IEM hiss/white noise when listening to quiet music

IEMs / Other In-Ear Monitors (IEM)
1

I don’t notice them as much on medium volume, but once i want some quiet music, the white noise gets kinda annoying to be present always. So what are my options?

I’m using the KZ ZSX on my note 9. Oh and it’s unusable on my macbook air lol, the amount of static is unforgiving, but that may be due to the fact i got the cable with mic.

I’ve been told that if I use an amp, that would completely remove the white noise I hear. So I looked around and found the portable bluetooth dac, and dap that quite picked an interest with me. I don’t want to go high on the price though.

I found the Fiio BTR3 for around $80, but the BTR5 which seems nicer is around $130 which almost is too high for me. Would the BTR3 be more than enough for me? At least for now, as I don’t have other expensive iems or headphones. Thanks for the help!

2

It depends what you want out of it.

The BTR3 will certainly improve the quality of listening over your MacBook or note 9, as it has a better DAC and AMP in it.

Some songs they are recorded weirdly do sometimes have a bit of noise, but this will be lowered with the BTR3. Almost any portable DAC/AMP is an upgrade to using a phone or Mac

The BTR5 has a larger battery, uses dual DACS and can offer more power than the BTR3. If oyu think those upgrades are necessary, then get the BTR5.

Felix

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3

Some conversation about IEM buzz and what might cause it.
-> https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/bjnbox/is_hearing_fuzzwhite_noise_while_listening_with/

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