[sxr71]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerb I'm sorry but AFAIK this scheme won't work. even the most sensitive LED's (green and red) wont give out any detectable light at 5mV or even 12mV. Sensitive led's usually light at about a volt and many times more! (try connecting a random LED to an AA, now get a pair of stock buts and put that 1.5V through them, thats 1500mV)

I always thought they were more sensitive than that. Oh well sorry, I guess you really need a multimeter then.

It would be nice if everyone could test it so we can see how many people this affects and if DC offset really is the cause. If enough people can show greater than 20mV offset then a case could be made to compensate people for dead headphones for those who lost headphones.

I was just discussing with friends today how we barely listen to the same 100-200 songs anyway and I began to seriously thinking about going from a 4G 60GB to a nice amazingly slim and light 5G 30GB (since they don't want to seem to annouce an 80GB anytime soon). I guess I'll wait to see how this turns out.

 

[Russell]

Just for the record, I've had zero problems with my 5G 30GB, which I've had for over a month. I've used the stock Apple buds maybe 30 minutes at most. I've done the vast majority of my listening with Senn PX100s, Sony MDR-CD1700s, and (lately) AT ATH-A900LTDs, which I got expressly for the iPod. I've had these cans for a week and a half, and am listening to them as I type these words. Sounds terrific, too. Yes, I'm concerned about all the reports, but I guess I'm in denial

or maybe I just think I'm one of the lucky ones with a good iPod.

(I guess I'm also a risk-taker.

)

Anyway, I do wonder why it seems to take so long for the problem to manifest itself. Maybe I'm being naive here, but wouldn't this sort of problem show up immediately, or after having done something untoward to the iPod or headphones? It's strange that the problem would go away with a new set of phones and then come back after a while....

Russell

 

[jumpinjohn1234]

Could the built quality of the apple earbuds also be a factor to why there is crackling ? It seems as if its happening to "low-end earbuds" It looks like there is a DC offset, but maybe its also because of the built issue with "low-end models". I'm more curious about wether people with shures, etymotics, or westone are getting this issure.

 

[iSleipnir]

Does anyone know what could be causing these problems??

 

[swmtnbiker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProleArtThreat No one's freaking out, but with so many similar reports of the right side of headphones zonking out with 5G iPods, it certainly seems like a good idea to investigate this further. I, for one, will be holding off upgrading my current 60GB 4G iPod to a 5G model, as I was planning on doing later this month, until I'm confident I know what the hell is going on.

If you read back through this thread you'll see that quite a few people are "freaking out". There's certainly nothing wrong with being cautious and following this issue to see what happens, but IMO there's been quite a bit of conclusion-jumping going on.

By the way, if you read through the thread at iLounge you'll see that there are also reports of this "problem" with some previous generation iPods. If this IS a real isssue then it doesn't appear to be specific to the 5G.

 

[Mercuttio]

I've got a 5g 30 gigger, I listen to it pretty exclusively with DT 770-80s, and I've had no problems at all. The problem with these threads (ESPECIALLY those on iLounge) is that they attract everyone who POSSIBLY heard the slightest problem in their right earbud.

No, I'm not disputing that it exists. However, I definitely used apple earbuds for a while with my first iPod, and those things break pretty damned fast, even at reasonable volumes.

Of course, frankly, I might have egg on my face in a few months when my 770s explode in a fireball of pain and tears.

 

[chrisfromalbany]

The additional bass in the 5th ipod I am guessing is causing the issue and the standard headphone suck. I have been using UE-10s. EBs.. UM2s.. er6i's. and none of them had any issue.

[size=xx-large]This is a total rumor..[/size]


Until something comes out in writting, if ever.. doubtful.. I am using the 5th with UE-10s..

 

[Agnostic]

Damn! So I've been playing russian roulette all these months without even knowing! But now that you mention it...I have been having recurring dreams where my head explodes in a ball of fire...
Anyone know a pair of cans that sound good through a motorcycle helmet? I prefer an airy open sound and good soundstage....

 

[Mercuttio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agnostic Damn! So I've been playing russian roulette all these months without even knowing! But now that you mention it...I have been having recurring dreams where my head explodes in a ball of fire... Anyone know a pair of cans that sound good through a motorcycle helmet? I prefer an airy open sound and good soundstage....

I had the opportunity to try these out a few weeks ago, and I personally think they would sound best through a motorcycle helmet:

Bang & Olufsen Form 2 Headphones

 

[etherealbeats]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xluben I got my new 5G iPod this evening and decided to test the DC offset before I used it with my Super.fi 5EB's. I got 6mV from the left channel and 4mV from the right.

Is that the DC offset. If so that doesn't make much sense and contradicts what everybody's been farting on about.

 

[ken36]

I wonder if there really is an issue here.

 

[xluben]

Quote:

Originally Posted by etherealbeats Is that the DC offset. If so that doesn't make much sense and contradicts what everybody's been farting on about.

Yep, that's the DC offset from my 5G iPod. Those are low enough values that there seems to be no danger to my headphones, so I don't think it matters that the left is higher than the right, because neither is an issue.

 

[rstokes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K2Grey If this problem is occuring to large quantities of people, and is not occuring to people with other DAPs, when we may safely assume that either 1) everyones headphones are screwed up or 2) the iPod has some problem that screws up headphones.

or 3) The iPod is present in much larger numbers than other DAPs. If it were a rare problem common to all DAPs (I'm not saying it is, but bear with me here), you'd be much more likely to get 100 occurrences out of the millions of iPods than out of a few hundred thousand other DAPs.

There probably is something wrong with the units that have blown more than one set of headphones, and it probably is DC offset in the output. If I were a gambling man, I'd bet it is caused by an interconnect failure on the board inside... Probably could have been prevented by a thorough X-ray inspection of every unit before shipping, at a mere 10X increase in cost.

My 5G/30GB iPod has not blown any earphones. Especially not the stock buds, which are still in their little plastic sleeve, untouched. However, I do have some hearing loss in my right ear. I realize now that this must be due to the iPod. How it caused this, especially considering I first noticed it 30 years ago, is up to the forums and, ultimately, the courts to decide. Hmmm... now that I think of it, my mother-in-law has much worse hearing in her right ear than her left, and she's been using a Shuffle recently...

 

[K2Grey]

At the moment, I'm thinking that if your headphones blow, you may be able to get it fixed under warranty from the manufacturer, unless it becomes widely known that this is Apple's fault, in which case Apple will be pressured to replace iPods anyway.

 

[__redruM]

You guys had me worried for about 30 seconds... My ipod has had a chance to blow or damage over $1000 of headphones. So I tested DC offset, and have less than 2mv offset on both line and headphone out.

I do remember reading that the ipod uses output caps to prevent just this problem.

Luckily I'm in the No problem catagory. Feel free to panic if you want though...

If you're interested, I took the following from http://www.tangentsoft.net/audio/input-cap.html

How Do You Measure DC Offset?

Put your meter on the DC millivolts scale and measure from ground to each channel.

It's most useful to measure this at the output of the amp, while it is plugged into the source. If your amp uses mini jacks (1/8"), put a mini-to-mini cable in the jack and measure from the long "sleeve" part to the "tip" and "ring" parts out at the end of the plug. With 1/4" jacks, it's a bit tougher because 1/4" to 1/4" cables aren't very common. Instead, it's simplest to measure between the solder lugs on the inside of the amp. If you don't want to open the amp up and can't find a 1/4" patch cable, a 1/4" to dual RCA adapter will also work: just measure from the inside of each RCA jack to the outer shell.

You can also measure DC offset at the source. Remember to multiply this by the amp's gain when deciding if it's acceptable.