[PlanetCCRMA] Noisy new Sennheiser headphones

[Jean-Baptiste Mestelan]

Well, I am not sure if it will cheer you up, but I also pick a lot on noise
on my Dell.
I use the headhone socket on the built-in soundcard, as I assume you do.
The noise is not noticeable on my old Sennheiser headphones (can't remember
model name), but i get a really nasty sharp buzz when I plug the card output
into my mixing desk.

Funnily enough, the noise greatly depends on system activity.

I am not practical enough on electronics to help you diagnose the problem.
Just a few thoughts :
- The word 'impendance' has been used before and indeed, I would think this
makes a big difference,
- Re : grounding issues: the buzz stops here when the Dell is only powered
by its battery. Have you tried to unplug yours ?

These PCs do have a grounding issue; I have rehearsed with a live band
lately, and even my external Firebox soundcard produced the same annoying
buzz if the Dell was sector-powered. So I left it on battery during the
gigs, and reloaded it during the breaks ...

Peace.

On 6/23/06, Ron Pepper <feffer777 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Just got a new pair of headphones, Sennheiser 280 Pro's, to be used
> while working on my computer. Unfortunately, I'm picking up what I
> think is system noise, that cheaper 'phones don't detect. My system
> is debian on a dell box. Amarok is my favorite player, but it's also
> the noisiest. The noise is a low level hiss/buzz and can be detected
> even when Amarok is totally muted. The noise intensifies when I move
> the mouse around and over links, hot-spots, menus etc. I posted to
> Amarok, and Xine, but they suggested the problem was in my system. I
> turned off unused channels in alsamixer, but that didn't help. Same
> noise for sessions in kde or icewm. The problem is not the headphones
> themselves, as there is no noise when used in OSX and iTunes.
>
> I'm willing to try a few things, if anyone has any suggestions, but I
> don't want to mess around with major surgery on my system. If there
> is no obvious/likely software solution, I want to exchange the
> headphones. In that case, can anyone suggest headphones that might
> work better. Obviously, I'll lose some of the quality that the 280's
> provide, but that would be better than the noise. Is there something
> in the specs of 'phones that I should be looking for? Also, frankly I
> don't like the closed circum-aural 280's as much as I thought I
> would. They're a bit hot and tight. Is there a lighter open-ear
> headphone that still might be reasonable quality that might work
> better for me?
>
> Hope my question isn't too off-topic. I've subscribed on and off to
> the list for over a year and have been greatly helped in the past.
>
> Thanks,
> Ron
>
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