[a6laze]

I've an E-MU 1212m installed in my pc.
I reckon that internal pc noise would definitely infiltrate the circuitry of the sound card and reduce audio fidelity.
The thing is, I do not want to use an external dac as the 1212m already has a superb dac.
Is there any solution for my case?


Digressing, would using a y-splitter in my signal chain degrade the signal in a noticeable way? Currently in my set-up, a y-splitter is used at the analog output of my soundcard in order to transmit the signal to both my headphone and speaker set-up at once.


Digressing further, my Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 speakers emit a fairly noticeable constant static noise when turned on. The subwoofer does not emit this noise. The noise remains even when the volume is turned to zero on the speaker volume control and increases only when the volume is turned to the max.


Need some light shed on these three issues, thanks.

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by a6laze /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've an E-MU 1212m installed in my pc. I reckon that internal pc noise would definitely infiltrate the circuitry of the sound card and reduce audio fidelity. The thing is, I do not want to use an external dac as the 1212m already has a superb dac. Is there any solution for my case?

So are you actually suffering from this or is this more of a 'what-if' question? If this is the former, check PatchMix to see where this noise is coming from (Analog or Digital input). IME the E-MU card does not exhibit interference symptoms commonly found with on-board sound adapters. If this is the latter, don't worry about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a6laze /img/forum/go_quote.gif Digressing, would using a y-splitter in my signal chain degrade the signal in a noticeable way?

It shouldn't and I bet you would be hard-pressed to hear a difference either.


Quote:

Originally Posted by a6laze /img/forum/go_quote.gif Digressing further, my Altec Lansing MX5021 2.1 speakers emit a fairly noticeable constant static noise when turned on. The subwoofer does not emit this noise. The noise remains even when the volume is turned to zero on the speaker volume control and increases only when the volume is turned to the max.

Is this sound evident even when they are not connected to a source? I suspect this is actually speaker 'hiss' which is inherent to the built-in amp and unfortunately (if true) cannot be eliminated, short of replacing the whole set with one that has less to no hiss.

Regards.

 

[a6laze]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorander /img/forum/go_quote.gif So are you actually suffering from this or is this more of a 'what-if' question? If this is the former, check PatchMix to see where this noise is coming from (Analog or Digital input). IME the E-MU card does not exhibit interference symptoms commonly found with on-board sound adapters. If this is the latter, don't worry about it. It shouldn't and I bet you would be hard-pressed to hear a difference either. Is this sound evident even when they are not connected to a source? I suspect this is actually speaker 'hiss' which is inherent to the built-in amp and unfortunately (if true) cannot be eliminated, short of replacing the whole set with one that has less to no hiss. Regards.

Thanks Zorander.

Regardin the speaker hiss, yes the sound exists even when disconnected from the source. When I first bought the speakers, there was no such problem. Does this mean the internal amp is slightly damaged? If yes, that would be puzzling as I've never knowingly done anything potentially damaging to the speakers nor its built-in amp.

 

[Zaubertuba]

My 1212m doesn't exhibit any kind of EMI/EFI problems like this, at least that I think I can hear.

I have the daughter card down at the very bottom-most pci slot of my computer case--it isn't even above the MB, so I reckon (and this is purely conjecture) that this might help somewhat. Physically separating the analog and digital sections of the card seems like it was a good design decision, from this standpoint.

Except...one weak point is the ribbon cable between the two cards. Apparently there's a silly-simple tweak some people have tried: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/sh...2-uses-115285/. I haven't done it, but it's on my list of "tweaks to check out." There's also a heatsink-grounding tweak actually recommended by AMD to suppress EFI on their processors.

One thing to consider is how noisy your PSU is. I had a chinese el-cheapo one I swapped out for a basic Seasonic, and it did seem to tighten the sound up a bit, though the difference was small enough I can't rule out "placebo effect."

For your other questions, x2 on the other replies thus far.