A/V Speaker interference and general issues.

Hey guys, I recently bought the Corsair SP2500 and a Xonar DG, but I'm having two interference issues. The first is that my speakers make a noise whenever I scroll up and down in Opera, which is apparently a sound/gfx driver issue, but I'm not entirely sure of this.

The other problem, which is more major, is that there is what appears to be line noise at higher volumes. Here is a voice clip of it that I recorded over MSN. It's not the greatest but it should give a basic idea: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22278546/Ghost_13_10_2011%4014_30_32.wav

I've tried moving the sub further away from my PC, to no avail, as well as updating my sound drivers. Any suggestions? They're nice speakers but they've given me nothing but trouble so far.

And another thing, is there any way to prevent the DG audio centre from defaulting its settings all the time? It's quite a nuisance, as it always sets itself to headphones. >.>

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

I used to have problems like this with my audio, in my instance its becasue I have quite alot of equipment in this room, and alot of mains cables and mine was mains interference - I solved it by getting much better audio cables, thick shielded cables. But that might not be an option for you (unfamiliar with the speakers - I use amps and speakers, so changing cables is easy) - before i changed my cables, I was able to minimise the interference by moving the cables around - the cable that produced the worst "noise" on my system was a really crappy phono cable. See if you can move about the cables and improve anything.

 

Couldn't one of those inline ferrite cable blocks help?

 

50/60Hz coming from the main power line ? Unfiltered power supply circuitery ? Hallogen light plug on the same line ?

 

The SP2500's connect the satellites to the sub by proprietary 4-pin connectors, similar to those for the CPU on a mobo. Sub to the sound card is using Male RCA to Male 3.5mm.

 

Do you have the same problem if you connect the SP2500 to a portable device (MP3 player, iPhone, etc..) ?

 

Nope, perfectly fine. I haven't tested it with onboard sound as I disabled it and I haven't turned my PC off yet.

EDIT: There is slight interference with my SNES though, if I use the RCA cables directly to the sub. No where near as bad as my PC though.

 

Could it be a ground loop between your sound card and the SP2500 amp ?

 

I did some googling as I'm not really audio inclined but I'm not entirely sure. My PC, monitor and speakers are all on the same power strip, but I unplugged the speakers and tried them in the socket next to the power strip (but on the same wall socket) which didn't help. The cable isn't long enough for me to test a different wall socket altogether. Would you be able to elaborate please?

EDIT: Last test it would appear I was also picking up some radio station, albeit faintly. Couldn't work out what language it was, but it was definitely not English.

 

What I think is that the 50/60 Hz from the power network is flowing along with the audio signal through the jack cable (which doesn't occur with portable device since they are power with DC battery). This result in a constant 50/60 Hz signal (that comes from the Sub then).

Ground loop can occur when connecting 2 devices between them. This can be avoided by using an optical connexion (is available) or if the receiving device has an input transformer (providing galvanic isolation). Ground loops results in hum on your speakers.

 

Unfortunately, these only have Line In and Aux inputs so optic is out of the question. So what does that mean I'm going to have to do?

 

Ok just to try something:
-> Have only your computer speakers plug directly to your sound card. No microphone or line In sources
-> Then go in Sound Panel of Windows, under the recording AND playback tabs, make sure that every input sources are set to Volume 0 and muted. Do the same for CD Audio, MIDI, and Aux, well everything except the one that outputs music when you play an MP3 or play a movie or something (it has a different name for every sound card)

Does it help?

 

Nope, doesn't seem to make a difference at all.

 

Ok last thing.. try moving the sound card to another PCI slot (if you have another one)
Can you try the sound card on a different computer?

 

I can do both, yes. I have 2 spare PCI slots, but I don't think it'll fit in one of them because I think my GFX card is in the way. I have a spare PC I can test it on too. I'll get back to you in a bit.

 

I really think this is a ground loop problem



Especially since the SP2500 comes with a earth grounding on its power cord.

 

Changed PCI slots and the same thing occurs. I haven't tried the sound card in my spare PC, but I did try it in my spare PCs onboard and there was no interference whatsoever. I could try it on my PCs onboard, but I'd have to go to the BIOS and enable it. Shall I try that?

 

So could I try getting a longer power cable and trying it on a different outlet?

 

probably. How is you sound card connected to the sub ? miniJack or RCA ?

 

Using one of these. 3.5mm goes into sound card, RCA plugs into sub.