[ROBSCIX]

@Radical53, did you talk to the manufacturer about the issue?

 

[Radical_53]

Yes, I contacted Auzen about the issue. They say they are aware of it but I haven't heard of any positive fix since I opened the ticket in January. They told me to isolate the PCI bracket which I had already done and now I'm waiting for an answer. There were a couple of people on the Auzen forum that had similar problems, some which went away by the isolated bracket and others where the problems persisted.

@leeperry: We have high voltage here, 230V to be exact. I even use surge protector which is supposed to filter all kinds of things out before it reaches my gear.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Yes, seems like something different then the fix they suggested. I will see what I can find out by talking with some friends that have the Forte's also and see if they have any ideas.
I know you said you cannot move the card because of the place your GFX card is but can you put in another GFX card just to test the card in another slot?

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radical_53 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I even use surge protector which is supposed to filter all kinds of things out before it reaches my gear.

I've been through everything you've tried...the ground noise comes up through the PCI connector ground, it's a lost cause...waste your time and money if you like(try not to make too much white hair, though

)

Auzen are the biggest clowns in history w/ these ground issues...only on their very latest board(s?), they've finally decided to isolate the computer ground from the audio ground..yet, the problem is still very much there

Buzzing noise in Forte headphone only during 3D audio - [H]ard|Forum

you didn't mention what your headphones are btw, I'd guess that they're very low impedance/high sensitivity?

 

[Radical_53]

Yes, low impedance Ultrasone HFI-780 with only 35 ohms.

Thanks to Robscix I found another input that wasn't fully "muted". I had them deactivated in the system properties and I had them muted. Yet I hadn't set the volume sliders to "0" on all of them, resulting in some additional noise.
I found this while using the phones directly connected to the card. So now I can use this combination to listen or use the small, portable Meier amp in between (it seems like it muffles the intereference/background noise in a way, maybe due to its impedance?).
I still can't use the larger stationary amp as the background noise there is still the same. I'm very curious what I should think about this.
Two out of three combinations work and show no problems now that all inputs are "dead".
The bigger amp though still is a pain to listen to because of all this additional noise, just the same noise that I was able to hear on the other combinations before some issues were fixed (inputs for the headphone only use, electrical tape for the use with the smaller amp).

 

[leeperry]

it's not quite your computer's fault if the amp doesn't filter the ground...the first batch of Burson HA-160 also didn't, and it's supposedly been fixed in the latest versions(virtual ground etc etc).

the ground is dirty in a computer, because that's where all the components flush.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radical_53 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, low impedance Ultrasone HFI-780 with only 35 ohms. Thanks to Robscix I found another input that wasn't fully "muted". I had them deactivated in the system properties and I had them muted. Yet I hadn't set the volume sliders to "0" on all of them, resulting in some additional noise. I found this while using the phones directly connected to the card. So now I can use this combination to listen or use the small, portable Meier amp in between (it seems like it muffles the intereference/background noise in a way, maybe due to its impedance?). I still can't use the larger stationary amp as the background noise there is still the same. I'm very curious what I should think about this. Two out of three combinations work and show no problems now that all inputs are "dead". The bigger amp though still is a pain to listen to because of all this additional noise, just the same noise that I was able to hear on the other combinations before some issues were fixed (inputs for the headphone only use, electrical tape for the use with the smaller amp).

Glad we got you some workable sound that you can enjoy for awhile until we figure out what is going on with your external amp.

 

[Radical_53]

Thanks alot for your help

I'll get in contact with the manufacturer of the amp and hope they can provide me with another kind of idea how to solve the issue.
To sum up the situation how it is right now:

Headphones connected directly to the amped out of the card -> great sound, no background noise or hiss at all. It's perfectly "dark" when no sound is being played, even at max volume
Headphones connected to the line out of the card -> not even closely enough volume

Headphones connected to the Meier Headsix which gets its signal from the amped out of the card -> perfect clean sound, no hiss or interference at all, perfectly dark even at high volumes (I normally set the card to 75% and do the rest with the Meier)
Headphones connected to the Meier Headsix which gets its signal from the line out of the card -> not enough volume even when the amp is set at "high gain"

So these two combinations are totally fine. Now the fun starts with the big amp.
I'm using an impedance adapter of 120 ohms as without it I get a hiss even at idle. The manufacturer says this is due to the low impedance headphones I'm using, stating the amp is supposed for phones between 32 and 600 ohms (my cans have an impedance of 35 ohms).
When I connect the amp to the amped out of my soundcard now I get this background/interference noise. It changes with PC activity, not with volume settings (neither the knob on the amp nor the PC volume settings). The volume of the intereference stays the same, no matter what I do. It changes in tone depending on what the PC does, but I can't make it louder or quieter with anything I do.
Whe I connect the amp to the line out of the soundcard, the intereference is just the same as on the amped out. It is just as loud and doesn't change with any of the volume settings.
The noise stops when the PC is turned off or not connected to the amp.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radical_53 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The noise stops when the PC is turned off

ahhhh, it's great when problems are so easy to solve after all.

 

[enigman]

I had an almost identical problem with a Juli@ card, and was able to solve the problem

There was ground interference traveling up the ground wire of my monitor, down the DVI cable to the onboard graphics card on my mobo which must have been poorly insulated, and from there to the vid card and out to my LDIII.

If I unplugged the DVI cable, the noise went away. If I unplugged the monitor, the noise went away (but was still there if I left it plugged in and just turned off).

In the end, I replaced the mobo with a mid-range ASUS and the problem went away (I had a mid-range MSI before). I would imagine some sort of ground isolator on the monitor might do the trick too, or perhaps a DVI switch where you could decouple of the DVI cable easily (but make sure the ground isn't shared on the switch...)

Good luck - these sorts of things can be a real pain to solve, and it's so frustrating

- but clean sound at the end makes all the troubleshooting worth it!

 

[leeperry]

hehe, I tried to take out the ground pins and the surrounding shielding on a VGA cable...ground loop was still there

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radical_53 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks alot for your help I'll get in contact with the manufacturer of the amp and hope they can provide me with another kind of idea how to solve the issue. To sum up the situation how it is right now: Headphones connected directly to the amped out of the card -> great sound, no background noise or hiss at all. It's perfectly "dark" when no sound is being played, even at max volume Headphones connected to the line out of the card -> not even closely enough volume Headphones connected to the Meier Headsix which gets its signal from the amped out of the card -> perfect clean sound, no hiss or interference at all, perfectly dark even at high volumes (I normally set the card to 75% and do the rest with the Meier) Headphones connected to the Meier Headsix which gets its signal from the line out of the card -> not enough volume even when the amp is set at "high gain" So these two combinations are totally fine. Now the fun starts with the big amp. I'm using an impedance adapter of 120 ohms as without it I get a hiss even at idle. The manufacturer says this is due to the low impedance headphones I'm using, stating the amp is supposed for phones between 32 and 600 ohms (my cans have an impedance of 35 ohms). When I connect the amp to the amped out of my soundcard now I get this background/interference noise. It changes with PC activity, not with volume settings (neither the knob on the amp nor the PC volume settings). The volume of the intereference stays the same, no matter what I do. It changes in tone depending on what the PC does, but I can't make it louder or quieter with anything I do. Whe I connect the amp to the line out of the soundcard, the intereference is just the same as on the amped out. It is just as loud and doesn't change with any of the volume settings. The noise stops when the PC is turned off or not connected to the amp.

Wait, you are driving your headphone amplifer using the card headphone output? Connect your external amplifer to the line out of the card and report back. If you have been driving your external amplifer using your card head amplifer this may be where you are getting all the noise from.
Well atleast it doesn't feel like all is lost now that you have some sound that works, just this thing with the amps!

 

[ronkupper]

!! Solution Ahead !!

Well that was a frustrating day so I wanted to go ahead and post what finally worked for me in all the places I've looked.

So I head this annoying problem of hum / buzz / hiss / high pitch computer noise whenever I had HD activity or scroll the screen with the mouse.

I have:
Cakewalk UA-1G USB Audio Interface (Soundcard)
M-Audio BX5a Monitors

The noise was happening only when the USB cable from the soundcard was connected through the computer.

I have tried most of the things I've read (luckily I had everything needed):
(Non of these helped)
- Mute every input source (Mic, line-in, etc)
- Disable onboard sound
- Connect the USB sound card to an external, self powered USB hub
- Installed a PCI USB card in connected the USB sound card to it
- Connect the ground from a USB cable directly to a wall ground (tried a cable tv and AC outlets to no use)
- Different BIOS settings (Spread Spectrum, Voltages, IRQ, etc)
- Different software settings (From windows and from the UA-1G interface)

The only thing that worked:

--> Disconnect the ground from the speakers!

For me it was easy as I had cables which had ground connectors for a different region which uses a male ground pin from the power outlet. Here were I live we use a female ground pin in the outlet so the cable I happen to have had only 2 PINs and therefore practically disconnected the ground from the speakers outlets.

Silence, finally!

The phenomena is called 'Ground Loop' or 'Earth Loop' AFAIK, since for me it got resolved and I didn't care having the speakers not grounded I didn't continue to research the subject.

Just for your information, next on my list of things to try were:
1. Hum eliminators such as - http://www.ebtechaudio.com/humxdes.html
2. Balanced cables (which my monitors support but my Audio Interface didn't)

Hope this help and saves someone time,

Best of luck

Ron




 

 

[Sandbo]

I know I am bumping a really old post, but I didn't find people solving it so I just wanna share with you how I just SOLVED mine.
 
My computer is a 2-year-old built, with Xonar Essence ST running without a problem from the first day, on Win2012 r2 (a clean install last week)
This morning I was talking with friends on Skype and there wasn't any hiss sound in the background, 
however, in the evening, without any change in hardware, I heard very obviously some hiss sound using the same earphone on line out (the same config as I used in the morning).
 
I cannot figure out why, I tried to move the cable, disconnect the USB devices and the monitor, nothing helped.
I disconnect all the power sources and wait for a few hours, that didn't solve the problem.
The sound is especially loud when you are moving mouse, typing, or anything you do to put a load on the computer.
My next inspection is using ASIO, I tried to tune the volume to maximum in Foobar, but then I played some tracks with silence at the beginning......guess what, no hiss at all!
So it shouldn't be direct electronic interference from other components of any kind that caused the noise. Then what I did next solved the problem.
 
Solution:
I tried to remove the sound card driver, reboot the computer, get into BIOS, reset BIOS setting it to default, don't restart yet, keep resetting for a few times....save change and reboot......and you will find (or it's my case only?), by doing this, the computer will automatically shutdown to write on the CMOS, power on, and shutdown again and then power on, in total 2 times and it will go back normally to the Windows.
Then I install the same sound card driver I removed, reboot, guess what, the problem is gone!
 
Hope this help if you are suffering from the same.

 

[The Solver]

I had the same problem as you and I have tried everything. Rebuilding my computer like five times and still no dice. Well, I have fixed it. What was recommended to me was buying ground lifts and put them on my studio monitors' three prong plugs. The ground lifts are: http://www.amazon.com/45086-3-Prong-2-Prong-Electrical-Adapter/dp/B00166TT3G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722601&sr=8-1&keywords=three+prong+to+two+prong+adapter&pebp=1421722602185&peasin=B00166TT3G. Hope this fixes your problem.