XR18 aux output/P2 noise issue

[Bassmonkey2510]

I was wondering if any of you use an xr18 and a P2 for IEMs. 
 

Do you experience a high level of noise. I am trying to determine if the mixer aux sends are noisy, if the P2 is noisy or if I am missing a trick. 
 

I am confident in setting my gain stages. 
 

My IEMs are KZs. These sound clean and quiet on phone, and also with a P1. 
 

If I use a pair of DT770’s with the P2, there is no noise, but that is probably down to the higher impedance.
 

Any thoughts welcome.
 

PS whilst I am here, does anyone notice their bass has strange artifacts when using KZs. I don’t get it on other headphones.
 

thanks  

Edited November 28, 2023 by Bassmonkey2510

[Phil Starr]

It’s difficult to be certain of these things over the net without being abl to see or hear what is going on. First check your batteries. I’ve had the odd noise with dying batteries. 
 

Also be aware that the KZ’s have a pretty extreme frequency response boosting bass and treble a lot. I’ve struggled with the bass tone generally with them and booting the treble will emphasise certain types of noise.

 

Also look at your leads, you’ll have wiggled them when swapping the D770’s in, duff leads can be intermittent.

[Bassmonkey2510]

Thanks for this. The kzs might be the ultimate problem. I have some other IEMs. I will try them out. 

[Phil Starr]

Let me know how you get on. The KZ’s won’t create any noise but it may emphasise something which you barely notice otherwise.

[Bassmonkey2510]

I switched over to my shure SE215 pair and the hiss was much less. Still there though. The annoying thing is the sound is so much better from the cheaper KZs than the Shures. I will play with some other aspects too and check in again. Perhaps it is an impedance thing. Maybe the P1 prefers a higher impedance headphone and the KZs are a mismatch. 

[Phil Starr]

Ok so you have some noise and the KZ’s are emphasising it.

 

Let’s look at the noise, it’s coming from somewhere. I’m assuming you have more than just the bass coming through your in ears? Try tuning off each active channel on the mixer. The noise could be from anything from a dicky lead to a broken amp but fx pedals are often a nightmare noise source. Just find which channels are noisy first.

 

In the meantime just try rolling off the treble a bit in your monitor feed if you prefer the KZ’s. You don’t need the hyper real sound and nothing above 10khz is going to matter as a musician.

[Chienmortbb]

16 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

The noise could be from anything from a dicky lead to a broken amp but fx pedals are often a nightmare noise source.

Oh yes, especially if they are all powered from the same power supply. The cheaper Chinese ones are NOT isolated although they say they are. This means that noise, especially from digital pedals, can feed around the power rails, entering the signal chain via a high gain analogue pedal. So the likely culprit is the lead guitarist. 

[Phil Starr]

It usually is the guitarist 😂😎😂

[dave_bass5]

I use a P2 for my IEM’s, fed from the headphone out with Monitor set to Aux5/6 for a stereo feed.

No issues with my IE400 Pros or previous IEM’s, but one thing i did notice is if i have the P2 clipped to my belt on the same side as my phone pocket, i do get a bit of noise. I thought it was a dodgy unit at first, but noticed it went away when my phone wasnt in my pocket. 

[JPJ]

In one of my bands the drummer uses a P2 fed from Aux 3 and reports no problems (but then he is a drummer). In my other band our fiddle player uses the same setup and she’s a pro player featuring in the Edinburgh tattoo every year and again no complaints from her.

If you have no joy identifying the source of the noise, you could try sticking the RTA on the affected aux out and eq’ing out the worst of the noise? 

[Bassmonkey2510]

I can provide an update. 
 

I have tried the P2 into 4 different line level sends. One on the back of my Quilter Bass Block, one on the back of a Yamaha DXR15, out of the main left from a soundcraft analogue mixer and also the xr18. All of these did not have anything that could make noise connected to them other than their own hiss. 
 

I get hiss with all of them, but at a variety of levels. I have also tried a different P2 and it does the same. I have however tried a PM1 which is passive and there is no noise but quieter. I can only assume it is the amplifier in the P2 that is noisy and that this is exaggerated by the brightness of the KZ ZS10 Pros. 
 

I am just going to use my Shure SE16s as I can’t hear the hiss so loudly. 
 

I could just use my P1, which sounds great, but the battery cover and on switch do my head in hence the change. 
 

Thanks for you help and suggestions.