[eVITAERC]

One thing I noticed when I started listening at home with an amp is how much more I noticed noise in my everday listening. For example, right now I am listening thorugh Shure e3s through a Dynalo, and the much higher imput impedence means that the noise floor on my M-Audio Audiophile 2496, which I thought was pretty good, was all of a sudden unbearable. I tried several other sources, including portable players and DVD players, but found nothing that would have a satifactory noise floor. Granted, the volume is pretty loud, but this also puts me at around the 7-o clock position on my 50k pot, which is just barely nidged from the lowest setting. Is this situation normal? Am I simply supposed to use 10k pots or just lower the gain on my Dynalo?

 

[uzziah]

my neighbors are ****ing noisy

but i understand your predicament. some level of noise will always be present, the issue is getting that as inaudable as possible

 

[Ihmemies]

With my budget system I don't notice any audible noise with normal listening levels. Well.. maybe it just depends heavily on your setup

 

[Norbert]

with my current setup (I'm using a replacement laptop) I can't stand listening with my W1000's anymore because of the noise. I plug in my Senn HD525's and the dark veil covers the trebly hisses and pops. I'm hoping when i get my regular laptop back from HP's repair shop I can return to audio bliss.

 

[terrymx]

it depends on the sensitivity of the phone and the amp you use.

connecting to computer, those harddrive noises and cdrom could potentially get to your headphone. i never have much of a problem. but an impedance converter or a headphone with high impedance might reduce the problem.

 

[Revliskciuq]

The use of an external USB optical transport, and dedicated power supplies on both my DAC and my amp have dramatically improved my noise floor. Of course, if your computer is your DAC (read: PCI soundcard) your computer's power supply and the components inside your box can have an effect on your noise floor.

 

[Ikon]

Soundcards truly are damn noisy sources.
With my external DAC as source, I can set the amp's gain 2-3x higher than with the Fortissimo IV/SB Live! 24bit without getting any noise.

 

[eboomer]

From what I've read, an attenuator might help to cure your problem.