Behringer P-16m- Noise Floor - How much is normal?

[Mike Watkins]

What should the standard noise level heard through headphones be with the unit turned completely down. I use molded in ears(1964 Ears) and with the P16m master volume completely down, I still get a fatiguing amount of white noise. The signal is completely clean through the line outs, but constant white noise through the headphone out. It gets pretty noticeable after 20 to 30 minutes of studio work.

The constant noise is there on my over ear headphones as well.

The units that are hooked up to the p16D seem quieter that the ones hooked up to my x32 and running off of wall power, but both hookups still have noise that doesnt seem to be eliminated with the volume knob..

Any suggestions? Is this what everyone else hears in theirs?

my set up: 1-x32, 1-s16, 1-p16d, 6-p16m's(2 via wall wart, 4 via p16d). All in studio, and connected via cat6 cables.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Declan Slater]

Re: Behringer P-16m- Noise Floor - How much is normal?

Have you tried just going straight out of the console to the p-16d, then out to all the 16m's?

I'm wondering If noise is introduced with your current setup somehow with the ac adapter.

Do all units make the same hiss? When I've tried with a pair of westone um3's, I was impressed by the low noise floor on the 16m's - not much difference between master off and cranked wide open actually from what I remember.

What should the standard noise level heard through headphones be with the unit turned completely down. I use molded in ears(1964 Ears) and with the P16m master volume completely down, I still get a fatiguing amount of white noise. The signal is completely clean through the line outs, but constant white noise through the headphone out. It gets pretty noticeable after 20 to 30 minutes of studio work.

The constant noise is there on my over ear headphones as well.

The units that are hooked up to the p16D seem quieter that the ones hooked up to my x32 and running off of wall power, but both hookups still have noise that doesnt seem to be eliminated with the volume knob..

Any suggestions? Is this what everyone else hears in theirs?

my set up: 1-x32, 1-s16, 1-p16d, 6-p16m's(2 via wall wart, 4 via p16d). All in studio, and connected via cat6 cables.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Mike Watkins]

Re: Behringer P-16m- Noise Floor - How much is normal?

I haven't tried all through the p16d. I'll give that a go tonight. Mine don't have much difference between full volume and off. It's just seemingly high either way. The p16d units are slightly quieter but still noisy. Line out is dead silent, except for when signal is supposed to be coming through.

 

[Robert Wester]

Re: Behringer P-16m- Noise Floor - How much is normal?

The noise is introduced by the headphone amplifier inside the P-16M. This amplifier had a fixed gain factor, the master volume knob controls the input of this amplifier, not the gain factor itself. The solution is lowering the gain of the headphone amplifier. This can be done by opening the bottom side and replace (solder) two resistors (for left and right gain factor). The resistors are in 0603 package. The consequence is a lower maximum output volume, but normal you don't want to play that loud.

If required i can post some picture of the modification.

 

[Silas Pradetto]

Re: Behringer P-16m- Noise Floor - How much is normal?

The noise is introduced by the headphone amplifier inside the P-16M. This amplifier had a fixed gain factor, the master volume knob controls the input of this amplifier, not the gain factor itself. The solution is lowering the gain of the headphone amplifier. This can be done by opening the bottom side and replace (solder) two resistors (for left and right gain factor). The resistors are in 0603 package. The consequence is a lower maximum output volume, but normal you don't want to play that loud.

If required i can post some picture of the modification.

A little extreme, I would say. Just build an inline pad for your headphones.

 

[Chris R Johnson]

Re: Behringer P-16m- Noise Floor - How much is normal?

The noise is introduced by the headphone amplifier inside the P-16M. This amplifier had a fixed gain factor, the master volume knob controls the input of this amplifier, not the gain factor itself. The solution is lowering the gain of the headphone amplifier. This can be done by opening the bottom side and replace (solder) two resistors (for left and right gain factor). The resistors are in 0603 package. The consequence is a lower maximum output volume, but normal you don't want to play that loud.

If required i can post some picture of the modification.

Hi Robert,

Here I am 7 years later with a Behringer P16, getting tons of hiss.. Any chance you could still provide that picture? Have you done the mod to yours? Hope 2020 hasn't been too awful for you!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Charon ME]

Here I am 7 years later with a Behringer P16, getting tons of hiss.. Any chance you could still provide that picture? Have you done the mod to yours?

I just swapped the 15k R52 and R48 for 2.2k and the hiss is finally gone, the signal level is still quite strong although slightly quieter so I'm considering replacing them with 820ohm ones, but it wasn't easy, there is not a lot of space around the jack socket and the opamps. Thank you Robert for the inspiration!

 

[Till Langlo]

I just swapped the 15k R52 and R48 for 2.2k and the hiss is finally gone, the signal level is still quite strong although slightly quieter so I'm considering replacing them with 820ohm ones, but it wasn't easy, there is not a lot of space around the jack socket and the opamps. Thank you Robert for the inspiration!

Hi Charon, any chance you could help me doing the same kind of modification.
I also have a P16 system with a lot of hiss. Also the hiss is mostly constant and independent of the amount of inputs or their levels.
So i think a mod like this could be very helpful in my case. I tried the P16 M with both a 48 ohm (Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X) and 250 ohm (Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro) headphone and the noise is considerably higher on the 48 ohm headphone when turned to the same amount of output level on the headphones (obviously different volume settings on the P16M).
Also i bought the system (both P16 I & M) second hand on eBay and just ordered these units brand new to compare them and they sound exactly the same. So there is nothing out of the ordinary with my units it seems.
My board looks a bit different to yours it seems, Charon ME. I'll include a picture of it.
But am i basically correct that i would need two chips like these: https://www.pollin.de/p/royalohm-smd-chipwiderstand-0603-2-2k-5-25-stueck-221700 ?
(The jack all the way to the right is for the headphone.)

Best Regards and happy new year, Till