[arpus]

I'm getting these humming/buzzing noises when I have my headphones plugged straight to my PC. When I'm not playing any music, I can hear it, even when I move my mouse around it creates a low pitch noise, it's pretty annoying. It's worse when I'm playing a game and I'm idle in a lobby with no sound on. I do have a an older Logitech speaker set up which my headphone is connected to, that's connected to my mother board. I don't have a sound card or anything, and my mother board is 3-5 years old, which isn't helping.
 
I only noticed these sounds after buying a V-Moda M100, with my headphones plugged straight to the mother board, the humming noise is a bit less, but the sound is very weak, not getting enough power to the headphones. With the Logitech sound system, the EMI noises increases a bit, but I"m getting a lot more power to my head phones.
 
I was considering buying a DAC even before I noticed these humming noises, so I really want to buy one especially if it will help reduce or even eliminate these annoying noises. Maybe something around $100, I was looking at fiio e07k/E10k, it doesn't have to be portable, I will be using it mainly with my PC since these V-Moda M100s sound pretty good with an iPod. I'm no audiophile by any means, but I can tell the difference between a good pair of headphones.
 
TLDR: Will a DAC eliminate EMI noises, and Could you guys recommend any DAC's around $100 price range, thanks in advance.

 

[PurpleAngel]

FiiO E10K or Schiit Fulla USB-DAC-amp
Chances are going to an external DAC should reduce or eliminate the buzzing issue.

 

[arpus]

  FiiO E10K or Schiit Fulla USB-DAC-amp
Chances are going to an external DAC should reduce or eliminate the buzzing issue.

I hope so, when I plug my headphones to an ipod, there is no buzzing noise, it actually sounds a lot better than listening to music on my PC. I'm not familiar with the Schiit Fulla yet, but I'll look into it, thanks for your help.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Do the Logitech speakers have a 3-prong power cord? If they do, try using one of these on the speaker power cord.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-Gray-Polarized-Grounding-Adapter-R55-00274-0GY/100356839

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I hope so, when I plug my headphones to an iPod, there is no buzzing noise, it actually sounds a lot better than listening to music on my PC. I'm not familiar with the Schiit Fulla yet, but I'll look into it, thanks for your help.

 
Usually on-board audio is dictated by manufacturing costs, over audio quality.
Unless your will to pay well over $150 for a motherboard.

 

[arpus]

Do the Logitech speakers have a 3-prong power cord? If they do, try using one of these on the speaker power cord.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-Gray-Polarized-Grounding-Adapter-R55-00274-0GY/100356839

 
Unfortunately it's just a normal plug, it's the logitech thx z-5300e.

   
Usually on-board audio is dictated by manufacturing costs, over audio quality.
Unless your will to pay well over $150 for a motherboard.

I bought my PC used, the motherboard looks to be $180 new (GIGABYTE 890FXA-UD5) back in 2010, either way, plugging my headphones straight to the mother board, barely give it any power.
 
http://www.legitreviews.com/gigabyte-890fxa-ud5-amd-890fx-motherboard-review_1393
 
 
As of right now, I'm looking at the Fiio  E10K, SMSL M2 (I read here on head-fi some people were having noise issues with this particular dac... so idk. and also the Schiit Fulla  that PurpleAngel recommended. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Unfortunately it's just a normal plug, it's the Logitech thx z-5300e.
I bought my PC used, the motherboard looks to be $180 new (GIGABYTE 890FXA-UD5) back in 2010, either way, plugging my headphones straight to the mother board, barely give it any power.
http://www.legitreviews.com/gigabyte-890fxa-ud5-amd-890fx-motherboard-review_1393
As of right now, I'm looking at the Fiio  E10K, SMSL M2 (I read here on Head-fi some people were having noise issues with this particular dac... so idk. and also the Schiit Fulla  that PurpleAngel recommended. 

 
The GIGABYTE 890FXA-UD5 comes with a Realtek ALC889 audio processor, so it's decent, for on-board audio.
So I'm guess it's about roughly equal to a $20 Xonar DG sound card.

 

[suburbanite]

First, you already have an onboard DAC on your PC, albeit one that's either low in quality or of decent quality but it's located in the confines of your PC where it picks up electromagnetic interference (EMI) or mechanical noise (HDD, fans) or both.
 
All that said, you've got two choices.
 
Your first choice is to to just not listen to music from the headphone port, AKA the 'headphone out' of your PC. Just listen out of a standalone music-only device such as a Sandisk Sansa, an iPod or a Walkman- they're all dedicated music-only devices. They are also referred to by the term Digital Audio Player, or DAP. Right now, this is what I'm doing- I'm listening to music through my Sansa Clip+ while typing on my Lenovo notebook. I gave up on trying to listen to music on my notebook because there is just too muich (white) noise in the sound through my notebook's headphone out.
 
Your second choice is to listen to listen to music from your PC, but not from it's headphone out. Instead, you have two subchoices- one is to use a PCI/e soundcard, such as the HT Omega Claro in either is PCI or PCIe version. You may find the sound through this to be "clean" or not- you'll just have to try it.
 
Your second subchoice is to go with a DAC/AMP that's located outside your PC's case altogether. A lot of people do this, esp if they have really noisy PC's due to a noisy CPU cooler, multiple HDD's or whatever. I tried this with a USB DAC/AMP from Yulong and found the audio to be very distorted, though it may have been my PC's "fault" as my USB port may have been "dirty," meaning it may have been poorly isolated from the EMI emanated by my motherboard. Who knows, and who cares? After that, I got my HT Omega eClaro which worked, and I've lived happily ever after.
 
You can also buy the DAC and Amplifiers as separate components, but I don't think you're at the stage yet. I'm not and won't be- I just listen through either my Sansa Clip+ or my HT Omega eClaro. Works for me.

 

[suburbanite]

On yeah- a lot of people use a stereo receiver if it has its own DAC/AMP. In my living room entertainment center, I have an Onkyo TX-NR509 receiver which has both HDMI and optical inputs- I don't know if the optical input is TosLink or SPDIF, but they're all optical audio.
 
So my sound goes PC HDMI OUT > Television HDMI IN > Television Optical Audio OUT > Stereo Receiver Optical Audio IN > Stereo Receiver Headphone OUT > whatever headphones I wanna use.
 
The sound is clear and powerful- probably not "reference" quality but it works fine.

 

[arpus]

  On yeah- a lot of people use a stereo receiver if it has its own DAC/AMP. In my living room entertainment center, I have an Onkyo TX-NR509 receiver which has both HDMI and optical inputs- I don't know if the optical input is TosLink or SPDIF, but they're all optical audio.
 
So my sound goes PC HDMI OUT > Television HDMI IN > Television Optical Audio OUT > Stereo Receiver Optical Audio IN > Stereo Receiver Headphone OUT > whatever headphones I wanna use.
 
The sound is clear and powerful- probably not "reference" quality but it works fine.

suburbanite, thanks for the detailed response. I do have an ipod touch 4, which sounds pretty good for music with my v-moda headphones, no problems there. As of now I plug my headphones to my logitech speakers, which seems to give it more juice to my headphones, but I still get the EMI noises. Plugging my headphones straight to the mother board sounds really bad, I do have the latest Realtek drives.
 
The reason I want to get a dac is not just for music, I play some online games on my PC, and anytime there is a silent moment in the game, I can hear the buzzing noises, or when I'm in the game lobby, it gets really annoying. Like I said, I hear these noises even when I move my mouse around with nothing running, just on my desktop. 
 
So I'm hoping to eliminate these noises with a DAC while improving my sound quality for my headphones.

 

[suburbanite]

 

  On yeah- a lot of people use a stereo receiver if it has its own DAC/AMP. In my living room entertainment center, I have an Onkyo TX-NR509 receiver which has both HDMI and optical inputs- I don't know if the optical input is TosLink or SPDIF, but they're all optical audio.
 
So my sound goes PC HDMI OUT > Television HDMI IN > Television Optical Audio OUT > Stereo Receiver Optical Audio IN > Stereo Receiver Headphone OUT > whatever headphones I wanna use.
 
The sound is clear and powerful- probably not "reference" quality but it works fine.

suburbanite, thanks for the detailed response. I do have an ipod touch 4, which sounds pretty good for music with my v-moda headphones, no problems there. As of now I plug my headphones to my logitech speakers, which seems to give it more juice to my headphones, but I still get the EMI noises. Plugging my headphones straight to the mother board sounds really bad, I do have the latest Realtek drives.
 
The reason I want to get a dac is not just for music, I play some online games on my PC, and anytime there is a silent moment in the game, I can hear the buzzing noises, or when I'm in the game lobby, it gets really annoying. Like I said, I hear these noises even when I move my mouse around with nothing running, just on my desktop. 
 
So I'm hoping to eliminate these noises with a DAC while improving my sound quality for my headphones.

 
I'm still (!!) learning audio vocabulary, but my understanding is there are two sounds you can hear- the 'signal' which is what you want to hear, and 'noise' which is what you don't want to hear. This is exemplified when you're having a phone conversation- the other person's voice is the 'signal' and any hissing, buzzing or static is 'noise.'
 
I see you game on your PC, so I have a question- what is the build configuration of your PC? Do you overclock your CPU? Do you have a graphics card with a noisy fan? Does your case have multiple fans? Are you putting a big load on your PSU which causes its fan to turn on?
 
If your PC has lots of fans that are often running and accelerating and therefore making lots of noise, I suggest avoiding a PCI/e sound card as it may pick up some of that noise, but take my advice with a grain of salt- there is no real consensus re whether you can have a PCI/e sound card that will not pick up noise from other components in your PC. Some insist that no matter how much EMI shielding a PCI/e sound card may have, it will pick up some noise- others say that with good EMI shielding, a PCI/e soundcard can work just fine.
 
I personally am using an HT Omega eClaro PCIe soundcard in my desktop PC, but my PC is a quiet, lower-powered productivity-only PC with a non-overclocking CPU and only one case fan, so it just doesn't make much noise. 
 
Does your PC make a lot of noise with its fans? If so, I suggest you use a DAC/AMP that's located outside of your PC case.
 
Make sure to export your audio from your mobo via the SPDIF port your mobo has; avoid the USB ports as they probably pick up some EMI.
 
I suggest you use something like what you can see in this www search. 
 
Just whatever you buy, make sure it has the following

1. both a DAC and AMP onboard, as many products are just one or the other
2. an SPDIF 'in' port, as a USB input can pick up EMI distortion from your mobo

 

[arpus]

   
I'm still (!!) learning audio vocabulary, but my understanding is there are two sounds you can hear- the 'signal' which is what you want to hear, and 'noise' which is what you don't want to hear. This is exemplified when you're having a phone conversation- the other person's voice is the 'signal' and any hissing, buzzing or static is 'noise.'
 
I see you game on your PC, so I have a question- what is the build configuration of your PC? Do you overclock your CPU? Do you have a graphics card with a noisy fan? Does your case have multiple fans? Are you putting a big load on your PSU which causes its fan to turn on?
 
If your PC has lots of fans that are often running and accelerating and therefore making lots of noise, I suggest avoiding a PCI/e sound card as it may pick up some of that noise, but take my advice with a grain of salt- there is no real consensus re whether you can have a PCI/e sound card that will not pick up noise from other components in your PC. Some insist that no matter how much EMI shielding a PCI/e sound card may have, it will pick up some noise- others say that with good EMI shielding, a PCI/e soundcard can work just fine.
 
I personally am using an HT Omega eClaro PCIe soundcard in my desktop PC, but my PC is a quiet, lower-powered productivity-only PC with a non-overclocking CPU and only one case fan, so it just doesn't make much noise. 
 
Does your PC make a lot of noise with its fans? If so, I suggest you use a DAC/AMP that's located outside of your PC case.
 
Make sure to export your audio from your mobo via the SPDIF port your mobo has; avoid the USB ports as they probably pick up some EMI.
 
I suggest you use something like what you can see in this www search. 
 

Again thanks for the great response, really appreciate it. My PC is some what of a gaming PC, but it's pretty quiet and even with multiple fans, but I hear some of these noise even when it's idle, but barely noticeable. I think you are right, it gets loud, and annoying when when I have been running  game for a while and the temperatures are running high/fans working harder.
 
I have 2 fans on the front, one on the back and a large 200mm fan on top. Here are the rest of my PC specs:
 
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz (stock, I haven't overclocked my CPU) with Stock heat sink
GTX 570 Graphics card (quiet fan)
6 GB ram
Corsair 850 Modular PSU (Silver Rated)
 
My PC is pretty quiet and runs pretty cool in idle or while loading.
 
I definitely would rather get a DAC to improve my headphones sound while eliminating the EMI noises instead of just getting  sound card.
 

  Just whatever you buy, make sure it has the following

1. both a DAC and AMP onboard, as many products are just one or the other
2. an SPDIF 'in' port, as a USB input can pick up EMI distortion from your mobo

 
Doesn't the Fiio 10ek have all of the above? If so, but I don't think it has the SPDIF port...Do you know of any other similar DAC/AMP with a SPDIF port?

 

[billybob_jcv]

I've never had a problem with EMI from a USB cable, but if you do, you could try a cable with a ferrite bead: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?seq=1&kpid=5458&format=2&p_id=5458&CAWELAID=1329450913&CAGPSPN=pla%26catargetid=320013720000066114%26cadevice=c&gclid=Cj0KEQiA8rilBRDZu_G8hszXraoBEiQABlB9Y2IwdbNqWp6k1VUTVm2QE8ybFdiT1FFhWxTZj4si8rsaAmIY8P8HAQ

 

[suburbanite]

Looking at post #13, I am reminded that I auditioned many headphones through a NuForce Icon DAC which was connected not via optical but instead through usb and it worked fine. No noise. Granted, it was at an audio dealer who had a fancy, super-thick, expensive-looking USB cable, but it did work, noise-free.

So I need to rescind my denunciation of usb cables for audio use. I had bad "USB luck" when I tried it with my desktop PC, but you might have better luck.

I'd try the cable shown in post #13 of only because, unlike many boutique audio cables, it is reasonably priced.

Try it.

As for desktop usb dac/amp brands you can browse, you can also look at nuforce, topping, hifiman, etc.

 

[suburbanite]

... But if you want to see some optical DAC amps, click on this URL:

https://www.google.com/search?q=optical+dac+headphone+amp&client=ms-android-google&espv=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sboxchip=Images&sa=X&ei=OGqvVK34LobnoATKvoKABg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=360&bih=511