Audiophile Paranoia

Adam Zielinski posted:

Anto68 - what you are hearing is best described in simple terms as your 'mains' polution. Noise induced by other devices, interference in the mains.

Not quite Adam - a small amount of hiss (or white noise) is nothing to do with mains pollution. It's self generated within the amplifier itself so there will always be a very small amount of noise whether the amp is muted or not (and depending upon the sensitivity of the speakers and how close you are to them will affect how much you notice this). If you were hearing clicks and pops or the taxi firm down the road then that would be noise breaking through from elsewhere - via the mains, picked up via speakers cables etc. 

More likely that the micro noise heard acts as an effective conditioner throughout the loudspeaker. Internal wiring .crossover caps. Voicecoils. Thermal magnetic offset of gravitational enertia. Atomised stabilisation of porous microfibres within the MDF. Bass frequencies to apex radiate true north. Etc

TOBYJUG posted:

More likely that the micro noise heard acts as an effective conditioner throughout the loudspeaker. Internal wiring .crossover caps. Voicecoils. Thermal magnetic offset of gravitational enertia. Atomised stabilisation of porous microfibres within the MDF. Bass frequencies to apex radiate true north. Etc

Exactly. I'll have what you're smoking...

I always thought it was chattering electrons. But no, it's clearly more complex. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

I always thought it was chattering electrons. But no, it's clearly more complex. 

Spot on

Someone on this forum wrote that one can see the hiss as the canvas where the music gets painted on. I very much liked that analogy.

james n posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Anto68 - what you are hearing is best described in simple terms as your 'mains' polution. Noise induced by other devices, interference in the mains.

Not quite Adam - a small amount of hiss (or white noise) is nothing to do with mains pollution. It's self generated within the amplifier itself so there will always be a very small amount of noise whether the amp is muted or not (and depending upon the sensitivity of the speakers and how close you are to them will affect how much you notice this). 

I confirm what you say, and I also know that one of the few, perhaps the only amps that are totally exempt from any white noise is in FM Acoustic electronics made in Switzerland but it is another category of exclusive products; In a famous Italian hi fi site a reviewer had noted that raising the volume to maximum with no audio signal there was absolute silence; mystery how it could happen; The Swiss are famous for precision watches but does anyone know to do the same in audio systems.

I also discovered that the SuperUniti suffers dirt signal due to wireless connection: disabling the connection to the network (via WIFI)  to zero volume background noise is attenuated significantly. one of the bad points of the modern amplifiers all in one always connected to the network although this does not affect our listening pleasure; It is just an audiophile paranoia

Ciao

Anto68 posted:

I confirm what you say, and I also know that one of the few, perhaps the only amps that are totally exempt from any white noise is in FM Acoustic electronics made in Switzerland but it is another category of exclusive products; In a famous Italian hi fi site a reviewer had noted that raising the volume to maximum with no audio signal there was absolute silence; mystery how it could happen; The Swiss are famous for precision watches but does anyone know to do the same in audio systems.

...

Err, no it can't happen: It isn't exempt from noise - where you have a variable number of electrons you have noise.

If you only have a few electrons (e.g. small charges = low current) you have Shot noise; at higher current levels you have Johnson (thermal) noise.  These are fundamental aspects of physics and you can't just make either of them disappear without superconductors or approaching absolute zero temperature.

In an audio amp it is possible to make the noise low enough to be irrelevant to all practical purposes (i.e. with respect to the normal listening position); most amp manufacturers achieve this quite easily.

Huge posted:

 

...

Err, no it can't happen: It isn't exempt from noise - where you have a variable number of electrons you have noise.

 

Maybe in FM Acoustic is so low that it can not be perceived by the human ear: I add a piece of the article I translated with the help of google, sorry if some form is not exact

The photo of 'internal show ... nothing. Some electrolyte for dell 'power filtering and two sealed modules, which represent the "brains" of' unit. Some resistance and four transistors in view. I'm not able to tell you much more, except that the instruction manual has an attachment that dwells at length on the power discourse and grounding of hi-fi equipment. It 'very interesting and also contains a "pearl" of this kind: "Ask your power company to clean the cables and contacts of your counter once a' year." If you have finished laughing I re-explain that these are Swiss, our neighbors. They also provide a lot of electricity, unless sudden nightly blackouts, but not have the faintest idea who the 'ENEL (Italian power company), or whoever takes his place in the various cities. I imagine that if I called their toll free number to make this request after a few minutes the rescuers would reach the 118 (like 911 in USA), complete with a straitjacket and equipment for the 'electroshock.