[Jaeger 77]

Hello!
I recently purchased a dedicated sound card for my PC,ASUS STRIX RAID PRO. The sound is very good in all aspects,but i have one little issue with this card... I detected an buzzing noise coming from the left earcup of my HyperX Cloud headphones especially when in games,and little to no where i'm on desktop. That noise is audible only if the headphones volume is very high,i mean over 70%.
Of course i never use that high level of sound because i dont want to hurt my ears,but that buzz is there and i'm not very confortable with it.
https://www.asus.com/Sound-Cards/STRIX-RAID-PRO/
I play a lot on my PC and i need high quality surround sound,that's why i choosed an internal sound card and not an external stereo DAC,in case anybody's asking...
I mounted the card away from the VGA,also i reinstalled the audio driver but with no avail.
I heard the only solution on my problem is to try something like this: http://www.audiovision.ro/produs/tr2070-ground-loop-isolator-35-mm-jack-male-to-35-mm-jack-female/?utm_source=price-ro
How reliable this noise isolators are? Is this the only answer for me?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Can we assume you have plugged the HyperX Cloud into something else, turned the volume up high and had no noise issue?
 
Have no idea if the ground loop isolator will fix the issue.
 
Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the Strix?
 
As a long shot.
Try turning the computer off, remove Strix card, boot computer up and let windows full boot up,
then turn computer off and reinstall Strix card, boot up computer, check for buzzing.
 
I'm going to assume if the card still has the buzzing noise, it's a defective card and needs to be replaced (under warranty).

 

[Jaeger 77]

HyperX Cloud mounted in Xonar D2,no issues! Also onboard audio disabled,card moved away from GPU,like 3 PCI-E slots under and fresh driver install - buzzing noise still audible at high volume. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  HyperX Cloud mounted in Xonar D2, no issues! Also on-board audio disabled,card moved away from GPU,like 3 PCI-E slots under and fresh driver install - buzzing noise still audible at high volume. 

 
Guess if i was you.
I would return the Strix and reinstall the Xonar D2 and install the Unified Xonar Drivers.
Maybe get an external headphone amplifier to use with the Xonar D2 and plug the HyperX Cloud into the external amp.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  That noise is audible only if the headphones volume is very high,i mean over 70%.
Of course i never use that high level of sound because i dont want to hurt my ears,but that buzz is there and i'm not very confortable with it.

 

But how'd you get to 70% in the first place if you claim you'd never really use it? If you can use it at that level for half an hour at least then chances are there might be some material with a lower digital gain - like BluRays - that would require that level or close to it. That would mean you'd run into that noise zone often enough for it to be annoying, rather than always staying well below it for absolutely everything.

 

On the flipside though as much as that isn't supposed to be there I wouldn't really expect a soundcard to be as quiet as Meier and Violectric amps either.
 

 
I play a lot on my PC and i need high quality surround sound,that's why I chose an internal sound card and not an external stereo DAC,in case anybody's asking...

 

Well some people use the SPDIF output of a soundcard to feed an external DAC-HPamp, although in your particular case, I wouldn't bet on that solving the problem (ie if the noise was related more to impedance and headphone driver sensitivity then yeah, that's an option to try out, but not in this case).
 

  I mounted the card away from the VGA,also i reinstalled the audio driver but with no avail.
I heard the only solution on my problem is to try something like this: http://www.audiovision.ro/produs/tr2070-ground-loop-isolator-35-mm-jack-male-to-35-mm-jack-female/?utm_source=price-ro
How reliable this noise isolators are? Is this the only answer for me?

 

You can try that given the price but if you just got the Strix and you're still within the return period I'd just return it and try some other soundcard just in case. Maybe try an external card like the SB E5, since that one runs via USB, that way you can try another path for the digital signal and power than the PCI expension slot.

 

Or maybe even try to get a warranty replacement for the card if you can't return it, for all you know that particular card is malfunctioning.

 

All else fails, you can try Razer Surround, or buy a new motherboard with virtual surround DSP, if the latter will also be an upgrade on a lot of other features like overclocking headroom, fan control (some of the newer boards can sync the intake and exhaust fans with the GPU temp instead of the CPU), etc.

 

[Jaeger 77]

I forgot to tell that my graphics card has some coil noise... Is it possible for sound card to get buzzing from vga?

 

[PurpleAngel]

I forgot to tell that my graphics card has some coil noise... Is it possible for sound card to get buzzing from vga?

 
I'm not the expert.
But I guess it's fairly safe to say a graphics card can cause noise issues with an internal sound card.
The more graphics cards inside a case, the more possibility (chance?) of there being a noise issue.
Is your single graphics card causing the noise issue?  Have no idea.
 
Could the computer power supply being causing the noise issue?

 

[Jaeger 77]

I have an Corsair RM750x as PSU with 0 coil noise and a single graphics card.
I'll try to "play" with impedance settings,because i find out that higher level can cause unwanted noises.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I forgot to tell that my graphics card has some coil noise... Is it possible for sound card to get buzzing from vga?

 

Yes. Easiest thing to try is an external soundcard, but the noise can still go through USB (and maybe even SPDIF) so try a USB cable with a ferrite core and if that fails, try a USB isolator. All else fails, replace the (presumably green) graphics card (with a red one; and then just deal with the thermals).

 

 

I'll try to "play" with impedance settings,because i find out that higher level can cause unwanted noises.

 

It's normally the opposite (ex Shure's SE5xx line, low imepdance with high sensitivity on too high gain, higher noise source/amp), but in the case of soundcards, high impedance is met with (either automatically or manually selected) with high gain. Very high gain for what components a soundcard has and everything around it (considering the Rega Ear has +26dB gain and is only really noisy vs Meier, Violectric, O2, etc). 

Basically in other computers that high gain setting might not be a problem, but in your case, the graphics card is a noise contributor that it picks up. One other thing you can try is to override the "impedance" setting (ie it's actually gain) if you can and keep it on lower gain levels, then check if increasing the volume setting to compensate still brings up that noise. if it doesn't, then I'd say that's good enough.

 

[Jaeger 77]

The noise increase while i up the volume and decrease gradually.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

The noise increase while i up the volume and decrease gradually.

 
You mean the noise increases then decreases? Or do you mean it increases and decreases gradually with volume adjustment?

 

[Jaeger 77]

Increase/decrease with volume adjustment.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Increase/decrease with volume adjustment.

 

If it's regardless of GPU load it can have less if not nothing to do with the GPU. Look into the DSP settings and see if you can override the "gain" or whatever they call it on that one. Mine has three "modes," one of them being "Exciter Mode," labelled as "For high impedance headphones." My eyes just rolled when I went through the settings on my U3.

The marketing departments really need to cut the crap on these. It's not like people won't end up on a forum asking "hey what does 'gain setting' do?" But nope - Marketing says "RGB all the things, tempered glass that, and fancy names for every feature yeehaw!!!"

 

[Jaeger 77]

There is no DSP tab in software,just right-click on the headphones icon and choose between 3 levels of impedance from low to high gain. No matter what gain i set,the buzzing is still present at a certain sound level,as i already described.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  There is no DSP tab in software,just right-click on the headphones icon and choose between 3 levels of impedance from low to high gain. 

 
DSP is Digital Signal Processor. It's not a specific tab or button or some marketing term, it's the chip in the soundcard and is what it really needs to be called sans marketing BS, and the software suite you install with the soundcard controls the functions of that DSP and some other functions in the analogue stage, like the amp stage gain.
 

  No matter what gain i set,the buzzing is still present at a certain sound level,as i already described.

 
Then it has more to do with power and other electrical noise inside the case. Even with a good power supply sometimes this can still happen, and no way to be sure if a motherboard would or GPU will cause such a problem. The mobo is more likely if the noise doesn't change along with GPU load, but then again, it'll be easier to just swap out the soundcard since 1) you can still return it and 2) it takes a lot less work.