Does anyone experence High end HISS from their MIC IN audio jack? Sager P9752

Hello friends, another question here.

I just bought this really awesome headset from sennheiser, its not a top of the line but its a great little headset with good sound, comfort, but falls short with the mic because there is this overbearing soft noise/fuzz in the high end range.

Its disappointing because the vocal quality is exceptional despite the soft noise. Ive tried everything I could with Realtek's audio manager and the only thing I can do is the noise suppressor but that greatly degrades the voice quality :/

The R&D team at Sennheiser is working with me to fix it, so I would really appreciate any reports from you guys about your Mic In jacks, we are trying to find out if its the mic itself or the computer.
For the record I only have experience recording live audio using ASIO USB drivers for a mixer into studio one and there where no Issues.

This is my first time using the Mic In jack so I have nothing to go off on, any other sound equipment I have is XLR or 1/4inch and would have to go into my USB interface so I cant test anything else in the mic jack.

 

Which OS are you running, and which audio driver? (If a different driver is available for your model and OS, give it a try.)

 

Hello, I am using windows 10 and Realtek High Definition Audio Drivers

 

Hellooo.

Thanks! I should have been more specific. Which "version" is your audio driver? (You can find the version in Device Manager - > right click on the Realtek device under "Sound, video, and game controllers," then select "Properties." Go to the driver tab to see the version.)

 

Allright, I am currently using driver version 6.0.1.7541 which I believe to be the latest.

Also, I received a report fron sennheiser that they believe it to be a grounding issue between the sound card and the headset, because the headset splits up the mic and headphones into two separate jacks.

Weather or not it is the sound cards fault or the headset is unknown, and this is why I'm trying to see if anyone else has this issue.

I'm really happy with their support so far and I'm hoping its the headset and NOT the new "The Batman" Sager I burned my wallet for, otherwise I don't know how much they can help/compensate if its not the headset's fault :/

 

Grounding hiss is normally due to disparity in voltage/draw. Check if unplugging adapter and ethernet cable fixes it. Same for everything else that's not powered via the laptop itself (usb mouse etc. is fine).

 

Sad nobody else can give any reports.
If ANYONE could atleast let me know if they have issues atleast I can come closer to ruling out weather or not its my laptop or the headsets fault, then I can atleast return it for a refund.

As for the most recent post, I DID have my USB mouse chip in the whole time so I was excited to rip it out and see if that was the crutch, but sadly there is still soft white noise coming from the mic whith the laptop unplugged and nothing in any of the USB ports.

 

No; usb-powered devices do not matter (unless they're shorting). The issue with grounding is with devices that receive their power from anywhere else but the laptop. Ethernet cable is powered externally as well, hence disconnecting that can 'solve' hiss issues. If disconnecting AC/DC adapter helps then it's time to get a double shielded version or disconnect its earthing pin. Double-shielded is preferable (and more expensive). It will feature this symbol on the sticker:

The 330W adapters are unshielded, unfortunately. Apart from the sticker, another way to tell is two-prong or three-prong; in general two = double shielded and three = earthed. Not always so because the third pin may be 'floating', so effectively useless. And, with Russian roulette adapters, they may be two-prong and unshielded . Not sure if 120W+ double-shielded even exists. In theory it would be possible to have a short whereby the laptop could see 19V@17A, which wouldn't be very healthy. In real life the fuses on the motherboard would long have failed and so would every smd component, so that kind of crazy power would never reach that far. Besides, every time you use a grounded adapter on a non-earthed socket you run the same risk.

Failing to find a shielded adapter of sufficient watts, you could resort to an impedance plug (in other format). This works every time and with unaffected audio quality, but it will diminish maximum volume. The specific problem with low-impedance headphones (like certain Sennheisers and my 18 Ohm IEMs) is that they are extremely sensitive to electrical noise. Solution is to either insulate everything (ethernet as well) or use that simple plug to increase its resistance across the board.

 

Have you tried to eliminate any other variables that might be causing it? Have you tried the headset maybe on a different computer to see if it has the same issue? Are the fans on the computer going at full speed (I have a mic that pics up my fans and creates a soft noise like that when the fans are ramped up). Is there anything else in the room that could be causing a noise that it is picking up?

 

If you are using the onboard sound there will always be some noise from the internal components that will find its way to the output. The internals of any notebook are always a pretty noisy place electronically speaking and a high quality headset can cause that. Getting an external USB sound card or feeding off a digital output will help get round this.

 

Unless your USB ports are noisy too, then you have to get a powered USB hub

 

A decent audio USB device should have the input isolated from the actual audio processing.

 

It's more an issue of delivering stable non-noisy 5V power thru the USB port, which is why a powered hub usually solves it, or get a DAC/amp that uses external power. Audio companies like Schiit and AudioQuest also sell USB decrapifiers and Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte mobos have a USB port designed for DACs.

 

The power should be filtered too really, I never had an issue with my creative recon sound card.

 

It's a more common issue with the audiophile grade DACs that run off USB only