Some issues with iPod line out, any help?t

Hello all,

Over the past few months, I've been trying to get more and more into hifi gear, picking up a C421 headphone amp and a Fiio L9 so I could have a clean line out, as recommended by several members here.

Contrary to my expectations, I noticed that there was a significiant amount of hiss with the volume maxed out on the amp when plugged into the line out of my Nano 2G, even more so than when I was plugging via a regular 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable!

Thinking there might have been some issue with the amp, I sent it back to JDS for inspection, and was very well taken care of. I recently got the amp back, and noticed that hissing was greatly reduced using my home sound card (Xonar DX) into my GR06 and weirdly sensitive SRH440. I know the amp is supposed to have a black background, but I'm guessing the high sensitivity of those two would have something to do with it.

Anyway, I did some further testing on some other devices, an iPod Touch 2G and an iPhone 4S and noticed other issues with the line out cable.

 The Touch has a weird crackling hiss going on when the volume is turned up on the amp, while the 4S starts with a static sound which goes away, but if I pause a song and turn up the volume on the amp, there is static present for some reason.

I know several members here claim that iPods with a good and some kind of LOD should produce little to no static with my IEMs. Am I just getting unlucky with the iPods I'm demoing, or could something be wrong with me LOD?

Thank for your thoughts!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExpatinJapan 

I was very happy with my Fiio L9, but my Qables LOD was much better.

 

I find the Fiio L9 to be substandard compared to my other four LODs.

 

Have you done a hard reset on the touch/iphone? (home and sleep buttons til the apple shows).

 

Do you have the touch/iphone in airplane mode to cut down on static?

 

Do you access to another cable lod or mini to mini to test it out?

 

Do you have any other portable amps to compare?

 

Can you test the amp with any other headphones, a friends or in a store?

 

-its really a process of elimination you have to go through.

I put the Touch/iPhone in airplane mode, but it didn't have any affect on the sound. Reset, and no differences.

I unfortunately don't have access to any other gear (LODs, amps, etc). The static is most prominent in my IEMs (GR06) but I don't really notice it on my AD700. My SRH440 picks up on it a bit, but it's not really that bad.