[Chinchy]

This is a Request For Information on the M-Audio Audiophile USB.

I'm looking to replace my current USB soundcard for my laptop. The Headroom Total Bithead I'm using now has background noise with my higher sensitivity, lower impedance headphones (Grados, Etys, Senn HD-25). The background noise is proving to be a distraction.

So, I'm looking for firsthand accounts on the Audiophile USB paired with similar High sensitivity/low impedance headphones such as Grados, Etys, Shures, Senn HD-25, etc. Users of Senn HD600's and 650's need not apply, merely because their high impedance servers as an attenuator to remove all background noise. I already did a search on Audiophile USB, but didn't find the information I was looking for.

Please post your experiences with Audiophile USB and background noise, hissing, etc, with Grados, Etys, HD25's, etc. Is it there? Is it not?

Also looking for information on sonic qualities, strengths, deficiencies, build issues, reliability, driver issues, etc.

Thanks!

 

[dvr]

(Chincy -- I tried responding to your PM yesterday, but you were over your limit, so it wouldn't go through).

With the Ety 4p, I don't hear any hiss at all.

Regarding sound quality, the line out is pretty good, but the headphone jack sounds a little thin compared to the Echo Indigo or the Audiophile + SR-71 (which is to be expected).

I enjoyed the Total Bithead for the month I had it, and I experienced no hiss. Maybe this is different from unit to unit? I thought the Bithead had a nice groovy sound, and I preferred the Bithead to the Audiophile.

 

[Jasper994]

I'm currently using Shure E2's straight out of the onboard headphone jack. Sounds good and is dead silent.

 

[Chinchy]

Ooh no noise huh? This is looking better. And yes, while the TBH does have a nice groove to it, I won't be able to enjoy it unless I get some Senn HD595's or something.. Hm.. At least I hope the 120 ohms would be enough to attenuate the noise.. I'm not worried about underpowered headphone outs since I will be hooking this up to either my Meta42 or my Melos via the RCA outs. I just want to bypass the 80% decent headphone out on my compaq laptop. Although it is a quite a bit less noisy than some other laptops, if you totally max out the volumes, you can still just barely hear the periodic triple chirps from somewhere in the system. If I go for an external soundcard, that should all go away..

dvr: Interesting to hear that you had no noise with the ER4P's on the TBH.. Perhaps it IS a unit to unit thing. When I called Headroom regarding the noise on my TBH, they assured me that it was normal, and that I didn't have a defective unit. So who knows...

 

[ixeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy Ooh no noise huh? This is looking better. And yes, while the TBH does have a nice groove to it, I won't be able to enjoy it unless I get some Senn HD595's or something.. Hm.. At least I hope the 120 ohms would be enough to attenuate the noise.. I'm not worried about underpowered headphone outs since I will be hooking this up to either my Meta42 or my Melos via the RCA outs. I just want to bypass the 80% decent headphone out on my compaq laptop. Although it is a quite a bit less noisy than some other laptops, if you totally max out the volumes, you can still just barely hear the periodic triple chirps from somewhere in the system. If I go for an external soundcard, that should all go away.. dvr: Interesting to hear that you had no noise with the ER4P's on the TBH.. Perhaps it IS a unit to unit thing. When I called Headroom regarding the noise on my TBH, they assured me that it was normal, and that I didn't have a defective unit. So who knows...

well as they say your ears don't lie

besides your unit could be a defective one thus its so obvious. and how would they know that YOUR unit isn't defective? imho pretty **** service trying to avoid providing them.

edit: referring to the interference.

 

[KurtW]

I find the headphone output very quiet with low impedance, sensitive headphones. However if you are going to use the line out, the measurements I've taken on my unit showed very low noise levels except for a 60 Hz component that was still not audible. I could post the RMAA noise graph later but I don't have it on this computer.

As far as sound goes, its pretty good. It could be made better with some op amp and capacitor changes which I haven't gotten around to doing.