Everything hisses... Why?

[tjohnston]

Seems like everthing I listen to has faint hiss. Doesnt matter if its mp3, radio, tv, or CD. If you listen closely you can hear that hiss. I have heard people talk about digital medium as being a hissless format. Where does this hiss come from? Is it the cd player, speakers, wires airwaves.... what is it? Even on professionally recorded storebought cd its still there. Seems like the older music for instance, Led Zepplin has louder hiss. In gerneral everything just hisses.

[Stealthtech]

On every CD player you listen to.

[Blue Bear Sound]

It just is....!

[Stealthtech]

Originally posted by Blue Bear Sound
It just is....!

It jusssssssssssssssst issssssssssssssssssss

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by tjohnston
Where does this hiss come from? Is it the cd player, speakers, wires airwaves.... what is it?

Every piece of gear has a signal to noise ratio and the lowest spec'd link in the chain will cause the hiss. To troubleshoot it start at the end (power amp - speakers) and work to the front (CD player). Dirty power can even cause extra hiss. Crank up you power amp/monitors with nothing plugged in and that is the most quiet your chain will ever be. It's all down hill from there.

Better gear = Less hiss. We don't diss cheap gear because we are snobs. We diss cheap gear because among other problems they usually have a lot of hiss.

[Track Rat]

Everything generates self noise. Some devices much more than others.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo You can calls me Johnson:

You will get a higly integrated hiss if you are using a snake.



Sorry, I couldn't resist!!

Green Hornet

[MISTERQCUE]

My "canned drum" machine, Boss DR202, also introduces an inordinate amount of hisssssssing during tracking.
I tried hi-filtering and upper freq eq cut, adj'ing volume etc and nuthin' seemed to work.
I have a 3630 which I prob'ly used maybe 3 times in 4 years
and decided to connect the 202 into the 3630 and incorporate the unit's GATE function figuring that since gates are also used to cut the tail end of a signal's length and control decay and resonance somewhat ('specially on 'Verbs), I found an effective way to eliminate 80% of the hiss produced by the 202 by gating the "hits" and FINALLY finding a use for the 3630 (since I couldn't even sell the d@mn thing for $25 and a ham & cheese samich)!

[mixsit]

Originally posted by tjohnston
Seems like everthing I listen to has faint hiss. Doesnt matter if its mp3, radio, tv, or CD. If you listen closely you can hear that hiss. I have heard people talk about digital medium as being a hissless format. Where does this hiss come from? Is it the cd player, speakers, wires airwaves.... what is it? Even on professionally recorded storebought cd its still there. Seems like the older music for instance, Led Zepplin has louder hiss. In gerneral everything just hisses.

How about this?
If you focus enough, there IS hiss everywhere.
Some of the source is external to you -in recordings, anything electronic or just background noise. But that noise can, in many cases be below audible or masked by the program material.
So that leaves you. You're noise.
I believe if you listen closely enough, you will find it. Or if you look closely enough, it's there also.
I suppose it might just be one of those focus=scale=zoom factor thingys.

Or not.
Wayne

[Kevin Blight]

Sun spotssssss.....

[Toker41]

Damn, I have a couple of those 3630's and I get more noise from them than any other gear I have. Infact my alesis Quadraverb is has a bit more noise. I use to be a fan of Alesis, now I can't seem to remember why. Do they make anything that isn't full of white noise?