[Logic_BomB]

Speakers: Paradigm Studio 60 V.3 (In 2.0)

Amp: NAD C320BEE (50 wpc I believe, 2 channel)


I've been listening to some of the music video stations while working out recently and my wife loves hip-hop so she's been watching some of that stuff on different stations as well. We typically keep the volume low (in an apartment) but we've been turning it up recently and this is when I started noticing the hiss.


It's hard to hear when something is playing but during the transitions between scenes and during quiet parts it's easy to hear. Audio doesn't sound as "clean" at louder volumes either. I've tried hitting mute to see if it goes away but it's still there.


Would this simply be the NAD underpowering the Studio 60's? Perhaps power line noise? It completely goes away as far as I can tell at lower volumes but perhaps it's just inaudible at lower volumes. It occurs at what I would consider to be a loud but very tolerable listening volume. No ear-splitting volumes.


Wondering if anyone knew the cause?

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

You'll be able to hear "hiss" on nearly any system if you turn the volume up with nothing playing. You'll hear it much louder if you turn the treble up even a little bit. Are you boosting treble? Is this something you can faintly hear, or can you hear it clearly from across the room? It could be an input sensitivity issue, but I don't think that amp allows you to set input sensitivity. If you're watching music videos from MTV or another similar network, you may be hearing their residual noise when you turn the volume up. Do you hear the noise when you play a CD?


Bottom line: Television stations don't have the lower noise floor of a CD or DVD, and if you turn the treble up it will exacerbate the problem.

 

[Logic_BomB]

You know, that might answer my question perfectly.


I either suspected my amp or the tv stations but when I heard it on Mute I figured it was my system. During playback at louder volumes it's rather faint although still a little less clear than I'd like. It's like after a certain point on the volume dial the hiss just appears and after I reduce it past that point it completely goes away.


I've never heard it before with CD's, video games, etc but I always play them at very reasonable volumes so I never bothered to check (and when things work I never remember to go looking for problems I previously had). I'll double check this with a game or cd tonight and see what happens.


And you are correct - the amp is about as bare-bones as you can get. Aside from the inputs I can adjust Bass, Treble and Volume. "Tone Defeat" being the only other thing I can toggle but to my knowledge this just resets bass/treble to default without having to move the knobs back to center.