| Author |
Message |
Guest
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 Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:49 am Post subject:
Noise from PC sound card |
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I am trying to use a PC to feed mp3s into a whole house audio system.
I am experiencing a lot of interference/noise. For example, when the
hard drive is accessing data, you can hear a whizzing sound in the
music.
I am wondering if getting an external (USB) sound card would eliminate
this problem. I am currently using the onboard sound card on the
motherboard.
P.S. I already have a standa lone MP3 player and don't want to use that
anymore.
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GregS
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:36 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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In article <1131475783.860253.78450@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I am trying to use a PC to feed mp3s into a whole house audio system.
I am experiencing a lot of interference/noise. For example, when the
hard drive is accessing data, you can hear a whizzing sound in the
music.
I am wondering if getting an external (USB) sound card would eliminate
this problem. I am currently using the onboard sound card on the
motherboard.
P.S. I already have a standa lone MP3 player and don't want to use that
anymore.
|
I'm sure that would get rid of noise being generated from nearby cards.
How well the external card is built will also matter. You may still need
to combat ground loop noise. Fiber optic external PCM decoder, or even
a simple RCA ground loop isolator may be needed.
greg |
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Codifus
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:39 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I am trying to use a PC to feed mp3s into a whole house audio system.
I am experiencing a lot of interference/noise. For example, when the
hard drive is accessing data, you can hear a whizzing sound in the
music.
I am wondering if getting an external (USB) sound card would eliminate
this problem. I am currently using the onboard sound card on the
motherboard.
P.S. I already have a standa lone MP3 player and don't want to use that
anymore.
The noise must be because of something else. Bad grounding perhaps? |
Google for the ground loop phenomenon. It's happens alot, as it did to
me, when coneecting a PC to a stereo.
CD |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 2:34 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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I'll add that the noise happens even w/o hookin git up to my stereo.
Just listening to my PCs speakers (which are decent quality), you can
hear it. I also tried hooking up headphones ot the sound card and you
can hear it there too. |
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Codifus
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:42 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I'll add that the noise happens even w/o hookin git up to my stereo.
Just listening to my PCs speakers (which are decent quality), you can
hear it. I also tried hooking up headphones ot the sound card and you
can hear it there too.
Yup, that's some of the symptoms of ground loop noise. |
CD |
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Codifus
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:02 pm Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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Codifus wrote:
| Quote: | michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
I'll add that the noise happens even w/o hookin git up to my stereo.
Just listening to my PCs speakers (which are decent quality), you can
hear it. I also tried hooking up headphones ot the sound card and you
can hear it there too.
Yup, that's some of the symptoms of ground loop noise.
CD
Sorry. Let me clarify. The noises you here even when not connected to |
the stereo are the symptoms of a ground loop connection. The ground loop
could also be from the fact that the stereo and PC are plugged into the
same circuit. So even though they are not connected, they somehow still are.
CD |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:09 pm Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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I am saying that even without a stereo- just plugging a pair of
headphones into my PC- there is still noise. |
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GregS
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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In article <1131552548.781560.221430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I am saying that even without a stereo- just plugging a pair of
headphones into my PC- there is still noise.
|
I believe some cards are just noisey, and try changing the sound card position
if its a card.
Just putting on a pair of headphones can cause a ground loop. The capacitance
between your head and phones could cause problems. Touch different
objects and see if it changes.
greg |
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Ben Bradley
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:18 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:45:03 GMT, szekeres@pitt.edu (GregS) wrote:
| Quote: | In article <1131552548.781560.221430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
I am saying that even without a stereo- just plugging a pair of
headphones into my PC- there is still noise.
I believe some cards are just noisey, and try changing the sound card position
if its a card.
Just putting on a pair of headphones can cause a ground loop. The capacitance
between your head and phones could cause problems. Touch different
objects and see if it changes.
|
This seems really unlikely to me. I suspect the 'ground loop' is
between the soundcard, power supply and drive ground or power
connection, or the soundcard isn't as immune to power supply
variations as it might be.
>greg |
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Codifus
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:31 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I am saying that even without a stereo- just plugging a pair of
headphones into my PC- there is still noise.
If it's definitely not a ground loop, then it could be the soundcard or |
the driver. OEM soundcards will tend to be inexpensive to implement and
suffer in the quality of their implementation. I notice that my desktop
at work which uses the OEM soundcard, I can actually hear some
whirring/sashing sounds when I move my mouse.
You don't really need to get an external USB soundcard. There are plenty
of good PCI soundcards too.
I've owned a turtle beach santa cruz and presently have an Echo MIA,
both PCI cards. Both were connected to my stereo with no noise issues
once I solved my ground loop problem.
CD |
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DaveL
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:32 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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I think the sound card is just not good enough for what he intends to do
with it. There probably aren't too many that are up to the task. I have
SoundStorm which is supposed to be pretty good, relatively speaking. But I
would not even think to try to amplify it and pipe it throughout the house.
I know it would sound like crap. I don't think sounds cards in general were
designed to do this well. Add to that the crappy mp3 sound and forget it.
DaveL
"Ben Bradley" <ben_nospam_bradley@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:ihi4n15cmtoqc1sll2mk35f50i031ifuc9@4ax.com...
| Quote: | On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:45:03 GMT, szekeres@pitt.edu (GregS) wrote:
In article <1131552548.781560.221430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
I am saying that even without a stereo- just plugging a pair of
headphones into my PC- there is still noise.
I believe some cards are just noisey, and try changing the sound card
position
if its a card.
Just putting on a pair of headphones can cause a ground loop. The
capacitance
between your head and phones could cause problems. Touch different
objects and see if it changes.
This seems really unlikely to me. I suspect the 'ground loop' is
between the soundcard, power supply and drive ground or power
connection, or the soundcard isn't as immune to power supply
variations as it might be.
greg
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Arny Krueger
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:13 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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<michaeljc70@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1131475783.860253.78450@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com
| Quote: | I am trying to use a PC to feed mp3s into a whole house
audio system. I am experiencing a lot of
interference/noise. For example, when the hard drive is
accessing data, you can hear a whizzing sound in the
music.
I am wondering if getting an external (USB) sound card
would eliminate this problem. I am currently using the
onboard sound card on the motherboard.
|
Given that the Creative SoundBlaster MP3 USB is so
inexpensive and so readily available, why not give it a try? |
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Codifus
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:42 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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DaveL wrote:
| Quote: | I think the sound card is just not good enough for what he intends to do
with it. There probably aren't too many that are up to the task. I
have SoundStorm which is supposed to be pretty good, relatively
speaking. But I would not even think to try to amplify it and pipe it
throughout the house. I know it would sound like crap. I don't think
sounds cards in general were designed to do this well. Add to that the
crappy mp3 sound and forget it.
DaveL
"Ben Bradley" <ben_nospam_bradley@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:ihi4n15cmtoqc1sll2mk35f50i031ifuc9@4ax.com...
On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:45:03 GMT, szekeres@pitt.edu (GregS) wrote:
In article <1131552548.781560.221430@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
I am saying that even without a stereo- just plugging a pair of
headphones into my PC- there is still noise.
I believe some cards are just noisey, and try changing the sound card
position
if its a card.
Just putting on a pair of headphones can cause a ground loop. The
capacitance
between your head and phones could cause problems. Touch different
objects and see if it changes.
This seems really unlikely to me. I suspect the 'ground loop' is
between the soundcard, power supply and drive ground or power
connection, or the soundcard isn't as immune to power supply
variations as it might be.
greg
It's all in how you implement it. Just like everything else, there's |
good and bad in everything. You could pay $2000 for speakers by B&W or
get the blue light special from KMart that boasts a massive 12" woofer
and can handle 150 watts. Same goes for MP3. They can be encoded very
very well or very very badly. The bad ones tend to proliferate alot more
than the good ones. Ever heard of LAME? Take a walk over to
Hydrogenaudio.org
CD |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:59 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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I wound up getting an external Sound Blaster Live for $50. I figured
the internal was $30 and that could well sufrfer from the bus noise
problem.
The external sound card installed in 2 minutes and doesn't have the
background noise I was experiencing before. It seems like that is
going to work well. I am not saying the quality is like that of a high
end piece of audio equipment, but for feeding my whole house audio
system with mp3s, I think it is adequate. |
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Codifus
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Nov 14, 2005 5:41 am Post subject:
Re: Noise from PC sound card |
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michaeljc70@hotmail.com wrote:
| Quote: | I wound up getting an external Sound Blaster Live for $50. I figured
the internal was $30 and that could well sufrfer from the bus noise
problem.
The external sound card installed in 2 minutes and doesn't have the
background noise I was experiencing before. It seems like that is
going to work well. I am not saying the quality is like that of a high
end piece of audio equipment, but for feeding my whole house audio
system with mp3s, I think it is adequate.
Remember that the quality of the MP3 is affected by the encoding rate, |
AND the encoder itself. I encoded my music with LAME at variable 192
kbps. I found that, when listening through the stereo, there was some
noticeable compression and the music distorted at much lower volumes. I
re-encoded with LAME at 320 kbps and found it to be satisfactory even on
my stereo. I still catch some artififacts here and there. But the
dynamics of the music are preserved very well and the music sound nearly
as distortion free as the original files at loud volumes.
CD |
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