Hello,
Since you have checked everything as described, @Lafonte could be right in his statement.
It is conceivable that this is the cause of the error.
Hifiman is known to have a very poor quality check.
Even with larger models there are always complaints.
If you have another pair of headphones and no problems have occurred in this regard, that would definitely be the most obvious thing to do.
Send the Hifiman back with a note saying you suspect a short circuit that destroyed the equipment.
It is conceivable that if there was a production error, a batch of Sundara is affected.
Hifiman must investigate whether this is due to the headphones or the headphone cable and whether this has occurred once or several times.
As you said, you have a wooden desk and a tile floor, which alone is not enough to cause ESD. Since you also use mats and wristbands, this should definitely be a thing of the past.
Trust meā¦ Iāve nuked a phone once. I still donāt understand, it felt like not much of a shock to me, Iāve handled other phones with way worseā¦ I guess itās bad luck?
It does not necessarily have to be an abraded cable.
It is enough if the soldering was poor or if the insulation was not used.
That it can happen is okay.
Hifiman is certainly not bad, as stupid as it sounds, they have often made serious mistakes.
See the Hifiman He 4xx, where it is often enough reported that suddenly the driver failed.
Large Hifiman listeners have also had similar problems.
Something like this must not happen, Iām sorry.
If you have a pacemaker in you, youāll feel different pretty quickly, and if you consider that itās because of little things, this shouldnāt happen to you as a manufacturer.
At the end of the day, itās just a guess that itās the cause.Hifiman wonāt confirm it anyway.
Unless a batch is really affected.
If this is the case, the manufacturer will be replaced anyway and wonāt know about it.
And if there was nothing wrong with it, it will be sent back and we will have to look for the cause.
Of course, a manufacturer is not automatically a shit - it can happen and it happens to the best of them.
Individual cases again, but not if there is always something wrong.
You have to be behind it as a manufacturer if you think you are good.
You also have a responsibility somewhere.
Iād find it rather odd that a phone whoās been working fine for 18 months suddenly discharges itās battery through my hand into itself? But Iām no electrician
if you didnāt get the irony or are worried about publicly making jokes, ok. Thatās not what iām saying. I didnāt say anything about a health risk - i donāt think the static is harmful to people!! Just for electronic components, like when building PCs and stuff. And i also donāt think this is a common issue, since the Sundaras must be one of the best-selling Hifimans ever, a problem like this should have come up way earlier. But i still think the issue is related to the headphone - if OP doesnāt rub his balls on his DACs for fun lol
So is the current theory that a static discharge to the Sundara which is then conducted to the Amp/DAC is killing it? Even if the sundara body is not isolated from itās wiring, Iād be surprised if it can kill your gear so effectively. Do you have a multimeter? Itās easy enough to check for a short.
Yea I have a multimeter, and Iāve checked for shorts and found none. From the jack to body, and the metal screws the resistance was upwards of 20M ohms. And itās not that I plug the headphone in and the DAC goes boom immediately. Itās when I have a static build up and I touch the headphones and the discharge then kills the DAC
Itās very very unlikely headphones could cause this unless it was some sort of intermittent short, and even then youād almost certainly hear it before it took out the amps.
The fact 3 of them were damaged seems to imply there is something odd going on.
Is the amp plugged into the same socket as the source (PC/whatever)
Most consumer electronics have at least some level of ESD protection, they really arenāt that fragile, when I lived in Vegas, Iād pretty much shock anything I touched that was grounded, and I canāt think of anything I destroyed doing that. My work computer at the time was probably shocked hundreds of times.
He doesnāt have a hundred headphones to test with but yes. So fat it seems to be when he touches his only pair of metal-framed headphones. Something tells me itās the fact that the frame is conducting and that does something something something.
According to some here though, thatās just a normal thing that happens when you buy Hifiman gear. itās build so bad it blows up everything it contactsā¦
Yea just Sundara, never happened with any other headphones. Plus all others are plastic bodied. Grado SR80E, Sennheiser Game One, Shure SE215, 1More Triple Driver, RHA T20
The iFI Zen DAC is bus powered (powered via USB) with option to connect a 5V adapter, which I didnāt use. iFi Hip DAC is battery powered. No external adapters involved. Iāve checked the grounding on USB ports of my PC (rear IO and front as well), their ground was perfectly stable. Voltage output was also stable.
