Interference problem with studio monitors and sound card

Hey everyone,

I'm getting a lot of interference sound with my studio monitors (KRK Rokit R6s) and my sound card (Auzentech prelude x-fi 7.1 pci). I've always had it, but it was bareable with my old computer, however I've recently just upgraded my whole rig (excluding the sound card) and now I'm getting pretty bad interference noise (like a fluxuating buzz/white noise) type sound when my computer is at load. It is at it's worst when playing a game, however it is fine playing music.

Does anyone have any idea how I can get rid of this annoying problem please?

Thanks in advance.

Matty.

PS, the speakers are currently hooked up via 2x RCA cables into a 3.5mm adapter.

I'm afraid the card is close to a fan, but there's nothing I can do about it. Are you saying that if the card wasn't near a fan, the sound wouldn't be anywhere near as bad?

And this ground loop isolator you speak of, will this degrade sound quality at all because if it does, that is unacceptable :P

And how does the external DAC work? can my sound card do all the processing and then filter it through to the DAC which then processes it and sends it to my speakers? how does it work with gaming and asio? or will it bypass my current soundcard?

Also, I think an external sound card is out for me. I love my Auzentech card and because I do gaming as well as music production, I can't really see an external sound card that would be good for me. And how does USB compare to PCI bandwidth?

Thanks for the replies :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMRaven 

You line out to an external dac that does all the processing, and you don't get any computer electronic interference or jitters in your music, not to mention better quality usually.

 

 

Awesome.

What DACs do you recommend? bare in mind this will be for music, gaming, and music production. How much would I need to spend for a good one? could you recommend some good ones please.

Cheers.

Sound card>DAC>Monitors

So I guess the DAC needs line-in and then I need to be able to output from the DAC to my monitor speakers which is via 2x RCA cables. At the moment I currently have the RCAs plugged into a 3.5mm adapter which just goes straight into the speaker output port on my sound card. My sound card (Auzentech Prelude x-fi 7.1) has a strong enough amp to power my monitors (KRK Rokit R6s) so as long as I have a DAC that matches that or even surpasses the amp in my sound card that is fine.

Cheers.

Haha thanks man. Really appreciate it.