iRiver distorting output

[Skyly]

Someone else mentioned a similar problem, but I think they put it down to their cassette adapter. Anyway.


My H340 is outputting quite alot of distortion at 0db, mainly to do with the bass. It doesn't matter what speakers, eaphones or adapters I use. If I have the volume set at 0, or close to it, and have the Bass set somewhere halfway up the scale (say 12db), every beat will be this horrible mess. Crossfeed also makes it worse sometimes, as does just raising the lower frequences in the EQ.

Is this normal? Shouldn't I be able to output at 0db with at least some light bass settings, and still get a clear sound? It sucks comparing a tune to the same mp3 on someone's iPod, and hearing it sound like crap on my H340.

I get this problem also using the iriver firmware, and yeah, any sound system delivers it; its coming from the player.

[theone]

What line do you have it plugged to? headphone or line-out?

I experience some bass distortion when I have headphones plugged into the line-out (without my amp hooked up).

[Skyly]

Happens on both, but line out seems to be alot worse for it in some songs.

So, on your H300, if you set the volume to 0db, the EQ off, and the bass to 24db, do you not get distortion?

With those settings, running through an amp from either earphone out or line out, I get distortion so heavy the words are almost inaudible. And this is with the amp actually turned down pretty low. Its 3am here, so currently the music is quiet enough to not wake up the neighbours sharing this apartment block with me. Yet the distortion is still incredibly bad with the above settings.

[bascule]

Happens on both, but line out seems to be alot worse for it in some songs.

So, on your H300, if you set the volume to 0db, the EQ off, and the bass to 24db, do you not get distortion?

I'm on dodgy ground here, theory-wise, but surely you would expect clipping when your bass is boosted to such a high level?

Do you get any problem if EQ and bass/treble are set to 0dB?

Also, with the bass boost set, does the distortion reduce if you lower the volume?

[pabouk]

It is known that the combination of a high volume and the hardware equalizer causes distortion (clipping) on iriver H100s / H300s. It is by design of the hardware. To avoid the distortion you must make sure that the sum of the volume and the hw equalizer gain is not higher than 0 dB.

I.e. if you want to use 24 dB bass setting you must set the volume to -24 dB or less.

[Skyly]

Okay, so its normal then.

Do iPods using Rockbox get this too?

[Febs]

From the Rockbox Manual:

6.1.  Volume

This setting adjusts the volume of your music. Like most professional audio gear and many consumer audio products, Rockbox uses a decibel scale where 0 dB is a reference that indicates the maximum volume that the player can produce without possible distortion (clipping). All values lower than this reference will be negative and yield a progressively softer volume. The volume can be adjusted from a minimum of -84 dB to a maximum of 0 dB.

Pre-cut:
    If too much gain is added through the graphical EQ, your music may distort. The Precut setting allows you to adjust the overall gain of the EQ.

    If your music distorts when using the EQ, trying changing this setting to a negative value.

So, yes, it is normal for clipping to occur if you add significant bass boost when you're already at 0dB. And yes, this happens on the ipod as well.

Use the "precut" feature in the equalizer to reduce gain when you're applying equalization.

[Skyly]

Ah. Thank you all for the explanations.