.g. an iPhone on the box) and getting decent reviews (these phones are essentially the same as AKG-K550 but with a different cable and available in a nice white color if I understand correctly)

I have not played the phones very long yet - but I recall that AKG mentions their drivers should (?) not benefit from burn-in. (And to me it feels like this is more of an electrical issue...)

Help!

Has someone experienced this before?

Is there an easy way to test if my dear Babyface built-in phone amp is defective?

(I will primarily be using this for listening - I do have a reference microphone which I guess I could do some basic input tests with including verifying phantom power)

Could it be that the phones are too sensitive?

Hoping for a comforting and/or helpful answer so that I may begin the new year with musical magic

regards,
Christian