Has anyone else experienced the 109 Pro’s significantly amplifying the “speaking through a cardboard box” effect that bad mics have? Being in Discord with friends is just awful – even various youtube vids / twitch streamers sound gross compared to the vocal clarity from my DT 770 Pro’s or Senn 560s.

These are brand new; I’m mostly trying to determine if I got duds or if this experience is to be expected of the 109 Pro’s. I’ve seen so much praise for the 109 Pro’s as daily drivers that this really surprised me, and ultimately makes them unusable for me outside of music. I’m using a FiiO K5, but have experienced the exact same effect straight from mobo, and on another machine.

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EXAMPLES (and these are with mics much better than my discord friends have)

https://youtu.be/FeWmMsfsvYA?t=7

Starting from 0:07 or so through 0:22 in this vid, he sounds like he’s talking through a tunnel/box. If I switch to my DT 770 Pro’s, the quality drop is hardly noticeable, and with my HD 560S’s, the tunnel/box effect is only slightly there.

https://youtu.be/k_sQEXOBe68?t=96

This one is less of a tunnel effect, but might also be a clue to what’s going on. On the 109 Pro’s, it sounds like everything they say has a loud extra layer of warmth that sounds like they’ve mixed their vocals for ASMR. On the DT 770 Pro’s and Senn 560S, it just sounds slightly deeper, like a typical Shure SM7B recording for example, but their voices are clear and the ASMR-esque effect is gone.

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Any advice is appreciated! It seems most likely that I should return them (especially at $800), and what’s unclear is if I should be getting another pair or if it’d just be the same experience. Or if I should be turning to EQ (though it seems like people have been quite happy with these out-of-box).