[Awah]

Hi everyone. New here, first post I'll be making. Been snooping around for a month now looking for some nice IEM's to purchase for myself. I settled on the UE Super.Fi Pro 5's which sound amazing to me, this being my first high end set as I'm used to the Sony Fontopia earphones!

Now, the majority of my listening is done on my HP Pavillion dv2000 laptop. With my old earphones I heard nothing wrong but now, with my UE's I can hear every single noise my laptop makes which makes low volume listening unenjoyable. My second mode I use is my Sony PSP which I hear no electronic noise being produced from the device.

Now that you have a bit of background on my issue, I'm wondering if purchasing a portable amp will solve my dilemma with my laptops noise issue, and if so, which amp will compliment my UE Super.Fi Pros to make them sound even better? If this isn't what will solve my issue, what is?

 

[Uncle Erik]

An amp will only make a noise issue louder. Computers are electrically noisy inside and that noise gets passed into the audio signal.

You can get past that by using an external DAC plugged into your computer. That'll take the source from inside the computer to outside, away from the noise. There are small, portable DACs on the market.

Be careful what you spend otherwise, though. Some of the portable amps are expensive and not always needed. For IEMs, you can usually get enough power just from the device you're using. IEMs are highly efficient and don't need much to power them.

 

[Spiritboxer]

So far, it doesn't appear that amps do much for the SFP5 as they're fine on their own. Don't use my laptop as a source so I can't speak on that at all.

 

[Podster]

I'm with Uncle Erik on this one, try a small portable amp/DAC combo. Great for laptop listening and you'll have a portable to boot

It just kills me to have three amps that are dead silent at full volume until you plug the source in I just love to hear the power boot up on my Pods :-0

 

[Bigjppop]

Maybe to attack this from another angle; when you say you can hear every sound your laptop makes, do you mean fans and beeps and that wonderful windows startup sound? You mention low level listening is tough, is that because these sounds are sneaking in around your headphones from the outside or are they coming through your headphones. Depending on your answer, I have some thoughts.

If its coming through the headphones, an amp isn't going to help (as stated above). If its coming from outside maybe you can try something different with your IEMs. I've never used the ones that you use (I use Shures) but I would imagine they have a few different types of tips to use. I would make that your first experiment. See if you can't just get a better seal with your headphones. I had to try about 6 different tips before I found something that really fit my ears. If that helps, than I would really consider an amp, especially for low level listening. In my ears, my amp really improves my music, especially at lower levels. It makes it so I can still hear the dynamic range in the music without having to crank it to the max. Anyway, just some thoughts.

 

[Awah]

No, it's my laptop. There is no outside noise that I can hear unless I'm loading a cd when it starts spinning. Its when the IEM's are plugged into the headphone jack that I hear all the electronic noise it produces. It's weird beeps and static noises when I open windows and programs. The static noise is a constant nuisance in the background. Also, I think I will always have isolation problems (my ear canals are too small, I barely can fit the small ones and they still fall out sometimes), but the noises from my laptop cannot be heard without the IEM's plugged in.

Stated above, i think I need to get the DAC/Amp combo, has its internal electronic noise that's causing my issue. I'm going to look around and see what I can come up with.