Julie wrote:

John F.:

I got my speakers out and you are right, there is a slight hiss that I can hear only when I put my ear close to the speakers. I’d never noticed it because I did all my testing in my computer room and the PC fan noise covers it up. I just did some tests with acoustic guitar / vocals, and maybe I don’t have as good of ears as you, but I didn’t notice it at all sitting on the desk about 2 feet from my ears.

I have to say that my room is extremely quiet. My iBook is very, very silent, and there’s little ambient noise from the street where I live. So I think that my hiss is slightly louder to the ear than to most people with noisy rooms – I can hear it from afar. We’ll see if I grow accustomed to it. The box does produce good sound overall. But quality of the components could be better – I also had a couple of scratches out of the box.

I got my speakers out and you are right, there is a slight hiss that I can hear only when I put my ear close to the speakers. I’d never noticed it because I did all my testing in my computer room and the PC fan noise covers it up. I just did some tests with acoustic guitar / vocals, and maybe I don’t have as good of ears as you, but I didn’t notice it at all sitting on the desk about 2 feet from my ears.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, what’s with the humming sound when you do not connect the speakers to an audio device and let the audio cable hang? That’s kind of weird.

And I usually get some crisping noise when rotating a cable, or headphone in a socket, but it’s usually not very loud. But on my On Tour the crisping – static – sound is amplified way loud and goes really, really loud. And just the other minute, when I turned the socket a bit on my connected MP3 player, the sound suddenly went high. That’s certainly not normal. I’m returning the On Tour and will ask for another one. I really like the sound and they go pretty loud and clear. Hopefully, the online AppleStore will just let me exchange the On Tour without any problems. But it’s always a drag, you know, letting them pick up the faulty one and send another one.

Thanks everyone.

John F. wrote:

Hey Julie,

I just received my JBL On Tour speakers and I’m somewhat disappointed. Not by the sound coming out of this thing – which is great – but because of the noise. Does your On Tour make much noise when turned on? Simply turning it on with nothing attached. Mine makes a very hearable hissing sound. It’s pretty loud, even from afar. Also, there’s some loud crisping sound coming out of the speakers if I turn the cable a bit. I’m testing it on an iBook. And for a couple of seconds it started humming. So, first, is the noise normal. Second, any other sound anomalies coming out of your speakers? Maybe I should exchange the speakers, which is always a drag as I bought them from the AppleStore.

John, I have to concur with Julie, sounds like you have a bad set. The hissing noise is random noise generated by the amplifer circuits, but you not should not be able to hear that unless the volume is turned all the way up. The “crisping” noise from turning the cable usually comes from the connector being dirty, IF the noise occurs when the connector rotates in the socket. If you get the noise without connector moving, then the cable itself is bad. JBL makes quality stuff and your unit is not normal… send it back.

Mine does not make any of the noises that you’ve described. The only thing that I have noticed with mine happens when I have the cable plugged into the speakers, but not the audio device. If you touch the unconnected end of the cable it will make loud humming noise.

I think you have a faulty set.

I just received my JBL On Tour speakers and I’m somewhat disappointed. Not by the sound coming out of this thing – which is great – but because of the noise. Does your On Tour make much noise when turned on? Simply turning it on with nothing attached. Mine makes a very hearable hissing sound. It’s pretty loud, even from afar. Also, there’s some loud crisping sound coming out of the speakers if I turn the cable a bit. I’m testing it on an iBook. And for a couple of seconds it started humming. So, first, is the noise normal. Second, any other sound anomalies coming out of your speakers? Maybe I should exchange the speakers, which is always a drag as I bought them from the AppleStore.

It’s a little more expensive at $130 msrp, but it’s beautiful, well made, small, and sounds great. You can find them at Tweeter or other home audio/video stores. Plus they come in a lot of other colors – I like black…
http://www.tivoliaudio.com/product.php?productid=151

txcheng:
I’ve added a pic to the review that shows an iPod laying on top of the the closed On Tour.

This is my first review of portable speakers, hopefully I’ll be able to do some other brands soon.

It does look perfectly matched to the iPod though. I found something for similar purposes, is smaller to carry, and costs $19.99. I was not expecting the audio to be usable, but was pleasantly surprised. They use three batteries and last for 22 hours. The power is rated at only one watt, but I risk complaints if I go beyound half volume during hotel stays (they’ve become my portable system for music, games, and movies on my handheld). At least the frequency response is more realistic 200hz to 12Khz (even though that is also optimistic), and the drivers are a larger 2.25 inch size.

On the down side, I’m sure the build quality is not as good as the JBL units, and you get high frequency loss when you turn the volume down on the speakers instead of the device feeding them due to the carbon potentiometer. Worst of all for you, is that they look like a complete mis-match for the iPod!

I picked up a set of these for $30 at best buy. They sound great and run off of four AAA.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/jbl-ontour-review.html

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