Likely cause, onboard sound or crappy midrange speakers?

[hergieburbur]

Ok, so PC sound isn't my area, and I am generally easily satisfied in that department, but I do have an issue I've been curious about. When my speakers are at low-moderate volume or higher, they have a somewhat noticeable background hiss to them. The hiss also sometimes responds to movements of my wireless mouse and keyboard (the receiver is near the main speaker, but it responds through all of them). So my question is, is the likely cause the onboard sound on my motherboard, the mid-range speakers, or some of both?

Heres my setup:

MB: Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe with Realtek ALC882 HD onboard sound.

Speakers: Low to Mid-range Altec Lansing 5.1 speakers (can't remember the model or anything, but they were about $150).

I am thinking that it is a little of both, but I am curious to see what others think.

 

[randomizer]

Well I have had experience with 2 mobos with realtek chips. One had poor quality but there was no interference, the other had poor quality and pop with almost every sound. I click on something in windows, it makes the click sound and a complimentary "pop" as well. My speakers are really cheap, so they also heavily reduce sound quality, but dont add interference noises.

Here are my beasts:

click

6w per channel... 17w subwoofer... EXTREME!!

Anyway, to avoid me going crazy because of the popping, I stuk in my old SB live! value sound card, improved sound quality and rid me of the pops.

EDIT: I want to get these as replacements:

http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/audio/5hv2-usb

 

[I]

It's the onboard audio, not the speakers.

 

[Penryn]

just swap the speakers with headphones or something and see if the hiss is still there, if not then it's the speaker's problem, otherwise sound card

 

[recap_tec]

I am new here but it's time to reveal my secret..

It all starts one year ago:

Just after i got my new speakers,i was still hearing hiss and my mouse so i decided to shild the signal cable using aluminum foil.this solved the mouse problem but hiss continued.

Then 3 days ago i was moving the cable modem when i noticed sparks when pluging the coax cable.. thats when it hit me : :idea: how coud so much voltage on that signal cable? it was not coming from the modem, but i got shocked when i touched the cable 8O .

And heres how it ends: i linked the external shilding and my case using cooper wire.
NO MORE HISSing!!

my tiny beast

I use realtec sound too,since in Brazil x-fi cards are expensive

good luck for you!


edit: make sure all sound inputs are enabled and muted.

 

[Gneisenau]

Here is what I would check.

Make sure your powered speakers are plugged into the same outlet as your computer. This will help avoid a ground loop which will come out as a hiss or hum.

Make sure your speakers wires do not pass by other power lines or near any transmitters. Keep them 3 or 4 inches apart and cross them only at right angles. This will keep the speaker wires from having any noise induced into them.

Use a headphone to see if you still have the hiss. If so, and you have made all the checks listed here, it's probably the onboard audio. If you don't hear the hiss, it doesn't rule out the onboard audio.

Check the connections from the speaker to the sound ports on your motherboard. Sometimes if the jack is either not in far enough or too far in, it can make contacts it shouldn't and you get everyting from hiss, hum, to pops, or maybe nothing at all.

Make sure you don't have a mic included in something like your gaming headset or camera that could be picking up noise and transfering it to the sound card. ( or a mic on your desk for that matter.)

If you have another set of speakers try them on your system.

If you have a spare sound card try it in your system.



Long story short, if the hiss is coming out all your speakers, I would lean towards your onboard sound card, or at least the noise is being introduced there. A discrete sound card would make it much easier to elimiate if that's the case. But things like ground loops can cause the same symptoms. You really have to do all the checks unless you just want a new sound card.

 

[rodney_ws]

Although this is unrelated to the OP's original question, it is almost on-topic so I feel I must mention this...

I have a set of Cambridge SoundWorks speakers (some 4.1 setup circa 1998) and some days when the weather is funny they are able to pick up a radio station broadcasting out of Miami, Florida (I live in south Georgia) No, I'm being serious... even with the power unplugged to my PC and to the speakers, a distinct Spanish voice will come in... after listening to it for some time I was clearly able to make out the words "Radio Havana" but the broadcast was a mix of Spanish and English. For a few seconds after hearing this for the first time I thought I was going crazy, but subsequent internet searches revealed this wasn't as uncommon as I had thought. How all of that works (without electricity!) is beyond me.

That's really all I had to say.

 

[hergieburbur]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've tried some of the suggestions, but there are some things I haven't thought of before. I'll have to try them out as soon as I can.

 

[Gneisenau]

I would have to assume your speakers are using their speaker wire as an antenna. (Especially if it's coiled up.) If disconnecting the wire from the actual speaker doesn't make it go away, then I would start checking for a graveyard under your house.....

Now if you want a strange story here is a problem I can't figure out.

My old computer had a wireless card for my internet connection. It actually only sits about 8 feet from the AP but I didn't have a good way to run the ethernet cable. There were times that I couldn't get a signal from my computer to the AP 8 feet way. Sometimes it lasted for days. I tried to switch the card to one that was more powerful and had 3 antenni to boost it's range. It was supposed to acutally use noise to its avantage. It worked better, but still there were days I lost my connection.

One day I noticed and LCD clock was going dim, I figured it's battery was dieing. So I replaced the battery. No go, so I figured the clock was a goner. I also lost my wireless for about a week that time.

The funny thing is when my wireless came back so did the clock. I never installed wireless in my new computer so it's hardwired. THe clock still dims every once in a while.

What kind of field is present that will knock out my wireless and cause the clock to go bonkers for such long periods of time is beyond me.

I guess I'm going to have to start looking for alien activity....... :lol:

 

[ara]

Electromagnetic interference of some sort?... maybe a power cable running nearby?, there was this case in my dad's company where a customer's machine's (photo printing) LCD wouldn't work (could have been something else, but i think it was the LCD), they took it back to maintain and it worked fine, turns out there was some high-voltage cables running underneath the shop... could be the same in your case though with an erratically used cable?

Ara

 

[sturm]

make sure all unsed inputs are muted - mic, aux, phone, line In, etc.

I had a hiss problem until I muted my mic input. No problems with my onboard now.

 

[randomizer]

Although this is unrelated to the OP's original question, it is almost on-topic so I feel I must mention this...

I have a set of Cambridge SoundWorks speakers (some 4.1 setup circa 1998) and some days when the weather is funny they are able to pick up a radio station broadcasting out of Miami, Florida (I live in south Georgia) No, I'm being serious... even with the power unplugged to my PC and to the speakers, a distinct Spanish voice will come in... after listening to it for some time I was clearly able to make out the words "Radio Havana" but the broadcast was a mix of Spanish and English. For a few seconds after hearing this for the first time I thought I was going crazy, but subsequent internet searches revealed this wasn't as uncommon as I had thought. How all of that works (without electricity!) is beyond me.

That's really all I had to say.

If there is an AC power cable nearby with enough voltage, it can induce another AC current in your speaker power circuit. Not going to go into the physics of electromagnetic induction tho.

 

[Gneisenau]

It must be Electromagnetic interference from something. From what I can't say. I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment building. I can't imagine any high voltage cables under me causing it. There are no elevators in the building so that can't be it, or outside lights nearby. I could see an applaince like microwave oven if it didn't last for days at the time.

 

[ara]

next time it happens, try knocking out your power (from the panel, if that's an option) and see if it remains liek that... if it goes away then and there, the interference is from your house, if it doesn't, it's from somewhere else, in that case i have no suggestions

Ara