A3000 white noise during playback

[Schizo.Rabby]

My spanking new nwa3000b just arrived from Hong Kong yesterday after I landed it on eBay and the no matter how many photos you've seen of it, nothing does it justice like physically holding an A3000 you own.

Granted CONNECT player isn't exactly the best but it's only a tad slower than iTunes so my experience with it has been positive so far. That is, until I start ripping my own CD's as all my current music sorting has been transferring mp3s.

Which brings me to the point of this post: listening to the sample songs in the player, the quality is pretty decent but listening to 160 kbps mp3s, what is supposed to be silence during songs is instead hissing white noise. Does this happen with ATRAC files as well or is it just my dodgy mp3s or all mp3s or what??

[Ascariss]

depends on the song, some songs that I have recorded off vinyl have the white noise, but all others at 192 don't. even some vinyl ones as well.

[Waqas_]

There is a noticeable hiss during playback. The noise depends on the sensitivity of your headphones.

[IdiotSavant]

I have a HD5h and I get bursts of white noise, during what's meant to be silence - but it's variable when it happens. It always happens when I first start the unit up, then occasionally on the gaps between tracks. I assume it's just when the player's working hard... I think it's just the kind of thing you have to live with. But that's a HD5h.. I don't know if it's the same with an A3000.

[rosjos]

All HDD players seem to have this slight "noise" - Sony, i-fad etc. Some people don't notice it, because it is only really audible during particularly quiet sections of music, or during silence between tracks. It is this noise, hiss, whatever you want to call it, which gives my MZ-NH1 the edge over my A1000 and HD3.

For those who claim they can't hear it, switch your machine off, turn the volume down to zero and then press play - you won't hear music just this "noise" being referred to by the others. It is faint, but noticable enough, especially if you have lived with the pure, clean sound of Minidisc for several years - try doing an A-B test between MD and HDD and you'll see.

[Schizo.Rabby]

hmm.....well is there any way of solving this problem?

[cobby172]

It's just the noise of current passing through the headphone amp, nothing can be done

[sh33p]

get a better ripper. use EAC and lame... www.bestmp3guide.com tells you how. very high quality, low bitrate rips.

[Waqas_]

get a better ripper. use EAC and lame... www.bestmp3guide.com tells you how. very high quality, low bitrate rips.

it has nothing to do with the music files, the noise is part of the design. Every sony dap that i've heard has this very faint noise including minidisc units.

[suland]

This noise is not that bad and there is nothing to do with the file (song). But it is lot worse in other competitor's hdd stuff. Don't tell me that all Sony products have it. I am not sure about latest MD's, but MZNHF800 did not have it when I've had it.

[grenzhm]

I have this white noise too. It's meverytime you strat the files. And it's the same noise if you turn the volume to 1 or boost it up to 20. Maybe the amplifier is not that good? It's not a digital amp...

Besides the MZ-NH1 with high quality digital amp did not have it - and I sold it thinking I would get a more up to date unit... :-(

Edited January 19, 2006 by grenzhm

[cobby172]

It's the electrical current passing through the amp, which is not a HD digital amp. It can't be removed and is on nearly every device

[grenzhm]

Is it possible to eliminate this effect by using the line output and a headphone with adjustable volume? This noise really bothers me very much. Are there other devices which do not have the noise? E.g. the new Kenwood device? I listened to 5g iPod of my girlfriend - I did not recognize that noise.