[nauqneyugn]

Well after trying my PPA with the STEPS psu and countless other amps, my Shure E5s still hisses.

Anyother last things to try because I seriously contemplate selling the Shures? I haven't tried adding any extra impedance to the line yet, so thats one more thing to try.

 

[lindrone]

Who made your PPA anyway?.. I swear the JMT PPA that I've tried was dead silent..

 

[raif]

How closely related is sensitivity and impedence? If they are close, I think adding line impedence will do the trick. Almost every high powered amp I have heard hisses on low impedence, high sensitivity phones. You say you have checked them on other amps, so it isn't just a ppa problem, right? I am beginning to wonder if it is just a certain frequency that not everyone can hear, because there seems to be alot of indescrepencies among individual accounts of hissing.

Looks like you are about to be inducted into Team Phantom Hissss.

 

[cmascatello]

My e5c's hiss a good bit with my XP-7 and the stock op amps. I am waiting on some AD797s to roll in there and see if I can cut down on it. I have been thinking about adding my 4P->4S cable into the loop to see if the added impedance will help. I can barely turn the volume knob past 5-8% on the XP-7 now w/o blowing out my ears.

 

[nauqneyugn]

Its a MisterX made amp and its hella beautiful.

 

[morsel]

Typical volume knobs have a rotational range of approximately 7 o'clock to 5 o'clock, with 12 o'clock being the halfway point. Ideally, you want the maximum listening level to be at 3 o'clock, to provide a useful range of control with a bit of extra headroom for the occasional freakishly quiet recording.

If you are hearing hiss and the volume knob is < 12 o'clock for maximum listening levels, and especially if it is < 9 o'clock, that is a sure sign the gain of the amp is too high for your headphones. Lowering the amplifier gain or using less sensitive headphones will reduce volume knob sensitivity and hiss.

 

[nauqneyugn]

Clinging to a slowly disintegrating thread of hope...any other opinions?

 

[MisterX]

Quote:

Originally posted by lindrone Who made your PPA anyway?.. I swear the JMT PPA that I've tried was dead silent..

This amp is dead quiet with all 12 of my headphones.
Insert the Sures in and it hisses like a Dragon.
I removed all the gain resistors and inserted sockets.
Now the real fun begins.
BTW a STEPS did nada.

cmascatello:
That is a good idea.
Before I start down that road let me know what you come up with (if you try it).

Back to tweaking the gain I go....

 

[cmascatello]

I gave the ER-4P -> S cable a try this evening and it cut down on the hiss by at least 75%. It is very slight now and does not intrude into the quieter passages of the music like it once did. The sound is a bit warmer now and the highs are not quite a sharp as they were before the cable. I am not sure if the new sound is any better, just slightly different. I can't wait for the AD797s to get here and maybe I can get rid of all of the hissing. This thing sounds pretty sweet with the stock op amps though.

 

[MisterX]

Tweaking the gain didn't help much.
I totally forgot that I had a Radio Shack inline volume control in my junk box.
It took all of ten seconds to get rid of the hiss.
I can echo the results cmascatello got with his cable.... The bass has a little more presence and the highs are not so sharp.
Now the fun part comes. Figuring out the sweet spot and making
a custom cable.

Thanks for the feedback, I think you just made someone very happy.

 

[cmascatello]

Got my AD797s from Todd on Friday PM and got some time to roll the op amps on my XP-7 from the stock 825s this evening. The improvement is unreal. My only regret is that I accidentally dropped one of the 825s and rolled over it with my desk chair, breaking one of the legs on the op amp in the process. Oh well, I was not planning on going back to them anyway....

There is no hiss at all now with the e5's, even without the Ety conversion cable I had been using for a few days. It is absolutely whisper quiet and the sound quality is much more to my liking right out of the box. The bass extension is much better and the clarity in both highs and lows is increased with these op amps. The change to the AD797s has moved the detail of my Shures much closer to that of the Ety 4 without sacrificing the fun bassiness of the Shure sound. Much of the harshness in the treble that I had with the stock op amps is gone already with the 797s and I am sure that the sound will smooth out a bit more as it continues to burn in.

Enjoying the Emmeline more than ever!

 

[lindrone]

Not only that, now your XP-7 is probably something like 98% of what the Emmeline HR-2 is now (HR-2 comes standard with AD797).

 

[cmascatello]

Thank the almighty!

At least that is one area of my system that does not appear headed for an upgrade. At least for a while. I had a slight itch to upgrade to the HR-2, but now it seems that it has been scratched by some $30 op amps.

But there is always the STEALTH. Damn that Ray Samuels!

PS: Did you get your hands on the SuperDual yet?

 

[lindrone]

No, haven't gotten the SuperDual yet, but I'm not too anxious about it...

 

[cmascatello]

I was hoping that Xin would get mine to me in time for my trip to California this week but it looks like I will have to wait until the weeknd to play with it. Maybe I will have to bring the new and improved XP-7 on the plane with me instead.....