[Forest Design]

will better cables improve the distortion at the upper end and what i call "tape hiss" (that i'm guessing doesn't come from the recording itself as i don't hear it out of the stereo)? i have a new pair of 325i and they do really well with some albums and seem to distort a bit on others. I'm guessing it could be due to the recordings themselves, but i'm wondering if those things can be caused by crappy cables...

 

[ericj]

No. Something would have to be horrifyingly wrong with the cable.

Quite the contrary - the relatively high impedance of a cheap steel wire cable would attenuate high frequency noise.

If you stick your ear right next to the tweeter on your speakers, i bet you hear the same hiss.

 

[lordkelmain]

If you're looking to remove unwanted noise from older recordings, Audition's pretty good.

- lk

 

[Forest Design]

could the distortion on the high end be due to the phones not being completely "broken in" they have less than 10 hours on them. it's not major, not bad enough that i'd consider the headphones defective, and exists only on some recordings and not others. i know that sounds like it'd be a recording issue, but again, i don't hear it with my stereo.

 

[Forest Design]

it's not older recordings really. i was listening to Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do and Wilco's A Ghost is Born and the Aphex Twin had some distortion that kinda ruined some of the songs and there was more hiss than I remember on the Wilco.

I was listening out of a portable with bluejeans cables going into a Headfive amp and when I moved the amp to my stereo using the line out (with crappy cables) into the amp it improved it somewhat, but it the distortion was still there on the Aphex Twin. is it a source issue. When i play the Aphex Twin through the stereo the issue isn't there. The hiss may be something i just don't hear, but the distortion isn't...

 

[ericj]

No, it's not a break-in/burn-in/run-in issue. Generally breakin increases the pliance of the diaphragm, which makes it looser and faster.

It could just be that your headphones are more sensitive at the hiss frequencies than your speakers are. Or that what you've got the headphones plugged into is prone to the hiss where the speaker amp is not.

There are kinds of high frequency noise that i can hear on my K145 that i can't hear with most other 'phones. They're just real sensitive in the highs.

 

[Forest Design]

I guess that'd make sense as the 325i are generally noted as being upper end-heavy.