[xenograft]

Hello,
I have been reading this forum for a while, but now I have a question. I have been using M-audio USB card, but the driver has to be installed almost on a daily basis on my new XP Media Center PC. Yesterday I bought an E-MU 0404 USB card, and it seems to work ok, except that it transmit the computer noise via USB cable straight into my amplifier (Sherwood S-5000III). As soon as I plug the USB cable a background buzz appears- rather annoying once I pass 50% volume setting on the amplifier. It has not been present with M-audio. Now I am lost - should I return E-MU to the store? Should I try different cable? Any other budget external card worth trying? I want to have a decent desktop music system, but so far I am rather disappointed. Thank you for your comments.

 

[Spare Tire]

Not awnsering your question but i think the reason why you have to reinstall your driver for m-audio is that windows thinks its USB audio driver is better and switches it right after you install. All you have to do is go to your device manager > the sound card > drivers > update driver, from there you get to the hardware update wizard, select to chose the driver manually > do not search, i will chose the driver to install > and if you've already tried installing the M-audio drivers once, then you'll have two options in the next screen, one being the M-audio driver and the other one being window's generic USB audio. Select the one from m-audio and everything should work now.

 

[uraflit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xenograft /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello, I have been reading this forum for a while, but now I have a question. I have been using M-audio USB card, but the driver has to be installed almost on a daily basis on my new XP Media Center PC. Yesterday I bought an E-MU 0404 USB card, and it seems to work ok, except that it transmit the computer noise via USB cable straight into my amplifier (Sherwood S-5000III). As soon as I plug the USB cable a background buzz appears- rather annoying once I pass 50% volume setting on the amplifier. It has not been present with M-audio. Now I am lost - should I return E-MU to the store? Should I try different cable? Any other budget external card worth trying? I want to have a decent desktop music system, but so far I am rather disappointed. Thank you for your comments.

the emu 0404 usb has these ground switches on the bottom of the unit. try and fiddle with those to see if it eliminates the buzzing. if not, i guess you should return it... i have had trouble with it too; dvd movie audio playback lags and jitters, i can't seem to get ASIO to work with using 100% of my cpu, and it uses up a lot of cpu anyways with directsound.

i just ordered an optical toslink cable to see if i can get the problems solved that way (AV-710 > E-MU 0404 USB)

 

[Ahriman4891]

I've heard of that happening, but very rarely. What motherboard and power supply do you have in your computer? How old are they? How many other USB devices are active? Do you use 2-pin or 3-pin (grounded) power plugs?

 

[noguilt]

I have a different noise problem with my new E-MU 0404 USB. About every minute while music is playing (only) there is a very noticeable 2 seconds of crackling static. Tried various music players (my usual, foobar 2000, as well as Media Player Classic, JetAudio, and XMPlay).

CPU usage is in the 15-25% range. Noise does not correlate with mouse movements, cable movement, etc. I.e., not moving or doing anything at all does not help. Makes no difference whether it's mp3 or FLAC. The noise is heard from both the analog output hooked up to a stereo system and from headphones hooked up to the headphone out.

This doesn't seem to be a ground loop problem, but just in case, i tried switching the ground lifts on the bottom of the 0404.

Called E-MU who advised me to update the BIOS on my computer, which coincidentally i had just done about a week ago. (Computer is a Dell Latitude D620.) Otherwise, they were of no help.

Any suggestions?

 

[sejarzo]

EDIT: I didn't realize that the OP put this up nearly 4 months ago, and that was apparently his sole post. Anyway, the following is what I did to isolate and fix a similar situation when connecting the 0404 USB to a speaker rig:

Xenograft, I'm about 95% certain that you have a ground loop problem with a component attached to your Sherwood, or the Sherwood itself, or with a ground differential between the outlets to which the various devices are attached.

I have never had a problem with running the 0404 USB by itself, or with a headamp, and listening on phones when connected to either my notebook or my desktop--but all pieces were connected to the same outlet and/or surge unit.

I made up some cables to run from the 0404 USB to my monoblocks to run my speakers.....still no problem, even though the monoblocks were connected to a different circuit. However, I then decided to throw the sub into the mix via an Outlaw ICBM, and suddenly, I got just what you describe--with either my notebook (on AC power) or my desktop--noise that would stop as soon as the USB cable was disconnected. The ground lift switch position on the 0404 USB had no impact--the buzz/hum existed with them in either position.

What I traced it down to was the cable connected from the LFE output on my HT receiver to the LFE input on the Outlaw. The HT receiver is plugged into a surge strip on a different circuit.....and when disconnected it, the hum went away. My solution was to buy a small isolation transformer that connects to the LFE input of the Outlaw, into which I connect the cable from the HT receiver's LFE output. It's physically impossible to put all the gear on the same circuit in my listening room, so I just have to live with that as the solution.

My first suggestion is to disconnect all other components from the Sherwood other than the 0404 USB, and then connect the computer, the 0404 USB wall wart, and the Sherwood all to the same AC outlet or surge strip. If that does get rid of the hum, then start adding back components to see which one creates the problem.

 

[Ahriman4891]

I think it's a synchronization problem. Are you connecting 0404 through USB or S/PDIF? Also, if you are using foobar, try increasing the buffer size and upping the thread priority (File -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Playback -> Thread Priority, set it to 1).

 

[sejarzo]

noguilt.......which version of Foobar are you using, presuming that you are using it via USB? For some reason, 0.9.? (don't recall which one it was I used) kept "forgetting" settings for the ASIO driver for the 0404 USB on both my notebook and desktop......so I went back to 0.8.3, and everything has been great.

My settings on the "ASIO (dll version)" tab under Preferences>Playback>Output are......

Device: ASIO E-MU 0404 | USB

Thread priority: Time critical (also have used Highest with no ill effect)

Buffer size: 15

Shift output channels: 0

Leave the "Use Direct Input monitor" box unchecked.

On the Preferences>Playback tab, make sure that the output data format is set to "24-bit fixed-point padded to 32 bit"; you will have to check the box at right to get that option to show up.

Also, make sure that there are absolutely no Active DSP's in the DSP manager, too.

On the other hand, if you are using S/PDIF.......then the problem is indeed loss of synch, but I've only had that happen with a flaky TOSLINK connection. I didn't get crackling, I got what sound like "zips" every few seconds.

 

[noguilt]

Thanks for the reply, sejarzo.
Yes, i'm using foobar 0.9.4.3, which does not seem to have most of the settings you describe for 0.8.3, at least not in the locations you name. So i guess i'll need to find, download and install the earlier foobar version. Do you know if it is possible to have both versions installed simultaneously? I'd rather not lose my foobar configuration, in case the older version doesn't solve the problem and i decide to stay with 0.9.4.3 (and return the 0404).

i'm using analog out, so i'm not using S/PDIF.

again, thanks.

 

[senny-ftw]

Have you tried plugging into different USB ports? Possible ground issues.......

 

[sejarzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noguilt /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the reply, sejarzo. Yes, i'm using foobar 0.9.4.3, which does not seem to have most of the settings you describe for 0.8.3, at least not in the locations you name. So i guess i'll need to find, download and install the earlier foobar version. Do you know if it is possible to have both versions installed simultaneously? I'd rather not lose my foobar configuration, in case the older version doesn't solve the problem and i decide to stay with 0.9.4.3 (and return the 0404). i'm using analog out, so i'm not using S/PDIF. again, thanks.

Sorry about the confusion in this thread....we are dealing with two different problems in one thread, and the OP's is apparently "obsolete" if he only posted once way back when.........xenograft had a ground problem, but noguilt has something different.

As to yours, noguilt:

I wish I had access to a PC with 0.9.x on it so I could "translate" my settings into something that made sense to you.

And when Ahriman asked if you were using USB or S/PDIF, he was really asking about the input to the unit, not whether you were using the analog or digital outputs. Meaning, he was asking whether you were connecting the E-MU directly to a USB port on your PC, or you were using the E-MU as a "standalone" DAC by running a coax or TOSLINK from an internal soundcard or motherboard sound into the digital input of the E-MU.

I presume that you have it connected via a USB cable, right?

Anyway.....could you please post the settings from the output pages that you do have in 0.9.x? Maybe then we can figure out if something is not quite right there.

 

[kyotousa]

Anyone know why does my CPU usage reach to 100% when I click stop button with foobar/AISO?

When I change to DS there's no problem.....so it's only with AISO.

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installed aiso4all and solved the problem