Ground Loop Isolator doesnt work with microphone?

[Eiren]

Hello!
I've got quite a specific problem and i hope you can help

So I've got a Philips Fidelio X2 together with a V-Moda BoomPro microphone.
At the end of the cable i use the Y-Cable (which came with the mic) to split the speaker/microphone signal. Everything is 3.5mm.

Additionally i use a sound card in my computer (Asus phoebus). Sadly the Line-In of that sound card suffers a great amount of coil whine so im forced to plug my microphone into my onboard sound card.

Now here comes my problem: When i plug the speaker cable into my Phoebus and the microphone cable into the line in of my onboard sound card, i hear quite much whine in my speakers because i create a gound loop.
I bought this ground loop isolator: https://www.amazon.com/AUKEY-Ground...ywords=aukey+ground+loop+noise+isolator&psc=1

If i my speaker cable into this thing and from there go to the Line-Out of my pphoebus, all whine is gone and the loop is fixed. But I think i sacrifice quite some audio quality, if i have this thing for my speaker signal.

So my plan was to just plug my microphone (because i dont mind some sacrifices in mic-quality) into this loop isolator and go from there to the line-in of my onboard sound card.
But for some reason, no signal reaches my computer. It just doesnt work and my voice does not pass the isolator.

My first thought was, that there is a difference between how the microphone and speaker jacks work, but both 3.5mm jacks of the Y-Cable look completely identical. Like on the lower half of this picture: http://media.technicles.com/2017/03/audio-jack-differences-mic.jpg

Im a lil clueless to be honest and i really hope you guys can help me =)

Greetings!

 

[MindsMirror]

Microphone, headphone, and line level signals have the same type of connector, but they are very different types of signals. It looks like that ground loop isolator is meant to work on line level signals, and you are trying to use it on microphone and headphone signals which is why you lose audio quality with headphones and why it doesn't work at all with the microphone.

Sadly the Line-In of that sound card suffers a great amount of coil whine so im forced to plug my microphone into my onboard sound card.

A microphone should go into a mic input, not a line input. Looks like they are separate jacks on your card. Had you tried that already? There should not be a ground loop issue if the mic and headphones are plugged into the same device, so hopefully the mic input on the Phoebus just works.

 

[Eiren]

Thank you for your reply!

and you are trying to use it on microphone and headphone signals which is why you lose audio quality with headphones and why it doesn't work at all with the microphone.

Let me clarify: I dont really know whether i loose quality (The sound is just a little bit quieter). I cant tell, whether im loosing much quality (havent tested it too much though). But after spending 200€ on headphones and having a phoebus (which, beside all that gamer stuff, has quite good audio output) i dont really want to have the risk of sacrificing anything in regards of speaker sound quality.

But you might be on the right track here... So from what i understand you are saying is that the gound loop isolator -might- expect/support line level signal (which might be the reason why my speaker signal is a bit quieter) and the microphone signal is so weak, that it doesnt make it through at all?
I imagine turning up the amplification from 20db to 30db in my phoebus wouldnt suffice to kinda make the signal "strong" enough? (which apparently doesnt work for me) Please bear with me here, Im the definition of a beginner when it comes to sound HiFi =D

So I imagine... that im kinda screwed here (havent found a ground isolator for microphones yet) or do you have any other ideas?

A microphone should go into a mic input, not a line input. Looks like they are separate jacks on your card. Had you tried that already? There should not be a ground loop issue if the mic and headphones are plugged into the same device, so hopefully the mic input on the Phoebus just works.

Oh yeah, I miswrote that. =/ i meant the Mic-In. But Line-In and Mic-In doesnt make too much difference, because there is coil whine in both inputs (Have that card for like 3 years and had to deal with that stuff for quite some time =D)

Thanks for your help!

Greetings

 

[MindsMirror]

There is actually no good physical way I can think of to eliminate the ground loop without hurting quality when using that BoomPro cable and two sound cards. You would need to eliminate one of the Phoebus or onboard sound from the setup, or have one of them be battery powered, and neither of those are options in this case.

The most obvious option is a different microphone like the Antilon ModMic which doesn't merge the headphone and microphone grounds like the BoomPro does. Or connect the BoomPro and the headphones separately, then figure out some way to physically mount the BoomPro without having them electrically connected.