HissingFree
Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2024
- Messages
- 30
- Likes
- 10
So I wanted to improve the audio of my ASUS laptop, it's just barely enough even for a DT 770 32 ohm with no EQ, and not enough with some EQ applied to it with the corresponding preamp lowering, obviously way too weak for AKG K701, I suspect the jack has a high output impedance watching measurements of other ASUS laptops and that causes the vrms to be lower at lower impedances like 32 and 63 ohm, so even an Apple dongle would have considerably more power than this jack output with lower impedance headphones probably, also another reason to upgrade, the high output impedance could mess with frequency response from what I've seen.
But I use it for IEMs most of the time, power is fine there obviously, but there is hissing present in these iems which is not there on the over ear headphones, of course due to much higher sensitivity of these IEMs.
So I searched for a solution with both more power and lower hissing, and I thought the Jcally JM6 pro was perfect for what I wanted, something really light in weight and small in form factor that has decent power, around double the power than an Apple dongle, but at the same time very cheap, I got it for like 8$, I thought it would be the same to the Meizu Mblu Lifeme Pro reviewed here and measurements looked good enough, or so I thought, it also had good comments on Reddit and other places, I always check measurements first and foremost though. Well, it has much more power and it works great, can even power the K701 decently, but with IEM, the hissing... oh boy, now the IEMs have much more hissing than the onboard jack of laptop! and not only with the laptop, I thought, maybe my laptop is a very noisy source, it's the same if I plug it into my smartphone, the same terrible hissing. I tried connecting the same IEMs to a desktop pc I have, with a motherboard that has a realtek ALC892, hissing is there but much reduced compared to the laptop. If I connect a very cheap random usb-c dongle that I got in these chinese local stores to the smartphone (doesn't work on laptop), IEMs have zero hiss! I suspect there is no DAC on these and it's just pass through to the internal dac of smartphone, Poco F3, maybe the DAC is really good on some of these snapdragons?
The IEMs I've tried are KZ ES4 and CCA CA2 for now, I will be getting Salnotes Zero soon, but yeah, ES4 doesn't look like a really high sensitivity one compared to the worse offenders, 104 db/mw, and still has considerable hissing.
So yeah, I'm baffled to see how it's possible that a cx31993 + max97220, which didn't seem to perform that bad, has considerably more hissing than internal audio of laptop, which has a realtek chip that can't even do more than 48KHz! so not high end by any means, more like lower end, I have a much older laptop with 192KHz support. Maybe it performs worse than the Meizu Mblu reviewed here? maybe the review didn't focus on the noise (no 50mv chart).
I would like to know which options would be the best for minimal hissing with IEMs, I would like a cheap and light device, I have an O2Dac that works great, maybe I will sell it, but I want something that doesn't need AC power and simply plug on a usb port and doesn't need to lay flat on a surface, so something small and light that can be hanging if that makes sense. Something around 30$ or so at most, maybe 40 if it's really good. I like the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro from what I've seen, I could get it for 30$, but I'm not sure about the hissing, there is no 50 mv measurement, but the power vs distortion looks really good at low mw, not sure if it's related to low noise though, but comparing to Meizu Mblu it's like 24db lower at 10uw, is this a sign of low noise if you don't have 50 mv measurement?
Also Fiio KA11 looks perfect from a power standpoint, 200mW at 32 ohm from such a tiny device looks very enticing, 30$ or so, but there are no measurements so I don't know if it would hiss with IEM, in specs it says <1.7uV of floor noise a-weighted, I guess that's very good but it could be just unrealistic specs that measure different in more realistic testing and conditions, anyone has experience with it?
So I want something with a bit more power than an Apple dongle but very light and simple, please suggest other options if I have missed them.
But I use it for IEMs most of the time, power is fine there obviously, but there is hissing present in these iems which is not there on the over ear headphones, of course due to much higher sensitivity of these IEMs.
So I searched for a solution with both more power and lower hissing, and I thought the Jcally JM6 pro was perfect for what I wanted, something really light in weight and small in form factor that has decent power, around double the power than an Apple dongle, but at the same time very cheap, I got it for like 8$, I thought it would be the same to the Meizu Mblu Lifeme Pro reviewed here and measurements looked good enough, or so I thought, it also had good comments on Reddit and other places, I always check measurements first and foremost though. Well, it has much more power and it works great, can even power the K701 decently, but with IEM, the hissing... oh boy, now the IEMs have much more hissing than the onboard jack of laptop! and not only with the laptop, I thought, maybe my laptop is a very noisy source, it's the same if I plug it into my smartphone, the same terrible hissing. I tried connecting the same IEMs to a desktop pc I have, with a motherboard that has a realtek ALC892, hissing is there but much reduced compared to the laptop. If I connect a very cheap random usb-c dongle that I got in these chinese local stores to the smartphone (doesn't work on laptop), IEMs have zero hiss! I suspect there is no DAC on these and it's just pass through to the internal dac of smartphone, Poco F3, maybe the DAC is really good on some of these snapdragons?
The IEMs I've tried are KZ ES4 and CCA CA2 for now, I will be getting Salnotes Zero soon, but yeah, ES4 doesn't look like a really high sensitivity one compared to the worse offenders, 104 db/mw, and still has considerable hissing.
So yeah, I'm baffled to see how it's possible that a cx31993 + max97220, which didn't seem to perform that bad, has considerably more hissing than internal audio of laptop, which has a realtek chip that can't even do more than 48KHz! so not high end by any means, more like lower end, I have a much older laptop with 192KHz support. Maybe it performs worse than the Meizu Mblu reviewed here? maybe the review didn't focus on the noise (no 50mv chart).
I would like to know which options would be the best for minimal hissing with IEMs, I would like a cheap and light device, I have an O2Dac that works great, maybe I will sell it, but I want something that doesn't need AC power and simply plug on a usb port and doesn't need to lay flat on a surface, so something small and light that can be hanging if that makes sense. Something around 30$ or so at most, maybe 40 if it's really good. I like the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro from what I've seen, I could get it for 30$, but I'm not sure about the hissing, there is no 50 mv measurement, but the power vs distortion looks really good at low mw, not sure if it's related to low noise though, but comparing to Meizu Mblu it's like 24db lower at 10uw, is this a sign of low noise if you don't have 50 mv measurement?
Also Fiio KA11 looks perfect from a power standpoint, 200mW at 32 ohm from such a tiny device looks very enticing, 30$ or so, but there are no measurements so I don't know if it would hiss with IEM, in specs it says <1.7uV of floor noise a-weighted, I guess that's very good but it could be just unrealistic specs that measure different in more realistic testing and conditions, anyone has experience with it?
So I want something with a bit more power than an Apple dongle but very light and simple, please suggest other options if I have missed them.
