Worthwhile visit to the Apple store . . .
Dec 4, 2004 at 6:04 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 2

joncirca57

100+ Head-Fier
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Greetings!
I moved from 3rd gen to 4th gen with the purchase of an Ipod Photo 40G and experienced a severe case of the static noise as the hard drive spun up. I am using UE 10Pro and UE5c as earphones. Yesterday I spend a couple of hours at the Apple store, and left feeling that I got lucky.

First I tried a lot of the display units using my headphones. There was a lot of difference in response to changing tracks. Some were better than mine, some were worse. All had the effect to some degree. Again, right-ear only. (And I did add tape to isolate from the case, but to no avail).

Since there was quite a bit of variability I decided to take my chances at the Genius Bar. There was a long line, which in retrospect probably helped my cause. He listened to my unit using his Bose headphones (see note later) and thought that he heard something. After checking the computer (the Apple engineers want to look at the units) he replaced my unit. The new one is much better and is quite tolerable. There is still a little sound as the hard drive kicks in, but I actually like this since I know that I pushed the right buttons.

While I was there I also checked the response of what I considered the "worst" of the units with 4 earphone/headphones. The stock earbuds, Bose triports, UE5c and UE 10Pro. I really do not think there is any way to hear this effect with the stock earbuds. Also, I did not hear it with the Bose. Interesting, the UE5c picked it up dramatically more than the 10Pro, but both were noticeable.

One other possible correlation. Radically different volume settings are needed to get similar sound levels with the various headphones I have. I ran the UE5cs as the lowest volume of any of the ones I tried and they display the effect the most.

Anyway, as I said, I think I got lucky. (Of course, as others have noted, the 3rd gen does not have the problem at all, but I really like the features and the click wheel navigation of the 4th gen).

Best Regards,
Jon
 
Dec 4, 2004 at 7:21 PM Post #2 of 2
different headphones will exhibit the noise at different sound levels because of the different impedances and sensitivities. it's much more noticeable with my er4p than the er4s, for example.

good job with your return at the apple store...i returned a defective one to the apple store "genius bar" as well and had no problems.
 

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