White Noise from 5G iPod?

[Heidshade]

I found that the 4G U2 pod makes a background hiss when phones are plugged in, but silences when the player actually starts. By comparisom, my 3G pod is silent (noise-wise) always :lol:

 

[xaipemw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by discord Ever see that movie White Noise? Yes, that's what's happening to you...

Well if that's the case, then my iPod is the least of my worries....

 

[alfo]

I bought the super.fi 5 pro last sunday together with a new Ipod video. With shock I realized the white background noise is there, but in my case it's nothing I'd call very faint, but it's quite loud and obvious. It sounds like listening to an AM radio station or a (bad) vinile disc, and it won't go away while playing music, in quiet passages it can definitely be heard and it's very annoying... after 20 years of digital music I'm listening to music with background noise once again

The only solution I found so far is to use the supplied volume reducer. I have to pull up the volume but there's no noise at all.

With my HD650 I cannot hear any trace of noise.

 

[xaipemw]

Alfo,

It sounds like there's something wrong with your iPod in that case. The noise that I hear is barely audible at all--I had to really actively listen for it. I think that you should either call Applecare or exchange your new iPod, personally.

 

[IZCool]

Gotta remember that some earphones (eg the Shure e5c) are quite sensitive to this type of noise - I assume the UE superfis are as well. Keep an open mind - there is a noise floor on most audio devices, each one is different though.

 

[mariowar]

The only way you can get rid of this problem is getting high impedance headphones (100 ohms up.....), so you would only hear the hiss turning the volume almost all the way up.

Unless you have a amp with HIGH IMPEDANCE and LOW IMPEDANCE mode, in this case, you just customize it for the best performance.

The hiss is ALWAYS there, it is just that sometimes we can hear it ,specially with very efficient and sensitive headphones.

 

[IZCool]

I can hear the hiss in my Shure e5c earphones, they have an impedance of 110ohms according to the Shure website...

 

[Cerith]

I can hear the white noise with my e4c's and 5G iPod 30gb. It is faint, but there. It does NOT go away when the music is on, I can hear it on soft passages or silent passages in songs.

I just switched over to the iPod from a Sony Pocket VAIO and the Sony was completely silent with the e4c's.

A bit disappointed in this.

 

[mariowar]

IZCOOL, the reason why you hear it with this particular earphones is:

1- They are in-ear phones, they are prone to hear it because the closed and isolating feature.

2- They might not be low impedance headphones, but they are VERY sensitive (122 DB/MW), compared to popular Sony earphones MDR-EX71 (100DB/MW)

 

[Veggie_Musician]

All my best sounding players hiss even when no sound... Sony, iPaq, iRiver (worst of my players). The one that does not hiss is a Technics CD player and it sucks.

Using UM2's

 

[GhostWing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IZCool I've noticed the same thing with my 5G 60GB iPod through my Shure e5c earphones. There is a little background white noise, it doesn't worry me too much though... after starting the music, the noise is still there, but it doesn't worry me unless I listen for it. I'm impressed with the amplifier in it though, with the Shure e5cs I tend to run it at about 5 - 10% volume otherwise it's too loud! I guess one possible solution would be to put in a small resistor voltage divider (kind of like the Ety ER4P-S adaptor) and turn up the iPod a bit more. So you're not the only one EDIT: I think it's because of the high sensitivity of the earphones in question here, as you turn down the volume on the iPod, the constant noise (independent of volume) becomes more significant relative to the music.

But, putting a resistor between ipod and e5c will obvilsly affect the Sound Quality of e5c. Would you like to try: lower down the volume in ITUNES and reload the tracks to ipod? Will this enable you to set a higher volume on ipod?

 

[IZCool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mariowar IZCOOL, the reason why you hear it with this particular earphones is: 1- They are in-ear phones, they are prone to hear it because the closed and isolating feature. 2- They might not be low impedance headphones, but they are VERY sensitive (122 DB/MW), compared to popular Sony earphones MDR-EX71 (100DB/MW)

I was just responding to your generalisation that all you have to do is get higher impedance headphones. I know that the e5cs are very sensitive and isolating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostWing But, putting a resistor between ipod and e5c will obvilsly affect the Sound Quality of e5c. Would you like to try: lower down the volume in ITUNES and reload the tracks to ipod? Will this enable you to set a higher volume on ipod?

I don't really want to resample my mp3s - if you do this you will lose quality and you're using less of the dynamic range of the DACs (thus making the sound closer to a square wave). If you use a voltage divider - two resistors per channel - you should not (in theory) affect the signal's frequency content, it should just reduce the amplitude - effectively an inline volume control stuck at one position.

IMO everyone's overreacting here, if you listen hard enough on most portable (and some not-so-portable) devices, you'll hear some white noise, some more than others. The iPod's noise floor is fairly low.

 

[vurtomatic]

I always assumed it's because the IEMs are very sensitive. I'm using UM2s with a 4g iPod and I hear the hiss when the iPod is on, but that stops once music is playing.

I have the same experience plugging the UM2s into my Dell at work.

 

[nosaru]

same issue here with super.fi 5 pro
but i figured it could be because first, its sound isolated, second, its sensitive.
but the white noise will go away as the music starts but still could be heard during music, not like its loud tho, just faintly.
after reading other people's post/response above, it seems its not an issue only occured to super.fi 5 pro but all the other IEM as well. I guess thats a relief

 

[GhostWing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IZCool I don't really want to resample my mp3s - if you do this you will lose quality and you're using less of the dynamic range of the DACs (thus making the sound closer to a square wave). If you use a voltage divider - two resistors per channel - you should not (in theory) affect the signal's frequency content, it should just reduce the amplitude - effectively an inline volume control stuck at one position. IMO everyone's overreacting here, if you listen hard enough on most portable (and some not-so-portable) devices, you'll hear some white noise, some more than others. The iPod's noise floor is fairly low.

I am not very clear about why pure resistor can affect the Frequence Response of the balanced armatrue, but this effect dose exist. A 75 ohmo resistor can make ER4Ps to sound more clear, and resistor with any size can make e5s to sound more muddy. Thus I still have no idea to solve the problem "Over Efficiency" of my E5s.

ITUNES has a feature located in "Show Brief of the tracks", named Volume adjust. I guess it dosn't resample the music, but only adjust pre-amp in somewhere, maybe this could make ipod run at an acceptable volume with e5s. Since I had not used this feature before my ipod was stolen, I'm not certain of this.