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Old 03-26-2009, 08:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinnie R. View Post
Hi Veloaudio,

With very high sensitivity IEMs, you definitely want to use the low gain setting (gain switch in the downward position). There are some IEMs that are just so sensitive (e.g. 124dB) that they will pick up on the noise floor of the amplifier (or the noise from the source). There are also some IEMs that are not super sensitive and quiet at low gain.

And then there are headphones like the K702s, HD650, Denon D5000, Grados, Ultrasones, etc. that are dead quiet with the Amphora (even on the high gain setting).

Hi HeadphoneAddict,

Interesting point about the Shure volume attenuator. This is probably lowering the sensitivity of your ES3Xs and that is why it is removing the background noise...



It sounds like it is low-level noise (again, such sensitive IEMs are picking up on the noise floor) and not an issue when music is playing...

Please keep us posted.

Best regards,

Vinnie
That is exactly what it is doing - we've known for a long time that they will lower sensitivity and hiss with minimal affect on the sound when SMALL volume adjustments are used. The sound quality can be affected more audibly if the volume attenuator is used primarily as a volume control to change it from loud to quiet, and such, but with these tiny adjustments it just lowers the sensitivity enough to cut the hiss very effectively.

With fairly sensitive full size cans like ESW10 and RS-1 or Edition 9 and D2000 hiss is not a problem.
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