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High impedance headphones for my HTC Hero

post #1 of 15
9/25/09 at 8:43am
Thread Starter 
I'm quite new in the audiophile world (I'm a recording engineer) so you'll have to excuse me if I ask stupid questions or show disregard to sound quality:

I bought myself a new phone, an HTC Hero which I use to listen to music. The problem is, it has a rather high noise floor and I can hear what I believe is quantization noise when the volume is very low (fade outs in the end of songs for example). This is not the case when I use my Beyer Dynamic DT150 headphones that I have in my studio, then I have no noise and I hear no distortion and everything sounds fine. The S/N ratio is no worse than any other product from what I've read so what I believe is happening is this:

The volume attenuation on the phone is digital which means two things. For low volumes, this creates quantization distortion and it also means that the noise floor is not lowered by the volume control. Since my DT150s have an input impedance of 250 ohms (isn't that a lot?), this means that I raise the volume on the phone to achieve the same output and this leads to the noise and distortion being quieter in relation to the signal.

The question is: Should I get myself another pair of in-ears with higher impedance or is high impedance bad? This device seems to have a really high output for a portable device...
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post #2 of 15
9/25/09 at 11:16am
High impedance seems to have little correlation with how good IEMs are if thats what you mean. The new Grado IEMs have the highest resistance. Westones are also quite good with impedance.

But really, its worth investing in a seperate source. I don't think the Hero is noted as being one of the better mobile phones in terms of SQ but as it is, dedicated pmps/mp3 players are much better than phones. Go get a ipod, zune hd, fuze, S9, X1060 and open up your options.

And is it headphones or "in-ears" that you want?
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post #3 of 15
9/25/09 at 2:27pm
I also think it is better to buy something like Sansa Clip for $50, than have problems with hero.
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post #4 of 15
9/26/09 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
I don't want to have multiple devices to carry with me. The thing here is achieving decent sound quality with minimum effort. My phone is a device I'm always carrying with me. Besides, there's a Spotify client for it so that suits me quite well actually.
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post #5 of 15
9/26/09 at 6:22pm
I am also very frustrated with hissing audio devices and am extremely annoyed with hiss. I simply can't enjoy music with hiss.

Here are a few choices:

Head Direct RE0 # Impedance: 64 Ohm @ 1kHz
# Sensitivity: 100dB @ 1mW-
Does a good job at staying silent even with my players with a noisy background.

Head Direct RE1- Never heard, but it's 150 ohms.

Phonak PFE- # Sensitivity: 107 dB @ 1 mW
# Impedance: 32 Ohm @ 1 kHz

Lets in a little more hiss than the RE0 but acceptable by my high standards. The black filters tame the shrill high end and also block more hiss. Ymmv of course.

One more thing: Your phone probably hisses more than your typical audio player (even the noisy h120 and h320). You should keep in mind that your phone may have a little hiss even with these higher impedance/lower sensitivity phones.

Westones aren't recommended. They have extremely high sensitivity and will likely hiss with your phone. I know this from experience with the UM2 and have heard the UM3 lets hiss through as well.
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post #6 of 15
9/26/09 at 9:07pm
Get an impedance adapter from UE toolkit, use an IEM of your preference. This should solve your problem. To make a note, I am an HTC Hero user. Well I don't use it for much listening though.
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post #7 of 15
9/26/09 at 11:40pm
I would spend a bit more and get a proper impedance adapter like the ER4p-->s adapter. You may have to seriously turn down the volume on the UE or Shure volume controls to get a decent level of resistance. At that point, they will most likely start to severely impact the sound quality.
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post #8 of 15
9/27/09 at 1:33am
The phone can't play pure music like good mp3 does, some circult reason may take effects. Although I'd like to carry less audio player like u do, I'd better use iPod than Nokia Xpressmusic.
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post #9 of 15
9/27/09 at 6:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by A_Dying_Wren View Post
I would spend a bit more and get a proper impedance adapter like the ER4p-->s adapter. You may have to seriously turn down the volume on the UE or Shure volume controls to get a decent level of resistance. At that point, they will most likely start to severely impact the sound quality.
Yeah! That's another option.
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post #10 of 15
9/27/09 at 6:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by A_Dying_Wren View Post
I would spend a bit more and get a proper impedance adapter like the ER4p-->s adapter. You may have to seriously turn down the volume on the UE or Shure volume controls to get a decent level of resistance. At that point, they will most likely start to severely impact the sound quality.
The one from UE isn't a volume control, but a fixed 100 ohm impedance adapter like that of the 75 ohm P->S adapter.
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post #11 of 15
10/8/09 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vkvedam View Post
Get an impedance adapter from UE toolkit, use an IEM of your preference. This should solve your problem. To make a note, I am an HTC Hero user. Well I don't use it for much listening though.
Do you also have the noise I'm talking about in your Hero then?

Anyway, I can't find anyone selling impedance adapters in Sweden. Shouldn't be too hard rolling your own, should? Is there anything more to it than resistors in series? One 100 ohm resistor (some of those low tolerance thingies I suppose) on each channel should be enough since my DT 150 are 250 ohms and these are 16 ohms. Or am I missing some voltage-to-sound-pressure element here?
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post #12 of 15
12/4/09 at 7:09pm
Wouldn't an amp help? Push the volume to max on the phone and then use the amp to set your desired listening level.

I will probably get a Hero at some point so I'll try it.
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post #13 of 15
12/4/09 at 8:07pm
The sound quality isn't very good
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post #14 of 15
12/4/09 at 8:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo View Post
Wouldn't an amp help? Push the volume to max on the phone and then use the amp to set your desired listening level.

I will probably get a Hero at some point so I'll try it.
Problem is, Hero is also a mobile phone. If the OP is thinking about keeping the phone on at the same time while using an Amp (not putting it on airplane mode), most portable amps will give you serious EM interference problems giving you a painful buzz in the ear once in a while unless you shield it somehow. But some amps are better than others in this regard, so I'd do my research if you want to go this route.
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post #15 of 15
12/4/09 at 9:23pm
I have used my cmoy on a plane and it was fine...

Anyway, I will probably get one and use it mainly for audio books. I'll then get a Sansa Clip+ for music and just carry both. The Clip+ is so small and light it's no burden.

Mobile phones for music are always a compromise it seems - either you have a crappy phone with good sound or a good phone with crappy sound.
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