[Redvalley]

Ok, I just remembered something...
A few months ago I bought this new PSU (the Kingwin Platinum) and when I had everything connected back and the system on, I was playing with one of the fans, which had a cable extension, which had the pins exposed. Guess what happened? I shorted something

I heard a pop and I was sure I'll have a dead mobo. Fortunately, the PSU short circuit protection was up to the task and everything started normally afterwards.
Now, in retrospect, I'm thinking that something gave up and may have something to do with the symptoms described.
I should check the sound card in other computer.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

I'm not sure what adapter you are referring to - I have the speakers connected directly to the outputs of the card via phono (RCA) cables.

 
I meant the 2xRCA to 1/8" female jack cable that comes with the card. You can use it to drive headphones with the line output (which, other than having 100 Ω output impedance, works better than many people would expect), and check if there is any audible interference then. Although I expect it would not be noisy either.

 

[jakarujakpala]

I don't know if it's relevant. But this is my system:
 
Asrock Z77 Extreme 4
3570K
KRK RP 5" 
Focusrite Scarlett 212i
Gigabyte GTX 580 Super Overclock
 
My KRK's always pickup really high noise when the GPU is in full load. And my solution is to use balanced cables. That solved my problem. I don't know why or how. 

 

[tofu]

hi
 
saw that ny old thread was bumped. I ultimately ended up making better cables, which tamed the buzz a lot, but it was still audible when I raised my gain levels for theater listening
 
I finally ditched the xonar for an odac and everything seems solid, no matter what the gain setting. if you read the "1000 dollar audio rig thread" people think external dacs are pointless, but my personal experience clearly shows otherwise.