Too Much Hiss? 6 Quick Ways to Silence Your Headphone Amp / Reduce White Noise

Is your headphone amplifier making a noticeable background hiss or white noise? Don’t worry—your unit is likely working perfectly.

Headphone amps for pedalboards are often designed to be loud and powerful, which can sometimes reveal background noise you might not hear through a regular guitar cabinet. In many cases, the “hiss” isn’t a fault in the pedal—it’s just a setup issue.

Here’s a 2-minute checklist to get your practice rig actually silent.

Also make sure to check our headphone amps

1. Check Your Volume Balance (Gain Staging)

This is the #1 cause of hiss. If you send a very quiet signal into the headphone amp and then crank the amp’s volume to hear it, you’re amplifying the background noise along with your guitar.

--> The Fix: Turn the volume UP on the pedal or preamp before the headphone amp. If you headphones amp has an INPUT knob, make sure to also turn it all the way up, or until the point that distortion might occur. Then, turn the headphone amp’s volume DOWN. You’ll get the same loudness but a much cleaner sound.

 

2. Watch Out for Sensitive In-Ears

Not all headphones are the same. Modern in-ear monitors (IEMs) can be very sensitive. They can pick up the “noise floor” of analog gear more than larger studio headphones.
--> The Fix: If the hiss is annoying with earbuds, try plugging in a pair of over-ear headphones. The background noise usually disappears immediately.

  

3. Check the impedance of your headphones

Most headphone amp manufacturers list the recommended headphone impedance in their specs, and they should provide this information if you need it. Using headphones outside this range—either too low or too high—can affect sound quality and increase background noise.

--> The Fix: If your headphones don’t match the amp’s recommended impedance, try using a pair that falls within the suggested range (or slightly higher) for optimal performance. 

 

4. Isolate Your Power

Headphone amps are usually at the very end of your signal chain. If they share a power source with other digital pedals (like reverbs or delays), digital clock noise or other noises can leak in and cause whining or hiss.
--> The Fix: Give your headphone amp its own isolated output on your power supply. Avoid daisy-chain cables if possible.

5. “Garbage In, Garbage Out”

A headphone amp acts like a magnifying glass—it amplifies everything fed into it. Noisy pedals or guitar pickups will sound louder through the amp.
--> The Test: Turn your guitar volume to zero. If the hiss disappears, the noise is coming from your guitar or earlier pedals, not the headphone amp.

6. The “Phone Charger” Buzz

If you use the AUX input on the headphones amp to play along with backing tracks from your phone or laptop, you might hear a hum or digital whine. This is usually a small ground loop caused by your device’s charger.
--> The Fix: Unplug your phone or laptop from its charger and run it on battery power while you play. The hum should vanish instantly.

Summary

Analog headphone amps naturally, even the smaller and simpler ones have a tiny bit of “character” or warmth that digital interfaces don’t, but they shouldn’t be overly noisy. The amount of hiss usually depends on the type of IC used at the amp’s core and other aspects of the circuit design. Follow these steps, and your headphone amp will deliver clean, powerful sound with minimal hiss.

 

Important Note:

The tips in this guide are starting points, typical suggestions, not absolutes. Every headphone amp, pedalboard setup, and pair of headphones is a little different, and every musician’s ears and preferences are unique. Use these steps as a framework to troubleshoot and improve your sound, but trust what you actually hear over any rule or recommendation.