altec 621's don't sound too good

[dpopiz]

I just picked up the 621's at fry's. They definitely are much more powerful than my old setup, but I keep hearing all this harsh fatiguing scratchiness. I'm running them off a sblive! value card, so could this be the problem?

 

[psteng19]

I couldn't say firsthand since I don't have them, but test it out on another system if possible.
If not, try it on a CD discman/walkman etc. (any other type of player that accepts miniplug), and if it persists, it's definitely the speakers (or maybe the cable?).

 

[ElDonAntonio]

Hi dpopiz,

I have the 621s too and I am learning to live with the constant hiss you're hearing. I personally find this unbearable when working in a silent environment and I wonder how "audiophiles" and audio review sites don't mention that.
It seems though that about every set of speakers on the market suffers from this (maybe except digital ones).

I had first bought the Altec Lansing 2100. Tired of the constant hissing (even unplugged from the PC), I thought they were defective and I tried exchanging them for another set. Same thing. I switched to the 621s, and although they sound much better, the hissing is actually a little worse. I tried them on other PCs and at friends' houses (to rule out radio interference), it's the exact same thing.

I guess the solution would be to put the speakers as far away from you as possible.

Tell me how it turns out, and good luck!

 

[dpopiz]

actually, it's not hissing I'm hearing, but rather overall scratchiness when playing music and really HARSH fatiguing highs.

 

[ElDonAntonio]

hmmm, that doesn't sound normal. For playing music, they output excellent sound. Try them on another system, if it does the same thing exchange them.
When nothing is playing, you don't notice any hissing from the satellites?

 

[dpopiz]

ok I'll try another system as soon as I can
I've heard somewhere that sblive's have some scratchiness...maybe my old speaks just weren't good enough to reproduce the scratchiness in the signal 😕