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Creative X-FI Titanium HD picking up mobile signals?

post #1 of 7
9/5/11 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 
So just found out that my new X-FI Titanium HD picks up some weird mobile signal from my phone(old SE k610i), heard it first earlier today, but didn't know what it was, but then i heard it again just a few mins ago, and i started to try to reproduce it. And i did it by pointing the one side of the phone, the side with volume buttons and a camera button(probably the side where the antenna is), towards the soundcard, and go into the settings of the phone and do a "Search for Phone Network" it then search and when it finish, 2-3seconds after, you hear the mobile signal sound in the headphones. Tried different headphones and it's the same thing.

Looks like my new Creative X-FI Titanium HD don't like the signals from my old phone then, which is a bit of a downer. Is there anything i can do about this? And should a soundcard really be picking up mobile signals? Kinda weird i must say. Can ofc just have the phone away from my computer, probably the easiest fix, but i don't like the idea that my soundcard is receptive to these kind of things...

Anyone else experience something similar?
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post #2 of 7
9/6/11 at 7:31am

Well, apparently you have a phone with a rather high EMI rate, which gets worse when not using any sort of SAR shield. The Titanium HD is shielded against EMI, but only to a certain EMI limit, which I think its threshold might be lower than what your phone puts out.

 

Also, having in mind that you mentioned on another thread that you're using an amp connected to your Titanium HD, you should check if it's the card or the amp that's feeling EMI effects.

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post #3 of 7
9/6/11 at 2:35pm
Thread Starter 
First it was connected to the amp, hoped it maybe was the wires or something, but i tried with the headphones directly into the soundcard and it happens then as well, also tried with a different headphone, same thing, so i've just decided to put my old phone a bit farther away from the computer at this moment. Not a big deal anyway, as it only happens when the phone is updating the network(which it does at random), and it have to be pointed with the one specified side of the phone towards the card for it to happen, so was kinda "lucky"(unlucky) to even notice this i believe.
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post #4 of 7
9/6/11 at 2:50pm

If possible, do get a phone that emits less radiation, the K610i has surprisingly high values for its age. I'm still surprised of that happening, as I've tested phones nearby that card and didn't listen to anything like that. BTW, you could try switching slots just to see if it helps, because the computer is known to be a noisy environment.

 

Keep on listening, and switch between running your headphones directly from the soundcard and through the amp, then try to see if there are palpable differences. If there aren't but the sound is still good, you could consider keeping the amp to power future headphones, but that's your decision to make, depending on what you plan on doing about your audio path.

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post #5 of 7
9/6/11 at 3:17pm
Thread Starter 
Borrowed an Iphone from my dad to check if i could reproduce it with that one, and nope didn't happen then, so your probably right that it's my phone that emits a lot of these mobile signals compared to other phones, but yea it's old as well ofc. I'll probably get a new phone at some point, the K610i is just a phone i had laying around, had it since it came out, though hadn't used it for a while, and when i sold of my last phone i didn't know what to get next so i just started using this old junk again :P

Well i've already switched between the amp and soundcard to check, and the amp doesn't seem to do anything about the signal at all, the only thing different between when it's connected through the amp and only the soundcard is that the sound/mobile signal is much higher when connected to the amp, and that's because when the headphones are connected to the amp, the windows volume is at 100%, but if i lower the windows volume to what i use when the headphones are connected to the soundcard the sound of the signal is the same, so am pretty sure it's all on the soundcard.

But as i've said, i've moved the phone farther away from the computer now, and i haven't heard the sound since, tried to do the reproducing trick on the phone where it's placed now, and i didn't hear anything, so for now it's "fixed" and at some point i'll probably get a new phone again and then i won't have to think about this ever again hopefully.
Edited by Nitrius - 9/6/11 at 3:18pm
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post #6 of 7
9/6/11 at 3:46pm

There are quite a few amps that aren't shielded against that sort of interference, and it seems the amp you got is one of those. Some people have reported good results through isolating the amp with electrical tape, IIRC, but since that amp is barely doing anything for your gear, that interference nuisance isn't that necessary, IMO. You would do better to return that amp and get a PA2V2 or a Fiio E11, those are both great entry portable amps, but I'll say again that it's not as essential as one might think, when talking about easy to drive headphones.

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post #7 of 7
9/6/11 at 5:46pm
Thread Starter 
Getting a bit confused here now, are you saying the amp is the main problem? Am pretty sure the soundcard picks up the interference as well, since i also have it when the headphones are connected directly into the soundcard.

Or are you saying that if i had a pair of headphones that would have had better use of my amp, these interferences would have been amplified by using my amp since it's not shielded? As i right now can't really say the amp does anything with the interference at all, beside that when i use the amp, the windows volume is 100%, so the interference sound is higher, but if i have the headphones connected directly to my soundcard, and turn the windows volume up to 100% as well, the interference sound is equally high.

But yea, i don't really need the Argon HA1 amp it looks like, since it doesn't seem to make the sound any better than what my soundcard manage to do alone

Anyway that Fiio E11 looks nice, could use that with a mobile it looks like as well, since its so small.
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