laptop headphone out distortion?

[Daniel Ellis]

I got some new molded IEM's today and I first plugged them into my Macbook Pro to take a listen and immediately thought something was wrong with them! Slightly distorted and not nearly as good sounding as they should have been..


Then I tried my MBOX 2 mini headphone output and it sounded the same.

But then I plugged them into my Ipod and it sounded amazing!

Is it normal for my Macbook and Mbox to sound that bad? I listened to the same .wav files on each test.

I've never noticed the distortion on my laptop using my regular headphones.

 

[andy craig]

Re: laptop headphone out distortion?

What impedance are the in ears, and what impedance are the non-distorting headphones?

andy.

 

[Daniel Ellis]

Re: laptop headphone out distortion?

headphones are 64 ohms and IEMs are 27.

 

[Chris Hindle]

Re: laptop headphone out distortion?

headphones are 64 ohms and IEMs are 27.

Lower impedence = more power needed to drive them.
Your laptop seems to be "current limited"
No surprise really. Battery life, and all that.

Chris.

 

[John O'Brien]

Re: laptop headphone out distortion?

You might want to look in to getting a headphone amp for your laptop. There are a wide variety of portable ones out there that work really well.