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Topic: Grado SR80 noise issue (Read 5464 times) previous topic - next topic
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Grado SR80 noise issue

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on a problem I've recently noticed with my Grado SR80's. I've had them for over 2 years, with high satisfaction (I'm no audiophile, I just wanted some headphones that sounded really good for pretty cheap.)

Anyways, I was working with Supercollider 3 (Maybe you know what it is, maybe not.) and generating a sine wave at 20 hertz, just to see if I could actually hear it, since I kept hearing that supposedly the human range of hearing is 20hz-20khz. Well, I couldn't hear the 20hz, but what I did hear alarmed me - a high pitched whiny noise. I played around a bit, and I think the noise is there regardless of what type of sound I play, it's just that it gets masked if I play music. (So it doesn't bother me then)

Any idea what the cause of this is? I've been fairly gentle with my SR80's. I don't listen to overly loud music or anything.

It's not a huge deal, because like I said, I can't even hear the whine if I play 'normal' sounds. It's just when I play an isolated sound under 800hz that I can hear it.

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #1 –
Sometimes this can come from a hair touching the driver.  Take a look at it, inspect the earpad, etc.

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #2 –
well, it's hard to see inside, as there's a white mesh. so I can't say for certain that there is not a hair or something. However, I suspect that it's not a hair, since the whine is coming from both L and R. Sounds exactly the same, as well.

I tested my friend's headphones on the same output I'm using and there is no whine present.

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #3 –
Most-likely, it's not the headphones.

Do you hear the whine with low-level test tones?  At 20Hz, it's possible that you are driving the headphones into distortion.  (At 800Hz, you probably aren't listening loud enough to cause distortion...  Or, did you mean 80Hz?)

I suspect that the whine is coming from your soundcard, and I'd guess that the Grados are more sensitive (louder) than the other headphones, or perhaps just more sensitive at the "whine" frequency.    Do the Grados seem louder than your friend's headphones, or do they have better high-frequency response? 

For example, with headphones I hear whine-noises from my soundcard/soundchip that I don't normally notice with speakers.  (In my system, the noise seems to kick-in when the hard drive is read.) And, "whine" is the type of "digital" electrical noise you can get from all of the digital signals/clocks inside a computer.  With analog circuits, you are more lilely to get "hiss" or power-supply "hum".

Quote
I kept hearing that supposedly the human range of hearing is 20hz-20khz. Well, I couldn't hear the 20hz...
With acoustic waves, I think you "feel" 20Hz in your chest more than you actually "hear" it.  (Just for reference, the lowest note on a normally-tuned 4-string bass guitar is about 41Hz.)

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However, I suspect that it's not a hair, since the whine is coming from both L and R. Sounds exactly the same, as well.
Yeah... It's unlikely that you'd get equal damage, or equal defects in both sides...

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #4 –
I've got a comparable issue with my Alessandro MS1. They are equivalent. Something always sounds as if something was vibrating inside, like a tiny granule or so, with anything below ~400 Hz. Quite annoying. I think this happens between the protective membrane and the shell, not at the speaker itself. Since it is glued, it is kind of hard to fix. Any ideas?
 

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #5 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Most-likely, it's not the headphones.

Do you hear the whine with low-level test tones?  At 20Hz, it's possible that you are driving the headphones into distortion.  (At 800Hz, you probably aren't listening loud enough to cause distortion...  Or, did you mean 80Hz?)


Yep, I can hear it all the way up to 800hz.

Quote
I suspect that the whine is coming from your soundcard, and I'd guess that the Grados are more sensitive (louder) than the other headphones, or perhaps just more sensitive at the "whine" frequency.    Do the Grados seem louder than your friend's headphones, or do they have better high-frequency response?


Yeah, I thought about some sort of noise being introduced somewhere - I'm currently on my laptop which doesn't have a soundcard, but an integrated chip on the motherboard. So that is entirely possible, as the other headphones are cheap... Coby CV 320.

I suppose there's not much I can do really. Not that it's a huge deal. Just slightly annoying when I'm messing around with supercollider.

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #6 –
Quote from: xionnova on
Yeah, I thought about some sort of noise being introduced somewhere - I'm currently on my laptop which doesn't have a soundcard, but an integrated chip on the motherboard. So that is entirely possible, as the other headphones are cheap... Coby CV 320.


For the most part when people say "sound card" on this forum it means an audio output device on your computer.  So in this case your "sound card" is just built into your computer as opposed to being a piece hardware you purchased separately.

I've found that this type of low level electronic noise is heard regardless of if music is playing or not.  If I plug my headphones into my sound card (chip built into the motherboard) I can hear these noises just by visiting websites.  I don't need music to be playing or a media player software to be open. 

Both you and rpp3p0 say it happens only when music is playing.  So I don't think it's the soundcard since rpp3po has hardware (DAC1) that is definitely not going to give out any strange noises

First thing to do is test your headphones with some other device.  Load up some test tones on a portable music player and see if you can hear it.  Try it on your home audio system, etc.  If you can hear the sound consistently, it's definitely your headphones.  Make sure you try it at different volume levels on this variety of hardware.

At least then we know if it's your headphones or other hardware.

Grado SR80 noise issue

Reply #7 –
Quote from: odigg on
First thing to do is test your headphones with some other device.  Load up some test tones on a portable music player and see if you can hear it.  Try it on your home audio system, etc.  If you can hear the sound consistently, it's definitely your headphones.  Make sure you try it at different volume levels on this variety of hardware.

At least then we know if it's your headphones or other hardware.


Well, I recorded my test tones into .wav and put it on my ipod... same thing. One thing to note is that at the level I have to put it at to hear the whine, it is too loud to listen to any music. It's not insanely loud or anything, just louder than I normally listen.