iPod Audio

[Hase]

I just posted this question here, so anyone who read it knows that I am not using quality listening devices (yet). But, when I loaded a song, encoded in Apple Lossless, and played it back, there was a very light "static." (As I discussed in the other link, I don't really speak the language, some cultures have numerous words for snow or dirt or rain, I am sure you all have different words for different kinds of static but I don't know it.) How can I tell if this is coming from the iPod or the headphones? Is this normal? What might you all suggest as a good song or album to use for a benchmark? I was using Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue because it was handy, might the "static" have been from the original recording? Anyway, as I have already said, I am trying to learn as much as I can to supplement my distant physics class (see other post)

 

[blessingx]

Where does the static show up? Is it all the time or just at the begining of a song? If the latter, try playing something with a quite beginning. There's a well known iPod static issue on some iPods (I had to return my initial 4G). Try different phones and tracks to isolate the source.

 

[Charlie87]

You mentioned that one song giving you trouble questioning the original recording....is this light static apparent on all songs or just RHCP?

BTW, if the static is in the beginning, this could be a known hard drive static...post back!

 

[Hase]

It is not at the beginning and it is not really a constant static, just a very slight "crack" periodically. It doesn't have to be too loud but I have to listen very closely.
Like I have said before, I have never really had a chance to listen to what is considered "high quality" sources and speakers and whatnot (just Best Buy level stuff) and even then, never really paid alot of attention. This may just be part of what is expected for these components. Like I said, I have to try to hear it. I only notice it in songs in which a there is just a single chord or a voice is held at a certain pitch with no other sounds in the background.
I am probably just finding normal things by listening too hard, but might better 'phones help this or do they just reproduce smoother tone etc. I guess a general question is, what is the difference between cheap drivers and more expensive drivers?

 

[Charlie87]

It doesnt seem to be the harddrive problem some 4G users were facing....

This is not expected of these players and shouldn't be accepted by you either....
I would do this:
Try many different Speakers and Headphones

Then try to mess with EQ settings (Ipod EQ isnt the greatest and could cause slight distortion if on)


Report Back

 

[Hase]

Is there any sort of audio sample that can be downloaded somewhere that is just tones, or something similar for benchmarking? Or a suggested thing to listen for?

 

[Charlie87]

not sure i would just remember the exact points in the red hot song, and just keep checking it with difffernt fones and speakers

 

[zachary80]

So is it only with the RHCP?

And how are your files encoded?

 

[Hase]

For testing, I have been using the Apple Lossless encoding. I have only listened for it on RHCP so far, I encoded some Radiohead and Mythos last night to try to test. (Incidentally, I can't use my winamp plugin to load Apple Lossless tracks and seem to be having a difficult time getting them on there using other software. I think both iTunes and ml_ipod try to sync are not in sync themselves.) I will listen sometime tonight to the others, using any sepakers/phones I can get my hands on.

 

[walkman666]

Hase, one possibility is the headphone jack. The new 4G iPods have had a pattern where the headphone jacks have been loose. This is documented at both the Apple discussion forums, the iPodLounge discussion forums, and, well, with me (!). I got static every time I merely touched the jack connecting to my HP out on the iPod.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/ (ironically, off-line as I scribe this post)

After doing a search on the Apple discussion forums (I highly suggest you go there for iPod difficulties, there are many tech experts who are quick to reply), I found out that apparently Apple adjusted the 4G models so that the headphones would come out easier as there were too many issues on 3G modles of folks having their iPods fly out of the pockets when their headphones were intentionally or unintentionally yanked off their heads.

So, I noticed this static and realized it was the loose jack after playing around with it with different headphones and different songs. I went to the Apple store in SOHO (NYC) and they confirmed that the jack seemed unusually loose. They swapped out the iPod with a new one right then and there.

This is one possibility for your problem. You do need to check to see if this static occurs with other headphones, other songs, and if merely touching the end of your HP jack connecting to iPod causes static.

good luck, - walkman666

 

[Hase]

Terrific, well, not terrific, but thanks, I had not heard of that. I will listen for that too.

 

[Hase]

Update:
I encoded a handful of music (Radiohead, Counting Crows, Mythos, etc.) using Apple Lossless and relistened. It seemed that what I was hearing in the RHCP song was more "hiss" than "static" (if that makes any difference at all). I also noticed that I could only hear it when the iPod was turned up pretty high (85% of max). It was also clearly worse in some songs that others. As an untrained ear, it seems like there would be this sound in most recordings if they are turned up enough. Was I just pushing the amp in the iPod too much? Anyway, I am now also trying to recode a bunch of my cds using AAC per suggestions and going through hell with that too.

Thanks for reading and for any comments!

 

[zack]

A lot of the earlier 4G iPods had these problems, but it seems to have been corrected with newer models. When the hard drive is spinning you will hear background noise. Lossless tracks make the hard drive spin more often, so you will hear it more often on lossless tracks. You can test this by creating a few 10 minute silent tracks and encoding them lossless, and playing them back.

Exchange your iPod for a new one.

 

[Hase]

At the end of "No Surprises" (Radiohead), as the vocals fade out, so fades the hiss. There is silence at the end of the track where I hear nothing, no matter how loud I run up the volume. I even messed around with skipping from another track, right to the end of "No Surprises" and I get the same result. Is the static that was related to the hard drive only present when a track was playing? If I skip around to other songs, I can feel the drive spinning but I still hear nothing in my phones. I don't mean to be a pain, I just don't want to mail it back and wait for them to return another if I don't have to.

 

[justanotheruser]

In regard to apple lossless - I've found that sometimes iTunes just doesn't encode properly - especially with certain cds - the symptom is, well, static. The recordings sound fine at first, but then you get 20 seconds into the song and start to hear glitches - to the point that it is annoying and makes lossless hardly so. My solution in most cases has been to re-encode in 320 aac, which is smaller anyway and not much of a loss - better than a recording with static for sure.