High gain tones causing headphone distortions

  • Hi all, I've owned my Kemper for about a week and am loving it so far. One minor issue I'm having is high gain tones cause a static-like digital distortion in my headphones (sennheiser hd280 pro 64 ohm). I've tried playing with the clean and dist sens and it helps somewhat but it's still there. Seems like it high frequency related, turning down the presence and treble lessen the problem but then I lose all definition and I get that "blanket over cab" sound. I play occasionally through my rectifier power amp section and I don't think the same issue is there. I tried a second set of headphones, a cheap pair of Kingston gaming headphones, and the problem is actually worse. The distortion isn't constant, just pops up occasionally on a few notes I play. Any idea what might be causing this to happen?

  • Hello,

    The Headphone Out on the Kemper at best using your 64 Ohm headphones can output max 54mw. Try those same headphones and adjust the headphone output control lower to see if you may be running out of headroom. Secondly make sure you are not clipping the input (No red blinking at all) Same with the Output Led too.

    If you clip those it won't be pretty. Lastly in the main ouput section you could try adjusting down the presence control in the Main Output Eq section between the range of -3dBu to -6dBu.

    See if any of this helped.

    If your looking for earsplitting volume from the Headphone Out you maybe dissapointed because it cannot source enough current at 64 Ohms. But it should sound great at low to moderate volumes.

    Lastly if you want the biggest headphone volume bang for your buck I suggest you get some professional headphones that have an impedance greater than 400 Ohms like even 600 Ohm. Then the headphone out drivers do not have to max out thier current drive to rock the house in your head!

  • I think what I'm hearing is actually fizz on top the mid highs. It sounds almost like audio clipping.

    DId you try other headphones?

    It seems your Sennheisers are having approx. +5-6 db boost on 10 kHz, which might be the cause of your fizz?

    You could try the param. EQ with a high q factor at 10 kHZ