[yobs]

I recently picked up a pair of UM2s, and around the same time I started noticing something odd about the music I listen to.

The sound is sort of scratchy, and occurs in most of the music I listen to. By "scratchy" its as though the music is suffering from 'refresh rate' (ala Monitors and television screens) issues, and just doesn't flow smoothly. I'm using iPod nano 2nd gen as source, no amp. The sound is sort of annoying / distracting...

I only started noticing this after getting the UM2s.

I'm thinking that it's from one of the following reasons:
1) My music is encoded too low (the effect is less noticeable on lossless acoustic instrument pieces). Songs on my iPod vary in bitrate. Between 160-320.
2) The UM2s have more detail than what I previously used (though I never noticed this sound on my K701s)
3) Armature vs Dynamic sound - Previous IEMs i've owned are Shure e2, Crossroad X3, Atrio m5 - all dynamic.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dunbar]

Make sure the EQ is off or they will crackle. Otherwise I don't hear what you describe with my 2G nano but I don't listen very loud either.

 

[jinx20001]

sounds a bit like a duff pair really dunbar is right tho EQ will introduce artifacts you dont want in your music

 

[jinx20001]

ofcourse you music could always improve with higher bit rates i personally use lossless only due to high end earphones like se530's and ue10 pro and so on,who like gettin high end earphones and not gettin what you can out of them

 

[PeterDLai]

Perhaps they are defective? "Scratchy" doesn't seem like a good sign.

 

[yobs]

Scratchy is probably too strong a term here

. They sound very nice, just that minute annoyance of that sound. My audio / sonic vocab is rather limited sorry

.

Shall be re-encoding my music in higher bit rates and I think that should solve most of the problem.

Actually, just listened to the music again with the Crossroads, the sound is still there, but less noticeable. It might have just been that the forward mids of the UM2s is making the mp3 compression far more noticeable. Also I think my ears are levelling up in terms of hearing detail etc. yay!

+5 hearing ability

.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[wader]

Have you also tried to listen via a different device, e.g., your computer, to rule out the iPod (and, truly point fingers at the source files - perhaps the encoder, itself) as contributing to this perceived sound issue?

- wader

 

[yobs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wader /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you also tried to listen via a different device, e.g., your computer, to rule out the iPod (and, truly point fingers at the source files - perhaps the encoder, itself) as contributing to this perceived sound issue? - wader

Yep, have tried listening with my PC as source. Same sound is still coming through. I'm starting to think it's more that i'm noticing the sounds of specific instruments (eg. the synthesised instruments on Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight album give this sound) a little more through the armature UM2s than the smoother dynamic phones I've used previously.

Also this probably wouldn't have been as noticeable on the k701s, as I use an LD MKIII (tube amp) to drive those, which would likely smooth out the sound i'm hearing.

Or it's all just psychological (unlikely I think).

 

[pez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinx20001 /img/forum/go_quote.gif ofcourse you music could always improve with higher bit rates i personally use lossless only due to high end earphones like se530's and ue10 pro and so on,who like gettin high end earphones and not gettin what you can out of them

Most people can't even hear the difference between 256 KBPS AAC's and Lossless ones, and nor can I. So, why waste the space, when virtually they sound the same?