hissing - tracing the source of it

[branzzz 0]

ever since i've gotton my tf10s, i've noticed hissing in several of my tracks. initially i thought it was down to the ipod touch and my ibasso amp. however without anything playing, the setup is silent, with slight hissing only coming in at the extreme volume settings that i never listen to anyway.

 

the second thing that came to mind was low bitrates of my mp3 tracks. a check with itunes shows that most of my tracks are at 256 and above, so i guess that should not be an issue.

 

finally yesterday i bought a cd from an audiophile shop that was selling vinyl stuff. the music itself is really good, but there's some really bad hissing all around. i noticed the same thing with files bought from itunes, in that some have really bad hissing, while others don't, no matter that they're all at 128kbps.

 

is there any way to remove hissing that's already present in the music? is it wrong to assume that cds should all be free from hissing or is there something that i'm not doing during the ripping process that is introducing the hiss?

[luc1986 0]

well, if the cd is of poor quality, then i don't think there is anything much you can do.

 

amping from the line-out is cleaner i suppose.

 

the tf10pro is quite sensitive btw...

Edited December 23, 2007 by luc1986

[petia 0]

Some of the older recordings made with analog tapes and printed to cd without digital remastering. May have a low level floor noise which is present in all tracks.

 

Actually I prefer it this way. Any effort to remove the noise may alter the original sound of the recording. I noticed headphones are easier to hear the noise. If the music is good I will be too engross than be bothered by the hiss.

[Guest dragonboy]

Why don't you try to change your IC? I had pretty bad experience with some IC that caused surprisingly high background hiss The problem is you always have to experiment and try the IC with your set-up before buying. Performance on IC definitely does not come from the specs and price.

 

[loop_ 0]

if you have background hiss only on some tracks but not others then I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with your equipment. I doubt it has anything to do with your encoding to mp3s - as far as I know encoding to mp3s just make the sound less detailed but doesn't introduce any background hiss.

 

short of remastering the tracks yourself, I don't think you can remove the noise.

 

It is indeed wrong to assume that all cds are free from hiss. Old cds especially which are remastered LPs tend to have some. You can perhaps think of the hiss as retaining the flavour of an old recording. Almost all of ella fitzgerald's tracks i've heard on cd have some kind of background hiss, which gives it that 'old recording' feel. Even some new recordings have hiss, and the effect can actually be quite nice sometimes e.g. in rachael yamagata's cd titled happenstance i think the effect is deliberate and i like it.

 

if you really cannot take the hiss, you could just listen with speakers sometimes, which always make background hiss less apparent as petia alluded to. Short of that, make sure you test cds you're going to buy. Very well remastered cds can remove all background noise (Led Zeppelin's remasters - I think the market is bigger here so the quality is better?), the less good ones tend to retain a low level hiss which is still tolerable, but poorly recorded ones can make it quite unlistenable...

Edited December 24, 2007 by loop_

[branzzz 0]

currently the hiss is so bad on many tracks that it is almost white noise. it is like having a plastic bag flagging in a hurricane right in front of your face that actually can rival the music in volume. the weird thing is that even within the same cd there are tracks that hiss and some that dont. it is actually very distracting. your mond immediately tunes in on it and just irritates the hell out of me

[mamboman 0]

currently the hiss is so bad on many tracks that it is almost white noise. it is like having a plastic bag flagging in a hurricane right in front of your face that actually can rival the music in volume. the weird thing is that even within the same cd there are tracks that hiss and some that dont. it is actually very distracting. your mond immediately tunes in on it and just irritates the hell out of me

Hissing can also be reduced by using an attenuator to increase the impedence on the wire. You can use the one from UE, or Shure or Etymotics.. All should achieve the same purpose. The Ety ones are quite expensive though

[branzzz 0]

i used the attenuator but noticed a severe loss of SQ. i guess its just something i have to live with then