[mightymiff]

Hello genuises, I have a big problem. I have a new computer with an E-MU 1212m sound card connected to a pair of KRK Rokit 6 monitors. It all sounds nice and amazing, but...

For some reason my speakers snap and pop sporadically during playback (a lot). It is quite loud and I don't know what to do.

What could be causing this? How do I narrow down my problem and rule out various components so I can find the culprit?

As you probably know, this kind of trouble is quite abysmal. My stomach drops every time I hear the darn things pop.

Thanks friends.
(If head-fi doesn't cover this kind of stuff, please direct me to a forum that does).

 

[TopPop]

Are you using an ASIO wrapper plug-in in your music player?

 

[Bojamijams]

I can't help much other then say that maybe you have an IRQ conflict with your sounnd card. I'd also try using DirectSound to eliminate your computer's processing power with being unable to keep up with ASIO and its buffer setting.

Likewise, TopPop, that is a great avatar

 

[TopPop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bojamijams /img/forum/go_quote.gif Likewise, TopPop, that is a great avatar

Thanks! I also had these ones for Christmas and New Years, respectively:

 

[mightymiff]

ASIO wrapper, I don't know what it is. Default windows media player. My audio plug-in is the newest Vista 64-bit driver for the E-MU. (Edit: apparently the E-MU does run with an ASIO driver, so yes...)

I'm connected to the speakers via unbalanced TS connection. Both my soundcard and speakers deal with a balanced TRS connection, but the cables I bought don't have the ring.

The audio also snapped today while viewing video on the internet (not solely an audio playback problem). I've also noticed that it doesn't clip at low volume levels (I'm just noticing all of this as the computer and all the equipment is 3 days old).

I'm played around with volume controls (in WMP, Patchmix DSP, main system volume, speaker control volume) seeing if I could find a setting that won't pop at higher volumes but it doesn't seem to change much.

The popping seems to only go through one speaker at a time, but it cycles through both (independently, that is).

I live in an apartment complex. Perhaps the wiring is bad. When my girlfriend uses the hairdryer she has blown the breaker a few times. All of my equipment is plugged into the same socket--do you think it is too much power? I haven't lost power or kicked the breaker though.

I'm leaning toward the idea that a power conditioner would help, but am not entirely sure how to test my hypothesis. Yes, I am something of an idiot.

 

[Uncle Erik]

The noise, most likely, is coming from the inside of your computer. The switching power supply is a major culprit, but so are the fans, drives, just about anything with an AC motor. Computers are electrically noisy inside. The power supply will throw off RF (radio waves) and your soundcard will pick those up like an antenna. That's where the noise comes from, not through a power cord.

That's why a lot of people feed their computer into a DAC. You can eliminate most, if not all, of the computer noise that way.

 

[milkweg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TopPop /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks! I also had these ones for Christmas and New Years, respectively:

Is that really you?

 

[Tez]

I had a similar problem to this a few months back. I was using Vista 64 on an ASUS motherboard with an ESI Juli@ with no problems. Unfortunately the motherboard died so i switched back to my old nForce 4 board which is notorious for sound issues. I found I would get pops and crackles when scrolling my mouse wheel, which had never happened before.I tried ASIO/WASAPI etc with no avail. Strangely enough i installed XP and the problem went away.

Like Uncle Erik says, it can be any one of a number of components. Some trial and error unplugging some of your components may solve your problem. Is your sound card in the PCI slot furthest from your graphics card or very close to a fan for example?

 

[apatN]

My guess is that your problem is driver related. Creative and Vista 64.. Hmm..

 

[saintalfonzo]

Listen to Uncle Erik and get an external dac - doesn't need to be expensive, mine was $100 - and an ASIO plugin for your player. It cured all of the popping and artifacts for me. With my cheapo Zero dac and spdif output I still had popping/clicking issues until I bypassed all the garbage in my laptop with ASIO.
ASIO driver, ASIO installation, Winamp ASIO Foobar installation help, ASIO USB DAC, High End HiFi

 

[Logistics]

If you're running XP, install with no ACPI, but first try to find the latest drivers for the hardware in your system, including the one for your video-card, which is the culprit in many systems I have worked on.

 

[TopPop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is that really you?

Oh, no no no.

I'm 26.

But I hope to be that guy someday!

 

[mightymiff]

First of all, thank you all for your input. You seem to be telling me that I am either dealing with hardware interference or have a driver problem.

I'm not doubting you all, I'm just curious as to why you don't think the wiring system in my apartment could be to blame...

If I was having an RF interference problem, wouldn't the popping/cracking in my speakers happen in both simultaneously, or not necessarily? It seems to me that one pops and then the other (I can't confirm this yet, but it also sounded as though my monitor popped too--it has built-in speakers but they are disabled).

I do have an Antec NeoPowerHE PSU. It has an automatic voltage switch (that is, it is without one of those red switches between 120 and 240 volts). Do you think this is my problem?

Are you telling me that I basically wasted $150 on a sound card because I would be better off with an external DAC? I mean, isn't that basically what my soundcard does---meaning that if I were to purchase a DAC, my soundcard would be useless except for perhaps the optical output.

What are my options here?

My card is a couple of empty PSI slots down from my video card (which does possess a fan). There aren't any other fans incredibly close to the card. My plan is to regulate the fan control on my video card to see if I can get the popping to intensify. (Note-this does nothing, the fan doesn't seem to affect audio at all. And strangely my music doesn't seem to be popping at all right now. I have done literally nothing that might have fixed my problem.)

Anything else you would have me do? Can we rule out interference? When my computer was popping, it was doing it frequently. I was not multitasking or anything, the sound just wanted to pop a lot.

 

[milkweg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TopPop /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh, no no no. I'm 26. But I hope to be that guy someday!

Yea, he looks blissful.

 

[milkweg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightymiff /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you telling me that I basically wasted $150 on a sound card because I would be better off with an external DAC? I mean, isn't that basically what my soundcard does---meaning that if I were to purchase a DAC, my soundcard would be useless except for perhaps the optical output.

Yep.

Get an EMU 0404 USB to solve your woes. Costs under $200.00 USD. External DAC/soundcard isolates it from the PCs notorious internal RFI issues that depends on quality of mb. I have an Asrock mb that is really bad and even my Asus P5K is not perfect, but better than the Asrock. One PC has Seasonic PSU and the other has PC Power&Cooling PSU so there is nothing really better to go to to improve possible RFI from the PSU for me. EMU 0404 USB solved it though.