[palmfish]

Did a little digging and found this discussion regarding 24/192 hissing sound. Im not sure if it answers the question but it seems to me to be the same problem a few here are experiencing.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=64226.0

 

[Frank I]

The issue on your link is happening  with a very high end Ayre Dac. I found the hissing not just on hd tracks but also on files from Blue Coast and Channell and also Pure Music. There is an issue and on 24/96 tracks they all pay perfectly. Like I said they will figure out a fix and not sure if it will be a firmware fix or need to go back.
 
Ayre under the direction of Charlie Hansen builds some very expensive and quality products. The issue appears to happen with up- sampled files whether it hdtracks or another vendor. Honestly I hear no difference in 24/96 or 24/192 because I can play the same tracks on the Oppo BDP 105 and there is no hiss on the tracks so its not the files.

 

[wisemanja]

I've been having a discussion with the folks over at BitPerfect about this hiss issue. They sent me a note that I thought might be of interest to the folks here on the forum. I quote it here with their permission:
 
-------------
That's interesting.  I looked at the dynamic bandwidth of the two files you sent me (Stank, which has no hiss, and St Louis Blues which has the most hiss).  I attach the graphs for your perusal.  Stank (which does not hiss) shows an ultrasonic background of about -85dB above 65kHz, which is not excessive.  However, St Louis Blues, which shows the worst hiss, has an ultrasonic background of -50dB above 65kHz which is more than you would like to see.  Our own DSD-to-PCM converters, for example, limit that noise to below -100dB.

The use of the terms Nyquist Frequency and aliasing are in my view misused here.  Perhaps intentionally so, to draw attention away from the core problem, which is that the residual ultrasonic noise (encoded within the Nyquist bandwidth of the file) is making their analog output stage go unstable.  This is electrical engineering 101.  If you want to design for wide bandwidth, then you need to account for the possibility of input signals across that entire bandwidth.  I have been using a Light Harmonic Da Vinci for most of the last year.  It also has wide bandwidth and is NOT upset by the very files that are causing the Sennheiser to hiss.

If the HDVD800 is ultrasonically unstable, I would not be plugging my expensive T1's into it!

Regards,
BitPerfect Support
------------------
 
Here is the graph for Stank which does not seem to hiss:
 
 
 


 
 
Here is St. Louis Blues:
 

 
 
They also sent me the following spectrogram of one of their DSD-to-PCM conversions (24/176.4) which is an example of how it could (should?) look:
 

 
 
Thanks to BitPerfect Support for the images.
 
- Jeff

 

[MelvinV]

Quote:

One other thing occurred to me today, is it worth contacting HDTracks and ask them to answer concerns on their 24/192 tracks?

No, because audiophile equipment is apparently of better quality than studio-grade equipment and that's why there is a bunch of noise on recordings made with bad studio-grade equipment, they should've gone with tropical wooden chassis instead of metal as it gives more warmth and gets rid of the 120kHz noises that you can hear with the oh so epic HDVD800.
*cough* HD 800s don't reach above 50kHz *cough* so it's not the high frequencies you're hearing, but the distortion because of bad design.
 
Quote:

The use of the terms Nyquist Frequency and aliasing are in my view misused here.  Perhaps intentionally so, to draw attention away from the core problem, which is that the residual ultrasonic noise (encoded within the Nyquist bandwidth of the file) is making their analog output stage go unstable.  This is electrical engineering 101.  If you want to design for wide bandwidth, then you need to account for the possibility of input signals across that entire bandwidth.  I have been using a Light Harmonic Da Vinci for most of the last year.  It also has wide bandwidth and is NOT upset by the very files that are causing the Sennheiser to hiss

Now the theory that I sort of had in my head had been confirmed, Sennheiser double fail~
More companies need to make headphones because I don't want to purchase products from a company that's turning into the next Apple.

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

More companies need to make headphones because I don't want to purchase products from a company that's turning into the next Apple.

At least Sennheiser are no crooks like Apple is. I can't think of a bigger crook than Apple themselves. 

 

[GSARider]

No, because audiophile equipment is apparently of better quality than studio-grade equipment and that's why there is a bunch of noise on recordings made with bad studio-grade equipment, they should've gone with tropical wooden chassis instead of metal as it gives more warmth and gets rid of the 120kHz noises that you can hear with the oh so epic HDVD800.
*cough* HD 800s don't reach above 50kHz *cough* so it's not the high frequencies you're hearing, but the distortion because of bad design.

Now the theory that I sort of had in my head had been confirmed, Sennheiser double fail~
More companies need to make headphones because I don't want to purchase products from a company that's turning into the next Apple.

That's nice, you can go buy something else now...

 

[James-uk]

Taxi for Melvin

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

No, because audiophile equipment is apparently of better quality than studio-grade equipment and that's why there is a bunch of noise on recordings made with bad studio-grade equipment, they should've gone with tropical wooden chassis instead of metal as it gives more warmth and gets rid of the 120kHz noises that you can hear with the oh so epic HDVD800.
*cough* HD 800s don't reach above 50kHz *cough* so it's not the high frequencies you're hearing, but the distortion because of bad design.
 
Now the theory that I sort of had in my head had been confirmed, Sennheiser double fail~
More companies need to make headphones because I don't want to purchase products from a company that's turning into the next Apple.

I'd figure that ax of yours would be dull by now, guess not. 

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

I'd figure that ax of yours would be dull by now, guess not. 

He's had bad luck with some of his high-end gear lately. 

 

[GSARider]

Oh that's a shame, hopefully he will find a new company that has just started making headphones and related products as he so fervently wishes for, at cheap prices of course .

In the meantime, those of us that actually have an HDVD800 can get back to our discussion.

 

[LifeAspect]

seems somebody is giving comments on the product without even listening to it and seems frustrated for some reason.
 
edit: oh right, his hd800s is having issues...

 

[GSARider]

That's the thing, it's pretty easy to sit online, blow things out of proportion and trash good products. Consistently, on this thread, owners of the HDVD800 are happy with their choice of DAC/AMP. Personally, I'm happy with mine, I'm not concerned about hissing on a few tracks at 24/192 that have issues, whatever the reason.

Overall, the HDVD800/ HD800 combo is phenomenally good, so much so, I'm thinking of buying another combo for my Office use. 99% of my tracks are 16/44 CD Rips , so am I bothered..

 

[lovethatsound]

Wow got a psu 4 my naim hdx yesterday,the sound coming from my hdvd 800 and hd 800 is truly amazing.IN sort the hdvd 800 is a great headphone amp . its a source amp,8 hours of listening;it's musical magic . I'm sure they will sort the dac problem out;enjoy ur music my friends.

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

That's the thing, it's pretty easy to sit online, blow things out of proportion and trash good products. Consistently, on this thread, owners of the HDVD800 are happy with their choice of DAC/AMP. Personally, I'm happy with mine, I'm not concerned about hissing on a few tracks at 24/192 that have issues, whatever the reason.

Overall, the HDVD800/ HD800 combo is phenomenally good, so much so, I'm thinking of buying another combo for my Office use.

99% of my tracks are 16/44 CD Rips , so am I bothered..

 
Nobody is trashing the HDVD800. Simply expressing cause to take a wait and see approach to it.
 
I personally hope it doesn't turn out to be another Lexicon BD-30...

 

[GSARider]

Really? No one? You say that after reading the last page of posts?
 
 
Anyhow, I'll celebrate my 1,000th Post with my updated video of my hd800 / hdvd800...