[Megalomania]

I recently made my first foray into the realm of hi-fi with the purchase of the somewhat modest Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 pros, which replaced various other cans I'd been using to listen to music primarily while exercising. I spent some time listening to them using my CD player to experience some lossless goodness, then switched over to my iPod. Immediately after turning it on, I noticed a low level buzzing, hissing type noise. It continued as I started playing music. I used the sound level attenuator that came with the Super.Fi 5s, and that got rid of the buzzing. It did not come back when I turned up the volume to compensate for the attenuator. I've frequented the forums here before and most people seem to think the iPod is a pretty good source as far as PMPs go; is this a common issue, or just something weird with my particular iPod?

 

[bracket_cable]

Yes, that's normal, some in-ear phones on some mp3-players just have the "hiss." It's not just the iPod. The attenuator increases the "impedance" which removes the hiss. The included attenuator is for controlling the volume on sources that don't have a built-in control, or for fixing the hiss. Since you can re-adjust the volume and there is no return of the problem, my guess is that this is a completely normal situation.

 

[ozz]

i have the same sf5 and 5.5 i-pod and i do not have hiss all my selections
are cd's ripped to apple lossless if that makes a difference the only time i
hear hiss is on old recordings that had tape hiss like one of my ten years after.

 

[shigzeo]

the hiss hasn't to do with your encoded files unless you encode at 16-64kbps but even at 64 it should not be audible.

it has to do with the amplifier from the dap. all daps have this hiss - i have heard none that do not. the worst is shuffle 2g and flash based iriver machines followed by shuffle 1g and iriver daps, sony and larger cowon players.

meizu is terribe if you have m6 and my cowon d2 has hiss though it is just a little less than the ipod 5.5 or nano. the ipod has actually less hiss than many other players. if you have iem, you will need to either use an attenuator to add resistance to the line as many iems are far too sensitive to be used with portable equipment.

i use a portable amplifer to attenuate the hiss (supermicro iv). with my d2 and atrio m5 there is no hiss with that combo but with um2 the noise from the external portable amplifier could be heard, but it was quality noise

.

face it, the only dap that will not hiss with a sensitive iem is the md player and perhaps if any very low powered mp3 player comes to horizon, it should not hiss if done properly. low means 3mw or so. i have heard no amp that is below 8mw *2 hiss but i hear sony's do.

cheers