Jd007
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2010
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Hi guys, I've been experiencing a very weird problem with my sound card and external amp, and have done a lot of testing to try to isolate the issue but still cannot figure out why. So I'll describe everything in detail and I'm hoping that one of you could tell me what's wrong. Thanks in advance.
My gear setup: PC sound card (Creative X-Fi Titanium HD and ASUS Xonar Essence ST, problem with both) RCA line out -> Little Dot MK III headphone amp -> Sennheiser HD-650, all connections with premium shielded RCA cables
Problem: whenever my graphics card (GTX 680) gets any amount of load, I get a background interference sound (hissing/buzzing) through the headphone out of the LD amp. The amount of noise seems to be proportional to the level of GPU load (maximum when GPU is at 100% load, monitored through GPU-Z).
I have tried/found:
I am seriously puzzled as to why this is happening. The fact that the headphone out of the Xonar is clean makes me think that it is a problem with the Little Dot, but then when I connect the amp to my iPhone output, it's clean again, which means it is not picking up wireless interference from my computer.
UPDATE: so basically it seems that whenever I have output from my computer (internal and external) to the Little Dot, I get interference when the GPU is on load. Both computer and LD together causes the issue, taking away one of them and the issue goes away (e.g. computer sound card out to headphones directly is fine, iPhone out to LD is fine). I have been thinking getting an external DAC, but the test with the external USB DAC is making me doubt whether that would work. Perhaps optical output to a supported external DAC would help, but I am no longer as confident as before after testing with the Pico DAC.
Right now I'm thinking of 2 possibilities:
I was wondering does anybody running a setup similar to mine has experienced similar problems. Also if anybody has any idea as to what the issue might be, please help me. Thanks again.
UPDATE 2: I have confirmed that this is indeed a ground loop problem with the Little Dot. I bought a cheat plug today (just for testing), 3-prong to 2-prong power adapter (removing the ground plug of the LD), and the noise is completely gone. Obviously I won't run with the cheat plug because it is very dangerous, but at least this confirms the problem. I will either go for an external DAC (must use optical input because USB is affected by the ground loop problem), or get a ground isolator. Thanks for everyboddy who replied!
PS: Anybody who has suggestions/experience on how to eliminate ground loop noise, please feel free to let me know!
My gear setup: PC sound card (Creative X-Fi Titanium HD and ASUS Xonar Essence ST, problem with both) RCA line out -> Little Dot MK III headphone amp -> Sennheiser HD-650, all connections with premium shielded RCA cables
Problem: whenever my graphics card (GTX 680) gets any amount of load, I get a background interference sound (hissing/buzzing) through the headphone out of the LD amp. The amount of noise seems to be proportional to the level of GPU load (maximum when GPU is at 100% load, monitored through GPU-Z).
I have tried/found:
- Started with Titanium HD, problem occurred, and I thought maybe it's a shielding issue, so I made a custom aluminum foil based shield and wrapped it around the card. No improvements
- Switched to Xonar Essence ST (PCI version, with complete Creative driver uninstall with driver sweeper prior to clean install of Xonar driver). Same thing happened
- Switched to Xonar Essence ST's built-in headphone out (taking the LD out of the loop), no interference (problem gone)
- Back in the LD amp's headphone out, this time with the amp's power connected to a separate circuit (separate from the computer) in the house (routed from another room). No improvements
- Switched the LD's input to my iPhone, no interference when GPU is at full load (problem gone)
- UPDATE: Using the Xonar headphone out (which is clean when connected straight to headphones) to LD's RCA input then using the LD's headphone out, same interference problem
- UPDATE: Using my Pico external USB DAC/Amp connected to the computer USB, then feeding the Pico's headphone out to the LD's RCA input, same interference through the LD's headphone out, but noise volume seems to be lower; headphones connected straight to the Pico get clean signal though, no noise
I am seriously puzzled as to why this is happening. The fact that the headphone out of the Xonar is clean makes me think that it is a problem with the Little Dot, but then when I connect the amp to my iPhone output, it's clean again, which means it is not picking up wireless interference from my computer.
UPDATE: so basically it seems that whenever I have output from my computer (internal and external) to the Little Dot, I get interference when the GPU is on load. Both computer and LD together causes the issue, taking away one of them and the issue goes away (e.g. computer sound card out to headphones directly is fine, iPhone out to LD is fine). I have been thinking getting an external DAC, but the test with the external USB DAC is making me doubt whether that would work. Perhaps optical output to a supported external DAC would help, but I am no longer as confident as before after testing with the Pico DAC.
Right now I'm thinking of 2 possibilities:
- The DAC stage of the sound cards are getting interference from the GPU, but the Xonar's headphone amp stage is able to somehow filter this out while the Little Dot picks it up. Sadly if this is the case there is nothing that can be done (both cards are shielded already and I've tried to shield it even more with my makeshift aluminum wrap)
-
A ground-loop problem with the Little Dot, the ground level of the RCA input becomes different from the ground level of the amp power input when my computer draws more power (due to GPU load). I will try to pick up a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter for the amp tomorrow to see if this is the issue.I have ruled this out as ground loop problems happen only when devices are NOT connected to the same power outlet, but all my devices are on the same surge protector
I was wondering does anybody running a setup similar to mine has experienced similar problems. Also if anybody has any idea as to what the issue might be, please help me. Thanks again.
UPDATE 2: I have confirmed that this is indeed a ground loop problem with the Little Dot. I bought a cheat plug today (just for testing), 3-prong to 2-prong power adapter (removing the ground plug of the LD), and the noise is completely gone. Obviously I won't run with the cheat plug because it is very dangerous, but at least this confirms the problem. I will either go for an external DAC (must use optical input because USB is affected by the ground loop problem), or get a ground isolator. Thanks for everyboddy who replied!
PS: Anybody who has suggestions/experience on how to eliminate ground loop noise, please feel free to let me know!