banjo

I would agree with Damage. I've tried this with my wifes NH-HD3, a NW-A608 and my own NH1. In a quiet environment I can hear a hiss with the HD3 and the 608 but not with the NH1.

I notice that the spec for the NW-608 quotes an S/N ratio of 80dB or better. Not great when you compare it to figues published by other manufacturers. Is this signal-to-noise ratio dependent on the bit-rate of the encoding that is being played back? Or is it a limiting factor in the player itself, regardless of encoding bit rate? Does anybody know what the S/N ratio for the NH1 HiMD unit is, for the sake of comparison?