[KeVan]

Hi, I never owned noise isolating headphones before, but is the 'hissing' suppose to be there? I assume this is their 'technology' to give it the noise isolating ability? So am I suppose to turn up the volume louder so that it drowns out this hissing? It's less noticeable in a room that's louder but I don't really want to turn up the earphones too loud as I don't want to damage my ears, since these earphones go quite deep. 

 

[vese]

There shouldnt be hissing..they're not active noise cancelling. 

 

[KeVan]

You sure? I remember trying out a friend's Sony noise isolating headphones (they were the cheaper ones, but there was 'hissing' or static noise even when nothing is playing. Same goes for these headphones. Only noticeable when in a quiet room though. 

 

[Joe Bloggs]

They may well hiss, but not because of any noise cancellation, but because they are sensitive to noise in your player and amp.  Try them with other sources, you should be able to find something that doesn't hiss.

 

[KeVan]

I've tried to plug them directly into my Macbook Pro and my Sony MP3 player and they both produce this low static background noise. I really do hope it's not the headphone's fault. I just got these in the mail brand new from Amazon yesterday. The worse I've done to these things were throwing them onto my bed from 2 feet away - lol.
 
Any ety hf3/hf5 owners out there who can shine some light on this issue?
 
Edit: I think I know what's my problem. 'Low' quality music files.
 
On my MP3 player, I see why there's static, as some of these songs are really poor quality MP3 files. But the thing is, on my laptop, I'm playing classical music that are FLAC files and were ripped from vinyls, and they are about 100mb per file. I don't hear any hissing when I use my AKG K701... So I don't know. Perhaps it's probably a bad idea to compare the K701 to these sound isolating IEMs. I'll run some more tests with other songs when I get home. 
 
This all might be from poorly ripped FLAC files, and that they're just a bunch of bloated Lossless files... I hope this isn't the case, or I would have wasted a lot of time/effort getting them.

 

[Cheezerme]

Well, there is also the possibility you have minor tonitus, or it is simply the sound from your ear. I own the hf5's and i hear a slight hissing when i don't have them plugged in, but this is likely minor tonitus from childhood ear infections. If you don't hear it while they are unplugged, it's probably just your sources noise, most low quality sources do that.

 

[RingingEars]

Those are rated at 105dB which is pretty sensitive. depending on your source they're probably going to hiss a little.
I have the Westone UM2 RC which are rated at 119dB. I can hear a low level hiss out of my ipod touch 4g/E7 combo and if I plug them into my Topping TP21 desktop amp they hiss like an agry rattle snake.
If it's just a low level hiss I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[KeVan]

Alright thanks, good to know. It's not very noticeable unless I really concentrate.
 
So I guess the solution is just to find better files. I guess 'size doesn't matter' holds true in this case. Cause certainly I would've thought with 100mb sized FLACs, I would have superb quality. Interesting to know that this hiss can be picked up at such low volumes; whereas my K701 aren't able to pick this up. What are the K701s rated in terms of sensitivity?

 

[RingingEars]

Quote:

Alright thanks, good to know. It's not very noticeable unless I really concentrate.
 
So I guess the solution is just to find better files. I guess 'size doesn't matter' holds true in this case. Cause certainly I would've thought with 100mb sized FLACs, I would have superb quality. Interesting to know that this hiss can be picked up at such low volumes; whereas my K701 aren't able to pick this up. What are the K701s rated in terms of sensitivity?

It may not be the files. Amp/DAC/source can and will play a major role in it. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with your gear it's just the nature of the beast.
I don't know what the 701 are rated at, but some things just don't synergize well.