[robenco18]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ihatepopupads /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well with shure e530 you will get hiss on most sources, the sensitivity is very high. You really should only have to turn your amp up a little to get good sound out of the e530's. If you turn that amp up to 75% on up you are going to get a mountain of hiss from amp amp itself, due to the low imp. and high sensitivity of the shures. Either you have a bad component or you have bad hearing or horrible quality files. Ipod LO is one of the better portable sources to feed an amp. I'm not trying to be mean about the bad hearing, but really with those iems, you should only have to turn your amp to 30% - 50% volume with a good quality properly mastered file. I have had no hiss with all my ipods and my shures using my tomahawk, mini box-e, and iqube at moderate volume.

I"m talking only the top like 80%-100% of the volume. That's when I start to get hiss. I'm just nitpicking. That's all. I guess whenever you turn up anything that loud you are going to get his with the se530s. My hearing and audio files are all fine. I'm just being really anal retentive I guess. If that is even the correct saying. I just wanted to say anal.

 

[Podtweaker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by claus /img/forum/go_quote.gif Robenco18: You are right, at least the iPod Touch which I have is not dead silent. I am also using an external amp which is extremely quiet (you can hardly notice any hiss, even when at full volume, which would immediately destroy my headphones if there was an input signal). The hiss of the ipod on the other hand is inaudible only for volumes, which are bearable for Pop/Rock/Jazz. I could imagine that for very silent passages in classic recordings it gets audible. But there supposedly is a different part of the same classic recording which would kill your headphones/ears when played with the same volume. The extreme dynamic in some classic recordings tends to make problems on all but very high end equipment. BTW: Apple Lossless did not help you there. If lossy transform coders like MP3 or AAC are brilliant at one thing, it is silence .

I don't think anyone would consider my portable set-up of Zune/Zen Head portable amp/Beyerdynamics DT770/80 pro headphones very high end. I listen to Classical recordings of all types from chamber to full symphonic Rachmaninov to Mahler etc. most of the time. I also have everything encoded in wma lossless. Very silent passages in my playback are just that. I don't know that I would call compression brilliant. I tend to agree w/ a few of the posters on the old audio axiom "GI/GO". Lossless rips should sound very similar to the source material they came from. I can't remember from your initial posting if you mentioned if you were using lossless prior to all your upgrades. I don't mean to imply any offense but how resolving is the system you use to play back the original source material? Do you have access to a decent pair of full sized headphones ? I would say try usng the HPs w/ your portable setup just to see if the character or amount of "hiss" changes. Something to keep in mind is that IEMs sound very different to what we hear normally due to their high sensitivity. Lots of things to consider here. One other thing I have to add I find that if you listen to symphonic pieces at a loud level you, will most times , obliterate the nice soundstaging of the orchestras in the recordings which is the reason you have the se530s & basso amp in the first place.

 

[MrBenvolent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robenco18 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I"m talking only the top like 80%-100% of the volume. That's when I start to get hiss.

Wow - that is loud man!

Even using the stock iPod phono output, I never turned it up much above 50% tops with my SE530s.

With my RSA predator on the lowest gain setting, It gets unbearably loud by about 33-40% volume....with gain on medium I barely turn the volume out of about 10%...

As I said in my other post - within normal operation, the only hiss I get is whatever is on the recording. There is no ambient hiss, feedback or component noise at all.


Please don't take this as patronising, but are you getting the right seal/fit with your SE530's? I am surprised you would need so much volume (and accompanying hiss) if you are.

 

[claus]

Podtweaker: Sorry if I was unclear in my statement: I did not want to say that compressed audio is better than uncompressed audio. Only that the compression should not increase hiss in low level passages of music. Certainly lossless rips sound exactly identical to the original, because (after decoding) they ARE identical. That is why they are called lossless.

 

[shigzeo]

the source should either be line out or nearly 100% volume so that there is higher signal to noise ratio. the amp does not have to be loud: if it is, it will pick up horribly on the source hiss.

source: loud, amp low to medium. amps hiss: all amps hiss. the se530 is rather sensitive but nothing like some other phones out there. it will hiss with any amp. if you go that sensitive, no matter your file quality or source quality, your amp will hiss you madly away from audio