[pank2002]

Hallo fellow head-fiers,
I've had the Shure e3c for some times now and they are quite cool phones. I'm having some trouble though, as I'm hearing hiss on some devices.
1st off, when I listen to my docked iPod (connected to an outlet) though the headphone jack I'll hear a bit of hiss -- especially noticable when no music's playing. I though it was just the electricity doing crazy stuff.
Today I plugged them into my new iRiver iFP-790 and I heard a hiss too. Way annoying. I can tell it's there most of the time, but it's only a problem when no music is playing. I heard no hiss with the Sennheiser mx400 or when the player wasn't turned on (

)
So is this normal or should I get them replaced? It would be a bummer to have to send them back (they were bought in the States) but it would be an even bigger bummer to have defective 'phones.
Any help is appreciated.

-Rasmus

Here's a small story btw: I was riding the bus this morning and after having said morning to the guys and gals I took out my E3cs and started to put them in the ear (which can be a longer process.) So when I've gotten them in a friend of mine pokes me (to get my attention I guess) and I take them out and he ask me if those are Shure's. I didn't expect him to even know about them. So we talked a bit back and forth, and it turned out he had been looking for something like them, but he wasn't ready to cash up $150 as I had paied for them as he thought it was too much for phones

 

[go_vtec]

I think it is normal as long as it is not excessively loud. I've tried few amps and only Max was completely silent with E3c. Airhead was very quiet with DC wall-wart. Hiss was more noticeable with tube amps (29 ohm will do that to typical tube amps).

 

[kyrie]

It's probably normal. Shures are extremely sensitive phones, and will pick up noise from a lot of devices.

 

[Kirosia]

Yeah, the noise is normal. Earphones are very revealing, I heard hiss too when I used the er-4/er6s.

 

[EdipisReks]

i hear hiss with my E2c's. i chalk it up to highly sensitive phones.

 

[Sugarfried]

Quote:

Originally Posted by go_vtec I think it is normal as long as it is not excessively loud. I've tried few amps and only Max was completely silent with E3c. Airhead was very quiet with DC wall-wart. Hiss was more noticeable with tube amps (29 ohm will do that to typical tube amps).

It's actually 26 ohms.

And you're right about isolating earphones being more revealing with regard to noise than non-isolating earphones.

 

[Aptmunich]

Quote:

1st off, when I listen to my docked iPod (connected to an outlet) though the headphone jack I'll hear a bit of hiss -- especially noticable when no music's playing. I though it was just the electricity doing crazy stuff.

Doesn't relate directly to your problem, but on my older model gen 2 ipod, I always heard a hissing when using sensitive phones through the remote. I believe this is due to the bad design on the combo headphone jack/remote plug on the gen2.

Sometimes the hissing would disapear if i wriggled the remote around a bit, but it would come back again after a while (bad connection).

So now I just use the e3c's without a remote! And do not hear any hissing incidently enough.. mabye it's becuase I listen at very low volume...