PSR-300 audio hiss?

[drgrant]

Anyone else notice on their PSR-300 that even strong transmissions come in with
this terrible AF hiss behind them? (at least compared to other radios receiving the
same transmissions, like my ICOM T90 HT).

I was hoping to get away from that, from the old days of the BC200XLT and the
like... although I never remember my old GRE scanners (PRO-2006, Pro 42) having
that much hiss.

Another thing I noticed is its like they nerfed the headphone connector to make it not
very loud.... makes it impossible to plug an external speaker into that jack, and even with
an earbud I have to turn it up to like 50 to 75 pct of full volume to hear it well. Is there
any way to fix that??

-Mike

 

[Zaratsu]

Anyone else notice on their PSR-300 that even strong transmissions come in with
this terrible AF hiss behind them? (at least compared to other radios receiving the
same transmissions, like my ICOM T90 HT).

I was hoping to get away from that, from the old days of the BC200XLT and the
like... although I never remember my old GRE scanners (PRO-2006, Pro 42) having
that much hiss.

Another thing I noticed is its like they nerfed the headphone connector to make it not
very loud.... makes it impossible to plug an external speaker into that jack, and even with
an earbud I have to turn it up to like 50 to 75 pct of full volume to hear it well. Is there
any way to fix that??

-Mike

I hear ya man. I think the hiss is from the speaker being designed to be LOUD. It is a very crisp and high-pitched speaker that gives tons of detail, but it lacks warmth like an old Uniden. My GRE sounds VERY different from other scanners ive used. It does go LOUD very well, but there isnt much low volume range at all.

I've griped on the headphone connector many times on here. I thiink the problem is because it is a mono output, not stereo. For example, I tried to plug it into a small radio-shack wooden case radio that normally has very nice voice (think an RS version of a tivoli 1) NOTHING come out of the GRE, but my Uniden and my SW and MP3 player play just find on it. Also, I have a CCrane pillow speaker. With the GRE, NOTHING comes out. I have to use my cheap-o ear-buds from phillips to hear anything. And of course the radio-beeps are LOUD LOUD LOUD. (thank god you can turn them off) The earbuds work though, so maybe it has to output to something with more than one speaker as the RS tabletop radio and the pillow speaker have only one speaker.

somebody also mentioned grounding the headphone plug or something to the antannae. Have to try that, but doubt it will work.

 

[Tom_G]

Typically the headphone plugs on scanners have a reduced output level for hearing safety.
Thats why they recommend if using an external speaker, you must use an amplified one.

I think the audio on the GRE and Radio Shack scanners is excellent.
You can actually wear the radio on you belt and still hear it in noisey environments.

I have never noticed any hiss....

 

[Zaratsu]

Typically the headphone plugs on scanners have a reduced output level for hearing safety.
Thats why they recommend if using an external speaker, you must use an amplified one.

I think the audio on the GRE and Radio Shack scanners is excellent.
You can actually wear the radio on you belt and still hear it in noisey environments.

I have never noticed any hiss....

pillow speaker at full volume produced only slightly understandable volume held directly at my ear

yet

a set of cheap earbuds returned volume that was nearly ALWAYS too loud.

On seperate output devices, these two headsets produced similar listening levels.



Have you tried sending a messege to GRE support at GREUSA.com?

I did, but deleted it in a mass-inbox deleting before I could read it.:evil:


The volume level of the internal speaker is excellent as is the clarity. It is almost too loud. It is not "warm" at all like many have become to be used to on scanners. If this is the same speaker that is on the PSR-500, then I would feel safe making the assumption that the choice was made to increase the intelligibility of digital broadcasts.

As far as the "hiss" goes, here is an educated guess to the source. Are you running the scanner on AC or on batteries? Outside of that, there is a slight "hiss" that depends on the system I am monitoring. I believe it is just the background noise that the mics are picking up during Tx. Some systems modulate them out, and you never would notice them on other "warmer" sounding scanners. I really think that you are hearing something that has always been there, but the speaker or processor was not responsive to that range. I have to say, it did sound "harsh" when I first got it. The difference between this scanner's sound and others is like switching from AM radio to FM radio. But I am very happy with it now.

 

[drgrant]

Typically the headphone plugs on scanners have a reduced output level for hearing safety.
Thats why they recommend if using an external speaker, you must use an amplified one.

The thing is, never had this issue with any of the older scanners I had years
ago... it just worked. Even with just a mono "fbi earbud" you'll get barely any
audio with the volume turned up like 3/4 of the way.

I think the audio on the GRE and Radio Shack scanners is excellent.
You can actually wear the radio on you belt and still hear it in noisey environments.

The audio out of the speaker is loud and clear, aside from the damned
hiss. I do give them much credit for putting a good speaker in the radio, its
just too bad that they have an AF amp that hisses like a rattlesnake.

I have never noticed any hiss...

Hell, I can hear the thing hissing even when it's just scanning, if you're close enough to
it. [laugh]

I realize that a lot of receivers basically do this, but the PSR-300 just seems to have a
lot of it. I guess I'm just a picky bastard- Back in the day I had a Pro-2006 and a
Pro-42, and neither of those things hissed nearly as much as my PSR-300 does.

-Mike

 

[drgrant]

As far as the "hiss" goes, here is an educated guess to the source. Are you running the scanner on AC or on batteries? Outside of that, there is a slight "hiss" that depends on the system I am monitoring.

I run it on batts full time. I get a hiss even when not receiving, its just louder when
a signal comes in. It isn't strength or anything like that- I have systems which come
in at basically full quieting on my other radios and I can still hear a hiss coming through
the speaker.

. I really think that you are hearing something that has always been there, but the speaker or processor was not responsive to that range. I have to say, it did sound "harsh" when I first got it. The difference between this scanner's sound and others is like switching from AM radio to FM radio. But I am very happy with it now.

The audio quality, hiss aside, is actually pretty good. If I could figure out a way to
set up a low pass filter to just get rid of everything above a certain audio frequency, it
would probably go away.

-Mike

 

[rchalupajr]

I don't notice any hiss on the Psr-300, or the Psr-400 for that matter.

 

[Zaratsu]

I run it on batts full time. I get a hiss even when not receiving, its just louder when
a signal comes in. It isn't strength or anything like that- I have systems which come
in at basically full quieting on my other radios and I can still hear a hiss coming through
the speaker.



The audio quality, hiss aside, is actually pretty good. If I could figure out a way to
set up a low pass filter to just get rid of everything above a certain audio frequency, it
would probably go away.

-Mike

Maybe an out of spec unit. Something shorting on the amplifier side of it? The quality is very good on these units, but yours may have sneaked out. Contact GRE support. they are great from what I hear. Now you just have to do without the scanner for a bit.