x-fi speaker squeeling

[ashiplikethat]

I see alot in these forum that people should always spend most of there money getting better speakers over getting a better sound card. I recently got x-fi fatal1ty to use with my Creative Inspire T6060 5.1 Speakers. Are these speakers crap for this sound card?

I have had a problem where during game play my speakers would make a squeeling noise for 30 second then not work again until i reset my computer.

any idea where i might have gone wrong?
it has happened 3 times all while playing world of warcraft.

 

[jap0nes]

Uh... you already had the speakers and you bought a new sound card, right? It may be a driver issue... have you tried updating?

as you asked, i dont think these speakers are the best suited to your sound card... your card has a snr of 109dB, and your speakers have 80...so you're not taking full advantage of your sound card with that...
In my opinion, if you're no audiophile on-board sound is pretty decent for gaming, music and video.

 

[KWH]

Check in your volume control, make sure a "digital" or "mic" slider isn't causing this. Individually mute each one. You may have to go into "options" and "properties" to add individual sliders. I've had similar noises cured by doing this.

 

[jap0nes]

yeah!!! that could be that effect that happens whey you set a high volume and you put your microphone near your speaker.. i dont know the name in english

 

[chuckshissle]

Reaper the driver or go to the website to see if there's a newer version you can download.

 

[ashiplikethat]

the problem i not feed back im sure of that.
i will try the muting and the latest driver from the site.
thanks for all the help i will reply if i still get the problem.

 

[kg4icg]

it's going to be feedback because you probably have your mic near the speakers and you haven't moved it yet or muted the mic. that is the only time you get a squeel from a soundcard. it's called audio feed back. move your mic or disconnect it. :twisted:

 

[astrallite]

Uh... you already had the speakers and you bought a new sound card, right? It may be a driver issue... have you tried updating?

as you asked, i dont think these speakers are the best suited to your sound card... your card has a snr of 109dB, and your speakers have 80...so you're not taking full advantage of your sound card with that...
In my opinion, if you're no audiophile on-board sound is pretty decent for gaming, music and video.

Heh, you are never going to find "SNR 109db" speakers. Ever. They don't exist. Speakers produce hundreds of times more distortion than electronics at clipping output. I seriously think some of those "SNR" numbers are complete crackpot numbers pulled out of someone's...jacket.

Even very good bookshelves at 90db (1W-input) output will produce around 30db of distorion at from say 20-2KHz. But above that, distortion might be essentially zero. If you took "SNR" to be output over distortion, then the "SNR" would only be around 60db in the bass/midrange areas, but extremely high in the less audible registers. More likely when some companies list "SNR" numbers, they aren't over a wide range of frequencies, but rather at a specific one that makes the product look good. This happens *very* often in home theater, so it isn't limited to PC marketting.

Sorry, wasn't trying to derail the thread. Rather, I was trying to point out--manufacturer numbers often mean nothing in the abscence of third party measurements. Once those measurements are obtained, it usually becomes painfully obvious the specs weren't outright "lies", but just conveniently left out the fact that the numbers were produced in very favorable conditions.

PC speakers tend to be very small, and thus distort naturally from being overworked (fed a ton of power which it bleeds off from compression) and over-EQed (ton of distortion). Get some bigger speakers (with larger drivers). This is probably the most general advice for improving your sound quality at the PC-level. Once you go into hifi with bookshelves or floorstanders, a bunch of other factors come into mind.

 

[jap0nes]

thanks for the explanation
But did you notice at the end ou were talking the same thing as me? that these speakers are no good for his sound card

but i totally agree with all the rest you said

 

[ashiplikethat]

could i connect any sort of speakers to my comp or do they have to be pc specific ones

 

[ashiplikethat]

its not feedback as i havent even connected a mic to computer yet.

 

[jap0nes]

well, i guess it depends. In a general way, you can connect any speaker to your computer, but some will need extra equipment, like an amplifier or cables...

 

[turbo_mcgillicutty]

yes you can hook up any speakers you want to your computer. I had my Marantz reciever/B&W loudspeaker hometheater setup connected to my computer for a couple of days. I had to connect the 3 outputs (front l/r, sub/center, rear l/r) to the direct 6.1 in on the reciever to get surround in games. BF2 sounded amazing. When something blew up next to you, you felt it. gunfire from all directions was crisp and pronounced, and you could pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. It just shows you what you loose to cheaper computer speakers. I went back to my logitech z-5300 and was very disappointed for a few days, but i just didnt feel right leaving a hometheater system that cost a multitude more than the computer, connected to the computer. Besides, it was needed in the theater room.

As for your other question about the sound cutting out, I had the same problem with my audigy 2 zs. There was some sort of conflict it had with the usb or firewire chip that used the same IRQ as the pci slot that i had it plugged into. I switched slots and problem solved. I would also recommend what others are stating here. Make sure you have disabled onboard sound/removed old drivers. Update the x-fi drivers on the website etc.

 

[ashiplikethat]

i have been reading that you should not put your speakers near your computer or moniter.
is this true?
could it be the cause of my problems as my center speaker i touching my flat screen?
i have also been using my speakers with no base at all due to complaints about the noise. could that mess up my soundcard / speakers?

 

[jap0nes]

that may or may not be true...
speaker magnets can damage your monitor (they start to look kinda purple-green or whatever), but most companies claim that their speakers are magnetically shielded, but i dont really trust that...
that definetly is not the cause of that noise, but i dont exactly understand what that noise sounds like...

also, you should avoid power wires near to audio wires, as it may cause interference... kind of a buzz, and dont make audio cables entangled

 

[Guest]

That noise has for many, many, many years been affectionately known as the creative sqeal of death. I think it is a feature since it keeps showing up in all of the sound cards ever since the very first sound blaster live. You might try calling CL tech support :lol:

 

[astrallite]

If you mean connecting to anything other than PC speakers, everything else pretty much uses the RCA standard. Either goto radioshack and get stereo mini to RCA cables, or an optical cable/RCA coaxial if your soundcard has a digital out.

(1) Receivers will take RCA inputs, and most digital inputs.

(2) Standalone amps will take in RCA inputs.

(3) Self-powered monitors will take RCA inputs.

And through that, you can enjoy audio nirvana : )

 

[KWH]

I had some weird noise in mine originally and discovered it was from the digital in. Once I muted it, it was gone.

 

[ashiplikethat]

hi again just like to say thanks for all the help from everyone as creative have still not replyed to my email i sent last week

i just thourght i would tell you that i installed the latest driver for the x-fi fatal1ty from the creative website but while playing wow again last, the speakers starting making more of a click/pop style speaker noise that went on for about 10 min and gradually got worse it did end up making a similar noise to before but it was not the same. i turned my speakers of and in the end the game crashed to windows desktop with a fatal error but did not freeze my computer it just closed the game. i still had to restart to regain normal sound again though.

its hard to know if i should be blame it on the game or the sound card as i got both at the smae time so i went to the shop and got battlefield 2 to see if i still get the squealing noises.

i am also going to see if this squealing noise will be heard while using headphones to see if its the speakers and not the soundcard although i doubt it as the speakers where working fine with onboard sound.

 

[ashiplikethat]

just to let you all know i think i have solved the problem by moving my graphics card to the bottom pci express slot on my mb and moving the soundcard to the top pci slot. I havent had the problem for a few days now. fingers crossed.

 

[marshahu]

Back on the original subject - I have had similar problems with my Audigy 2. When HL2 loads it plays a loud squel sound which loops and then locks up.

Looks like a driver issue - when I updated my drivers this stopped but every now and again it plays up especially if I have lots of programs open.