Volume too high/Constant noise/Display noise

Hi,

I have a clip 8GB, with newest (2.01.16f) Firmware.

Recently I bought some Sennheiser CX 300, these are so sensitive that I have to turn the volume to the lowest setting possible, and it’s still somewhat too loud.

Now there’s a constant hiss when the player is switched on (even without playing anything).

When the display is on, i can hear a clicking noise, synchronous to the songtitle scrolling by, like “tock tock tock tock…”.

I could hear this scrolling even with clip standard earphones in a very quiet environment.

Is my clip defective?

Thanks

Try going to the Music EQ either by going to Settings > EQ or by selecting the Equalizer from the submenu (bottom button) during song playback.

Temporarily turn off the EQ by selecting > Normal.

It’s possible that the gain could be set too high for this particular headphone, especially the treble end of the scale.  Does the sound quality improve?  Try several of the preset EQ settings, and see how it sounds.

The Sennheisers are a very popular headphone, and this is the first I’ve heard of a noise issue with them.

The Sansa Clip is well shielded against noise.  Check that your headphone jack is fully inserted too!

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

> Temporarily turn off the EQ by selecting > Normal.

I’ve played with the EQ already, no improvement.

> It’s possible that the gain could be set too high for this particular headphone, especially the treble end of the scale.

If i turn down the volume further, it goes completely quiet - well, except for this annoying hiss.

The volume option in settings was already at “Normal”
The hiss starts when I turn the clip on. and stays in the background even when the player is paused, volume is completely down etc.

> The Sennheisers are a very popular headphone, and this is the first I’ve heard of a noise issue with them.

yes, thats why I bought them :slight_smile:

> Check that your headphone jack is fully inserted too!
*checked* Yes it was.

I googled for a while and then I found that many people had problems with in-ear-phones and mp3-players, due to the fact that the phones are really sensitive and mp3 player manufacturers can save a few cents by omitting proper volume control…

They said an external volume controller between the player and the headphones fixed it to some extent. One from Shure costs 13€… expensive for a few resistors/potentiometers… especially compared to the phones and the player which _are_ a real bargain and high quality otherwise.

Many others i’ve seen are costing still 5€ and are bulky, with many meters of unneeded extra cable.

What really bugs me is why all these reviews about the clip and these earphones were so positive, if this (not uncommon) combination would be practically unusable, so I wonder if mine are somehow defective.

ente

It really sounds like a fauty unit, with some serious isolation problem.

How does the clip behave with the stock earphones (or any other headphone)?

Try switching to FM mode, and see if the noise floor changes.  You can pause the FM audio too, by clicking on the play button (position).

Just for fun, I just checked three Clips with a sensitive pair of IEMs, Maximo iMetals.  The noise floor is identical in FM and digital modes, so I’m definitely hearing the headphone amplifier’s floor.

On to a wee bit of experimentation with other similarly equipped units: the Sansa e280v2, and the Sansa Fuze, both with the same processor, but different PCB / shielding configurations.

The noise floor is identical with all five devices in hand.  What I would do is find another Sansa v2 / Fuze / Clip (though a Clip will be the most direct comparison), pause the device, and plug in for a listen, to see if your particular machine might have an internal amplifier issue.  The noise floor on my impromptu test is comparable to the soft sound of a central air system running in the background.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

The issue is probabaly with some poorly made components. I have it too and I can hear the constant hiss even with ultra cheap earbuds. The EQ is off, I tried with both Normal and High volume setting. The hissing only starts after playback has been paused. If I turn on the Clip and there was no previous ongoing playback then the noise is not audible.

I get a slight hissing noise in the background before I play anything. Is this normal?