Reduce Audio tape hiss on CDs?

Question

Brought the Iron maiden 2015 high res Remasters recently and was listening to the debute album and I could hear the analogue tape noise in the background could it be my headphones, speakers and hifi, would I need a better set of headphones and a better hi fi? To reduce the analogue background noise.

Lord Bacon · Accepted Answer

The better the quality of the hi-fi equipment and speakers or headphones, the more faithfully they reproduce whatever is played through them.  If, as you suggest, you can hear tape hiss from the original analogue recordings, then the equipment you are using must be excellent at doing its job. It plays exactly what is there, including authentic hiss. I would expect this to have been removed in a high-res remastering but some would consider that to spoil the sound.

Hi-fi is short for 'high fidelity', meaning high faithfulness to the original. If you want to reduce the faithfulness of the playback sound, you will need to reduce the quality of the kit you are using or modify the faithfulness of its reproduction by using filters (e.g. tone controls).

Is it possible that the original recording is actually very good and that your audio equipment is introducing hiss? Not all audio equipment is actually hi-fi. Some just plays it back and makes it louder, using budget components and designs that do not offer as pure a sound.

Hiss can't be caused by speakers or headphones though a poor frequency response in either could suppress some frequencies while allowing others to be more apparent.

Tony B · Answer

There's nothing you can do to get rid of tape hiss - it's part of the recording.

I'm not familiar with that album but I'm very surprised that there is any audible tape hiss present on a recording of this type of music - it's only noticeable on recordings of quiet things. That doesn't sound like Iron Maiden!

Whatever could have been done to reduce tape noise will already have been done. Using better quality equipment is only going to make it more obvious.

Are you SURE it's tape hiss though?

spacemissing · Answer

The hiss is part of the original recording.

All electronic circuits make random noise. 
Those of us who understand this fact 
have always accepted it because it is unavoidable.

However, it is usually low enough in level that it isn't a problem. 
The reason why you hear it is that you have the volume cranked up Much too far.

Don't worry --- if you keep listening at such high levels, 
you will soon permanently lose your ability to hear the hiss!

Daniel K · Answer

If you ONLY hear the hiss when listening to the Iron Maiden CD and you do not hear hiss with other CD's then the problem is with the Iron Maiden CD.

eyecue_two · Answer

This is not a problem with your headphones. In fact if you can hear it that means the headphones have a good dynamic range.  The only way to get rid of that hiss is to filter it out and then save the filtered version for playback. There is a program called audacity that is free and is very, very good at manipulating any audio signals.

Benny · Answer

No, the hiss is a characteristic of the CD, not your stereo or headphones.

Reduce Audio tape hiss on CDs?

6 Answers