Ground loop buzz!

E

Edwood

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2001
Messages
1,326
Anyone get nasty ground loop buzzes coming out of their sound card analog outputs?

Could it be my sound card(s) (Audigy 2, RME dig96/8 PAD), the power supply, or something else?

I am going to try plugging a Brickwall Series Mode Surge Suppressor into the mains, and then plug my 500VA El Cheapo CyberPower UPS into the Brickwall.

If that doesn't work, I'll try other UPS's.

I've had pretty good luck with the Brickwall when it comes to group loop buzzing.

If that fails too, I will try some Rat Shack ground loop eliminators I've heard about. Not sure if it will work for a PC though.

-Ed
 
You only get it with powered speakers? Or headphones/unpowered ones also? If you're getting this buzz hooked up to an external box like a reciever with external speakers then im sure there is something for av output jacks.


(from what ive seen the wally world/radio shack isolators only work on most car stereo systems)
 
Only from analog outputs to an external amp or powered speakers. I'm going to check the digital outputs tonight.

I've heard of the Rat Shack ground loop eliminators, but I'm worried that they will negatively affect sound quality. I guess I'll have to try it and see.

-Ed
 
should only help quality considering you need one to begin with :)

When i had a problem with my car cd player I bought a road master one or some such from wal mart. Worked like a charm. I had rockford subs, crossovers, and tweeters and the quality was as good as anything.
 
Uhm, quick question. Do you have both line in and microphone muted? Sorry for such a simple question, but I didn't see anyone mentin it, and I've noticed that they tend to pick up a lot of noise very easily with any soundcard I've used. Also, I think it's normal to get just a tiny bit of noise (I think the audigy 2 had > 100 SNR, but, still...) With my card and it's 96 SNR, I've noticed that when I do recordings there's a VERY tiny amount of noise picked up, but it's so low I can only hear it if I amplify a silent part of the music/whatever about 600% or so.
 
He means the power supply for amplified speakers DruSi3r (hehe, if you had battery powered speakers you'd be in trouble then.) I guess this would make any variances at least be synced to have them in the same surge supressor.
 
Mine seems to be coming from the speaker cables themselves. I can move the connector at the speaker input and get rid of 95% or better of it. I think that cheap and/or dirty connections could be the culprit here in my case. Check that on your setup, too, Edwood. Or do like I do and crank up the volume. You can't hear the buzz over some fine mp3 action! :)
 
I tried muting the microphone input on the Audigy 2. I set the input to optical only on my RME digi96/8 PAD. No dice. Now the buzzing is louder. WTF?

I guess I'm going to have to try Rat Shack ground loop eliminator.

-Ed
 
BTW, the buzzing, I am hearing from the analog ouputs from my RME PAD, not the speakers (Klipsch ProMedia 2.1) which are hooked up to my Audigy 2.

I'm just being picky. I have to crank the volume on my headphone amp all the way up to hear the buzzing.

I'm hoping the Rat Shack solution will work without degrading the sound quality.

-Ed
 
I get the same thing.
I can hear some guy talking. Even on my TV set, if the volume is all the way down I still hear the same voice. I think it has something to do with the Weather radio over the power network.
 
unplug the cable from the wall see if it goes away...try grounding your cpu case maybe.
 
Originally posted by DruSi3r
unplug the cable from the wall see if it goes away...try grounding your cpu case maybe.
Click to expand...

OMG it worked! I unplugged the cable from the wall. The buzz is gone! My PC is dead silent! No noise whatsoever! Not even the fans or hard drives are making noise at all!

Oh wait, my PC is off. :rolleyes:

Seriously, though.

I think it's the UPS adding noise into the system. I've tried just about every kind of UPS and surge suppressor combination, and the quietest was using a Brickwall with the Computer, no UPS. But using a UPS is required. I'm gonna try a new PSU, since the PSU in there is on it's last leg anyways. I hope the new PSU will be cleaner power.
I'm going to get the Seasonic Super Silencer 400.

-Ed
 
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