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Woo Audio WA22 Static Grounding Issue

post #1 of 7
4/8/10 at 2:23am
Thread Starter 
Just received my WA22 yesterday. Don't have a DAC yet so I plugged my laptop directly into the unbalanced inputs.

At first I tried my laptop and Ipod. The laptop running on it's battery. I got about 50% static and a little distorted music. When I place my hand on the laptop (or Ipod) and another hand on the amp, the static drops to about 20% and the music clears up considerably.

I figured it was a simple grounding issue so I plugged my laptop in. The music got even better but the static increased to more than 60%.

Then when unplugging my laptop I heard just for a second....clear sound. I found that if I only partially plugged in my laptop so that only the ground was connected the sound is clear and there is no static.

So maybe it's not a grounding issue. Can supply power be that dirty that it causes 50-60% static? Or maybe there is something wrong with my amp?
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post #2 of 7
4/8/10 at 3:11am
Loose plug on your laptop where you have the amp connected? Tried restarting it?
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post #3 of 7
4/8/10 at 3:30am
Thread Starter 
It's not the laptop itself. My main computer is a Macbook Pro but I also had the same problem with my iPod and my IBM X61.
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post #4 of 7
4/8/10 at 11:29pm
Thread Starter 
Anybody?
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post #5 of 7
4/9/10 at 2:59am
Contact WooAudio.
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post #6 of 7
4/19/10 at 10:10am
Thread Starter 
Must have been a grounding issue. I contacted WA and they said the same thing. I got a DAC today and it is crystal clear. I can finally enjoy!
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post #7 of 7
11/11/10 at 8:17am

glad to hear you got it sorted! poor sources like laptops often create a lot of noise which is picked up on good audio equipment. I found that my processor was the cause of most of the noise and I could cut it out by downloading a cpu clock and monitoring program that allowed me to cut out certain frequencies that were causing the static.

 

There are lots of posts on pc forums about programs for different cpus and what to do so that you can still have the convenience of playing music on your laptop if you want.

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