Annoying analogue noise in my desktop rig

[selkin]

Hi!

Thre is a very annoying audible analouge crackling-ringing noise in my pc rig's audio output. I really don't know what else could I do about it as I changed every parts I can imagine as a source of the problem (literary everything)

This noise can be spotted in most of the PCs it's just not loud enough to pay any attention to it I beleive.
I was trying to explain the nature of the noise to my friend but he didn't really get it. I said to him to turn up the volume on his hi-fi (it's an onkyo amp, with Wharfedale speakers by the way) he did what I said and was able to hear the crackling too. only it was much less loud. imageine the amp was on max volume.

In my pc it's louder, and it's even more loud when I do something on it. For instance I drag a window from one place to an other or start a program and the noise gets louder, it changes its nature.

As I said I swapped every part of my computer to new one. new cables. new house.
There is the same kind of computer in different pc in the house as well. same loud.

But the house could not be the problem because I've alredy moved to an other country since I first heard this noise.

So there is not much option left..

Help me please, what should I do.
I can't listen to my music on good a volume, I can't enjoy my speakers or headphones at all.

I write down my current gear list:

CPU: C2Duo E6400
Motherboard: Gigabyte p35-ds3l
RAM: 2gb kingmax
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD2600XT
PSU: Enermax pro82+ 425W
HDD: Western Digital 500GB (WD5000AAKS)
Soundcard: Emu 0202usb
Mixer: Tapco Mix.60
Loudspeakers: Krk RP-5 (older versions)

I wire my mp3 player into the mixer and there is no noise through that.

I tried to record it in a software and there is nothing on the record..

So it must be analouge and it's coming from the PC.

I managed to capture it in my iAudio's (mp3 player's) voicerecorder. I put it next to the loudspeaker.
on the link below you should be able to listen to it or download it, it's a small 200kb waw file.
in the first 23 seconds it's just the noise itself, I do nothing on my computer. after 23 I open a window in my computer and start to drag it from one place to an other on the desktop. you can here the noise gets more intense.
later I start a music just to compare.. the noise is still in the backround.

zSHARE - V001.WAV

the only thing I didn't try is to do a proper grounding to my pc.
I don't know how to do that tho.

Help me please

 

[Uncle Erik]

The problem is your computer, and it cannot be traced to a defect in any particular component. A computer throws off RFI interference when it operates normally. The swiching power supply is noisy, but so are your fans, drives, various cables, and other parts. They radiate RFI and the sound circuits pick that up and put the noise into your headphones. There are shielding schemes, but that's about as easy as waterproofing the inside of your computer and you'd probably give yourself issues with heat.

The best way around it is to use an external DAC. I used one for awhile, but eventually moved to a dedicated CD player and turntable. No noise from either.

 

[selkin]

All the case fans are turned off. I had a passive vgs card before. I changed my old PSU to an FSP PNF (pretty good quality), and I changed that to an Enermax psu(top quality) just a week ago. I changed my cpu, and changed motherboard, along with the hard disk. Everything remained the same.

ok.

but why is it so loud? I'm pretty shure I'm not the only one who is listening / making music on a PC with an allright soundsystem. And others does not have this noise.

regarded the DAC. I use an external usb soundcard. emu 0202. that considers as a DAC, I'm I right?

thanks for your help by the way.

 

[selkin]

this is just popped into my mind.
firstly I was reading an article about a noisefiltering card a couple of months ago.
iXBT Labs - HIS iClear: Filtering Out Graphics Card Noise

secondly I just realized that I was using Ati Radeon Sapphire graphic cards since I changed my Asus TNT1. It was an ati9550, then an ati9600, and now it's an HD 2600XT.
How about that...

any Sapphire owners?

do you think this radiation travels circuitway or it's a proper radiation... I mean it extends in radial way... or how can I say this in english nicely

D

 

[Quaddy]

dont waste your money on a VGA noise filter, as it may not be the cause.

get an external, electrically isolated usb->spdif box like the trends audio 10.1 or similar and go digital and the noise wont be in your audio chain after that

 

[wackyterbacky]

Hi:

Your problem sounds very similar to the problem that I just solved. At least check out this thread I posted a few days ago:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/so...solved-407529/

If you have any questions about how to find the settings, send me an email.

 

[selkin]

thx, I'll look into it.
have you listened the sampel I linked before?
was yours the same type of noise?
cheers

 

[selkin]

just checked the DPC latency with the software you were talking about. it stays bellow 500us
all IDE channels on DMA mode. the only thing which is not clear is the Device Type under the advenced options. it's on Auto Detection mode. I could set to "None". But I think this is a different thing.

Thanks for your help though

the DPC checker might prove useful later.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Uh, it's still probably your power supply.

Quality of the unit does not matter when we're talking stray RF. The unit might be built to last 100 years, with premium components and cost $3,000. A switching power supply, by its very nature, is a noisy beast. This is like whining about the existence of an exhaust note on a $100,000 car or the wind noise off the ocean at a $1,000,000 beachfront condo. The noise has nothing to do with quality, the noise has to do with the nature of what you are using.

Again, the simplest and most direct method of fixing this is to move the DAC outside of your computer. There is a subforum here specifically to deal with this. Before you buy another part, get a DAC.

 

[punk_guy182]

i HAD THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM COMING FROM MY COMPUTER. I SWITCHED FROM COAXIAL TO OPTICAL AND NOW I AM A GETTING A CRYSTAL CLEAR SOUND WITH NO CRACKLING BUZZING SOUND OR A LOW HUM.

I STRNGLY RECOMMEND YOU SWITCH TO OPTICAL IF YOU are using coaxial.
Coaxial conducts electricity that may contain interference and optical trasmits light that only contain the data.

 

[selkin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Uh, it's still probably your power supply. Quality of the unit does not matter when we're talking stray RF. The unit might be built to last 100 years, with premium components and cost $3,000. A switching power supply, by its very nature, is a noisy beast. This is like whining about the existence of an exhaust note on a $100,000 car or the wind noise off the ocean at a $1,000,000 beachfront condo. The noise has nothing to do with quality, the noise has to do with the nature of what you are using. Again, the simplest and most direct method of fixing this is to move the DAC outside of your computer. There is a subforum here specifically to deal with this. Before you buy another part, get a DAC.

Thank you for your advise

I did one last thing though. bought a cheap (but new) nvidia graphic card. it's a matter of days to get the delivery.
If things are not turning out any better after I installed the card, I'm goint to get a decent DAC.
Probably I'll just switch to optical whatever the the results are, I got fond of the idea to close out RFI from the my system.
thx again.
I'll update on the nvidia though.
I'm kinda curious

 

[m0ofassa]

It's RFI/EMI that is very audible in direct sound output. Suggest you mute windows sounds (and set the sound scheme to "none" in the control panel) and then swap to something like Asio4all/wasapi/kernel streaming. This gets around most (if not all) of my EMI/RFI.

 

[obobskivich]

I love how nobody has actually read his system specs, and sees that he's using an external USB device already

and instead just wants to chant the myth of RFI being the issue

first of all, I've got my CI Audio (K701's), JVC (ESP-10's), and Yamaha (NS-777 loudspeakers) amps connected directly to my PC via analog (OH GOD) using my INTERNAL X-Fi Prelude, and I have zero hiss (however if I loop these three through each other, I can pick up enough noise to notice it at ridiculous volume levels)

so the myth of RFI is bunk as far as I'm concerned (don't care how much you wanna scream it, first of all, if all of those components really did put out as much noise as you said, audio noise would be the least of your concerns)

second of all, like I posted, he's already using a USB solution, as he posted in the first post, and all you keep posting is "BUY A USB DAC BUY A USB DAC", reading and re-reading is sometimes required I guess *rolleyes*

to the op
try running your loudspeakers straight out of that 0202, and pull that mixer out of the signal path, see if that cleans things up a bit


oh and just to throw it out there, Enermax is far and away from "top quality", but they are a good manufacturer in recent years (and erik, while I do know that SMPS does = noise, he's already got the external solution you're crying for, not to mention that SMPS doesn't always = intrusive noise)

 

[m0ofassa]

you can still get RFI/EMI on USB outputs if your case is poorly shielded.

 

[FallenAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0ofassa /img/forum/go_quote.gif you can still get RFI/EMI on USB outputs if your case is poorly shielded.

You think ANY cases are RFI/EMI shielded? Unless the case are made of steel and aluminum plates, they'll miss one or the other.

First try to see if you're really getting RFI/EMI interference, then scream for "must be external".

I have yet to hear a single USB->S/PDIF converter that sounds better than my EMU0404PCI (no competition to my ESI Juli@ I2S, but that's not even a fair fight).