HD-P2- Audible hiss with nothing plugged in

Y

Yancey Pon

Member
So I've got an HD-P2 recorder that gives me a very loud hiss, like static, when there are no mics plugged in. A friend of mine said it might be a phantom power issue. I had always used a preamp to feed phantom power to my mics and kept the switch on the recorder off. So any thoughts on how to fix this issue?
 
You can't test mic preamp without a load. You need to plug in a mic, or use a 150ohm resistor across... I think pin 2 and 3. Also, forget the outboard phantom power supply and use the built in one.
 
Is it being recorded. The reason I ask is that sometimes I've heard headphone amps go bad and sound like what you describe. If it isn't being recorded, then it could be that. Either way, it doesn't sound like it's normal. You might want to have a service tech look at it.
 
As others mentioned you can't just crank an open in or you will get a boatload of noise. But you didn't say two very critical things. What are the inputs set to and what is the headphone set to? Pre's will almost always start getting hissy when they are over 75% or so and Tascam has had pretty noisy headphone amps in the past so if your listening with headphone one or both of the above are probably the problem.
 
What issue? Is the signal-to-noise ratio bad during normal operation?
It doesn't matter how noisy it is with nothing plugged in because you have no reason to record noise, do you?
It is very unlikely that it has anything to do with phantom power. Did you try it with the phantom power on vs. off?
 
OK, so I've finally been able to get back to this. Yes the noise is being recorded and I've tested with a mic plugged in as well as not. The levels are set at 5 on the thing and headphones are just under dead center. I've used both outboard phantom power as well as the one on the unit and I've also tried it with the phantom power on and off. Same hiss/noise comes through it. I thought it might be the headphones at first but I played it all back after downloading and it recorded all the noise. at this point it doesn't even record a mic, just the noise.
 
You may want to trade it for a replacement. If you have noticeable noise with the settings you describe there is likely a problem with the unit.

It happens, I have returned more than one box that was not working as it should. One of the reasons buying local can be a big plus.

Speaking of which any Detroit local recommendations. My connections are all Bay Area.
OK OT so respond direct to me. scott@askinc.net

... back to your regular scheduled programing...
 
You may want to trade it for a replacement. If you have noticeable noise with the settings you describe there is likely a problem with the unit.

It happens, I have returned more than one box that was not working as it should. One of the reasons buying local can be a big plus.

Speaking of which any Detroit local recommendations. My connections are all Bay Area.
OK OT so respond direct to me. scott@askinc.net

... back to your regular scheduled programing...
 
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