Topic: Speaker crackling
started by: Carnivore
Posted by Carnivore on Feb. 24 2002,06:45
For some strange reason now whenever I play a CD or mp3 on my system the whole time the song is playing I hear this faint crackle ever 2 seconds. I checked the volume on everything and nothing is turned up too loud. I wonder what it could be.
Posted by Dysorderia on Feb. 24 2002,07:15
you aren't being very accurate..... 
Posted by DuSTman on Feb. 24 2002,15:18
I find winamp skips a bit on win2k in its directsound output mode.windows media player works ok.
Posted by BlackFlag on Feb. 25 2002,02:17
Make sure the wire(s) connecting your computer to your stereo/whatever aren't damaged, worn, old, etc., and make sure the metal surfaces of the plug aren't oxidized. Rub with steel wool if the surfaces look even a little cloudy. turn the volume on your computer down as far as you can, and turn your stereo up.
Also make sure none of your equipment has RadioShack® written on it. RadioShack stuff isn't very durable, and goes to shit after 2-3 months.
Lastly, try different sound card drivers. This might sound like an unlikely source of the problem you mentioned, but it isn't. Check for updates, and use one provided by the card manufacturer instead of one provided by microsoft if at all possible. Shitty drivers caused similar (worse actually) problems when i first installed winME.
Posted by CatKnight on Feb. 25 2002,06:58
| Quote |
| turn the volume on your computer down as far as you can, and turn your stereo up. |
um no, you want to do exactly the opposite. if you turn your computer volume down and your stereo up, your stereo is forced to amplify a weak signal, which introducs a lot of audible noise. you want your computer volume to be near max (85-90%) and then turn your stereo up until the volume is loud enough.
btw if you are using a sb live in win2k, that is your problem. get a new sound card (audigy or santa cruz, i reccomend the latter).
Posted by Anztac on Feb. 25 2002,07:08
That's a good piece of info from an engineers prespective, but anything over 50% is lossy DIGITALLY. I get so pissed off by that. You can hear the distortion (or I can) on any signal over 50%, so I leave mine there, and I have a nice system to compensate. Also, gold plated sheilded wires help me out too. Stupid sensitive ears.
Damnit, I wish I had enough money to be an audiophile.
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 25 2002,09:40
ummm.... no. the volume faders on the output of pretty much all sound cards control the analog output amps. The fader should be set around 75-80% to get close to a 0dB line level output. The channel faders, on the other hand, are sometimes lossy, depending on the sound card and how it mixes audio for output internally. These should also be set to 75-80% or so to avoid clipping.
Posted by Carnivore on Feb. 25 2002,17:29
Thanks Ill take a closer look at the wiring. I am using the MS Digital USB audio system 2.0. The weird thing is it just started doing it recently....
Posted by WillyPete on Feb. 25 2002,17:32
Try a different CD player.I found that mine was causing the problem. My MP3's were crackling as that's what was being recorded.
Could also be your audio cabling from CD to card. Some of these things get 'dry welds' in the solder. Essentially, the solder just degrades and adds resistance to the signal.
Loads of people buy top CD players and sound cards and put in shitty, bargain price cabling.
Posted by Carnivore on Feb. 25 2002,17:44
I did have a Soundblaster Live card in there but that doesnt seem to make a difference. Whether its CD or an mp3 off the harddrive it still crackles every second.
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 25 2002,18:34
What motherboard do you have? Soundblaster Live!s are known to have significant problems with interrupt sharing with other PCI cards and with certain motherboard chipsets that will cause periodic popping or crackling noises. There are (for most component combinations) ways to get around these problems, but the actual solutions vary a lot (most involve either switching the components around to give the live it's own interrupt, disabling ACPI, or fiddling with the pci settings).
Posted by DuSTman on Feb. 25 2002,18:45
Hows that MS speaker system connected? To a usb port or to the SB live analog outs?
Posted by Carnivore on Feb. 25 2002,19:28
The motherboard is an ABIT BX6 2.0. The speakers are plugged into their own USB slot on the back of the computer, not through a hub. Only thing ive installed lately was a Sharkport for the PS2. I also took the soundblaster out.
Posted by ASCIIMan on Feb. 25 2002,22:05
Probably a problem with the speakers themselves, the drivers (try reinstalling them), or you could be low on usb bandwidth. If you have anything else connected to usb, try disconnecting it leaving only your speakers plugged in. If that fixes it, either try leaving the speakers directly connected to their own port on the back of the mb, or buy a pci usb card and plug them into it.
Posted by Carnivore on Mar. 01 2002,00:48
I figured it out. Its my cable modem thats causing the interference. Im going to get a STP cat 5 cable and replace the basic one my ISP gave me and see what happens.Actually I moved the network card down a slot to the next PCI, all cleared up now!!!