Sound issues on downloaded songs (extreme quality)

[Noacktion8]

Hey
I've recently got hands on my new Sennheiser HD598 SR. Their sound is amazing. But since I'm using these I've discovered disturbing sounds on my extreme quality downloads. Especially with quiet songs there is a cracking sound which appears to be random. Has anyone had the same problem or even got a solution?

[Sebasty]

Hey @Noacktion8

That's quite annoying - buying good headphones to discover crackling!

I'd like to know what operating system are you on, or if you're on mobile or desktop.

And does that crackling appear when you're streaming the songs on Spotify (online)?

Looking forward to your reply! 🙂

[Noacktion8]

Hey

I'm using it on Android on my Samsung Galaxy S7. They do appear while streaming too. And if I listen closely the cracking even appears while it's running on the normal sound system of my phone.
When I'm connecting my phone to my car though I never heard any crackling so far.

Thanks for the reply

[Sebasty]

@Noacktion8

Thank you for your answer!

If you have any sound enhancement enabled (equalizer, surround, whatever) on both Spotify and in general, try disabling them.

If they are actually disabled, you could try and see if enabling some little things (that don't bend the sound too much) does any difference... 🙂

If that didn't work, I suggest uninstalling the app, clearing the cache/data and then reinstalling.

[Noacktion8]

Seems like my UHQ upscaling was active. And I don't know if it became less or not but it's definatly still there.

Well uninstalling and reinstalling was a thing that came into my mind. But I've such a bad internet connection that I'd rather keep that as an emergency action.

Anyways thank you for your help so far

[Sebasty]

@Noacktion8

Right, UHQ was a problem for another user too.
Equalizer was a problem for quite a few people. There's an EQ in the app too, I think.

I wonder if you download just in high/medium quality (one step lower from Extreme), is the crackle still present?

Whan you play other content (youtube videos, songs from your phone memory), are they clean?

[Noacktion8]

Checked app EQ to. Nothing there.

I couldn't hear anything there so far, but I hadn't had time for advanced testing.

When I stream the same Songs on YouTube the crackling doesn't appear. Before Spotify I used Google Play Music and haven't noticed anything like this.