Audio crackle - Video inside

Aedus

Aedus

Aedus

Soldato
Joined
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Luton, England
Right firstly, the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pSDOi_RpYU

In the video you'll notice (Prominently in the first few seconds, you may need to turn up the quality to hear properly) that there is audio crackle when driving in Saints row the third, this audio crackle doesn't always occur all the time, just in specific points in different games. You can't hear the crackling half as much as when playing, when in-game you hear it constantly while driving, where-as on the video you can only really hear it at certain points.
For example, in saints row I only notice it when I drive forward, in skyrim it's when I jump, in cave story it's when I pick up a life capsule, in L4D2 it's when I am respawning as infected. Each case has the same sounding crackle. It can appear randomly when watching videos too, in specific points, if there is crackle in a video it always happens at the exact same point.

I have tried many different things to fix this, including:

Testing 3 different pairs of headphones
Removing my headphone amp
Trying 2 different sound cards (X-fi and Xonar)
Trying on board sound
Formatting windows 7
Checking DPC latency
Moving both my GPU and my Sound card's slots around
Underclocking my CPU
Underclocking my GPU
Using unified Xonar drivers
Removing any Microsoft/Nvidia HD audio drivers
Re-installing Microsoft/Nvidia HD audio drivers
Disabling any audio devices not in use
Updating network adapters
Updating BIOS

Anyone have any ideas? I'm getting to the end of things to try to get rid of it, the crackle is doing my head in, if it was 1 game I'd ignore it, but it's in all games I play it seems. I can't say I've noticed it when just listening to audio.
 
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Just tried re-cabling my PC internally and externally, as well as cleaning it out completely and still get crackling noise.
 
Try a usb sound device, i had this with my xonar and my onboard and the only way to escape it was a usb dac.
 
Problem with a USB DAC is that it by-passes the sound card, right? So I'd lose Dolby headphone for gaming. Unless I understand something wrong about them.
 
Marsman said:
You would need a DAC with optical input, in order to use the sound cards Dolby Headphone.
Click to expand...

If it's internal interference wouldn't I need to remove the internal sound card out of the equation completely? Or would getting a USB DAC remove any interference caused?

Because I thought what robnut meant is that you need to do any audio stuff externally so there isn't any interference on the sound, which would mean getting rid of the sound card completely and just going USB > DAC > Headphones or I could maybe go USB > External sound card > Headphones.


Would any of these internal sound cards with this "EMI shield" do anything, or is this just a gimmick?
 
try your system in a different power socket or even replace the socket there not dear, best guess you have an earth issue, or even the leads your plugged into the system as if you have a pretty decent Psu there really good on earth isolation for the rest of the internals.

i have my system and Av setup ect plugged into a av isolator/surge setup like this http://www.belkin.com/PureAV.process?Section_Id=203542 i have no issues with the socket but theses thing are worth it in the long run and helps as my XFI prelude i use for the analog side for gaming plugged into the Av amp but i do use some beastly leads :).
 
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REAPERUK said:
try your system in a different power socket or even replace the socket there not dear, best guess you have an earth issue, or even the leads your plugged into the system as if you have a pretty decent Psu there really good on earth isolation for the rest of the internals.

i have my system and Av setup ect plugged into a av isolator/surge setup like this http://www.belkin.com/PureAV.process?Section_Id=203542 i have no issues with the socket but theses thing are worth it in the long run and helps as my XFI prelude i use for the analog side for gaming plugged into the Av amp but i do use some beastly leads :).
Click to expand...

I'm actually using a surge protector tower to plug everything in, although I haven't tried a different socket yet. I could try directly into the wall and see if that helps.

My PSU is an 850W corsair ATX, and my system doesn't draw anywhere near that, so I'm assuming the PSU itself isn't the issue with regards to the load of the PC, but whether my PSU is faulty is another story, not sure how I'd test that exactly as everything else seems to be running faultlessly. But the cable leading to it or the socket itself could be an issue, so I'll try plugging my PC into the wall and seeing if that helps.
 
Aedus said:
I'm actually using a surge protector tower to plug everything in, although I haven't tried a different socket yet. I could try directly into the wall and see if that helps.

My PSU is an 850W corsair ATX, and my system doesn't draw anywhere near that, so I'm assuming the PSU itself isn't the issue with regards to the load of the PC, but whether my PSU is faulty is another story, not sure how I'd test that exactly as everything else seems to be running faultlessly. But the cable leading to it or the socket itself could be an issue, so I'll try plugging my PC into the wall and seeing if that helps.
Click to expand...

some of the good ones like the one i listed above has a earth check light yours may have, also the other socket if no change try a different ring main if your not in a bungalow :) as there is upstairs/downstairs have different ring mains.

running the same Psu myself but you never no the psu could be faulty, my money is on the earth issue though especially with the keyboard interference, only way to test the psu is really to swap it out,

i do have an Psu tester but them things even the newer ones do not test the earths unless there is a new one out that does.
 
Aedus said:
If it's internal interference wouldn't I need to remove the internal sound card out of the equation completely? Or would getting a USB DAC remove any interference caused?

Because I thought what robnut meant is that you need to do any audio stuff externally so there isn't any interference on the sound, which would mean getting rid of the sound card completely and just going USB > DAC > Headphones or I could maybe go USB > External sound card > Headphones.


Would any of these internal sound cards with this "EMI shield" do anything, or is this just a gimmick?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily.

It's more than likely a problem post digital to analogue conversion. Using SPDIF, you are passing digital to the external DAC to convert into analogue.

Using USB, you will lose Dolby Headphone.
 
REAPERUK said:
some of the good ones like the one i listed above has a earth check light yours may have, also the other socket if no change try a different ring main if your not in a bungalow :) as there is upstairs/downstairs have different ring mains.

running the same Psu myself but you never no the psu could be faulty, my money is on the earth issue though especially with the keyboard interference, only way to test the psu is really to swap it out,

i do have an Psu tester but them things even the newer ones do not test the earths unless there is a new one out that does.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it didn't work either, I plugged it in to the main socket directly and the issue still exists. I think the tower has got an earth check light, it's got an orange light on it and a green light too, I'm assuming the orange light is power and the green light is earth, or surge protection (Since it's a surge protector). I don't really have any space to put my PC upstairs to test the other ring, or even another PSU to test it with. Not sure what else I can do to test if it's the PSU short of buying a new 1.


Marsman said:
Not necessarily.

It's more than likely a problem post digital to analogue conversion. Using SPDIF, you are passing digital to the external DAC to convert into analogue.

Using USB, you will lose Dolby Headphone.
Click to expand...

I see, so you think that would stop it then? Isn't the initial sound still processed internally? or would the sound be processed via the DAC, with the sound card just utilizing Dolby Headphone?
There's always the option of getting an external sound card, I guess, something like: sound-blaster-x-fi-surround-5-1-pro Which would give me Dolby headphone externally. But I'm thinking that the SQ won't be very high compared to what I could be getting.

Also, what about an internal sound card with a better DAC, do you think that would solve the issue, or would getting something external be the main thing to look for?
 
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Using an external DAC with optical input I'm sure would solve the problem. Optical uses light pulses, so cannot be affected by EMI.

Getting a sound card with a better DAC, won't make any difference, if there is too much EMI. A Xonar Essence, has one of the best DAC's around, but there are people that get EMI problems, despite it having an EMI shield.

It's not a question of DAC quality, more a question of isolating the DAC process from EMI.

The X-Fi you linked, only has optical out. There is a HD version, which has optical in/out.

Might want to remove the link, as although it is Creative's site, they do sell their own products.
 
Aedus said:
Unfortunately it didn't work either, I plugged it in to the main socket directly and the issue still exists. I think the tower has got an earth check light, it's got an orange light on it and a green light too, I'm assuming the orange light is power and the green light is earth, or surge protection (Since it's a surge protector). I don't really have any space to put my PC upstairs to test the other ring, or even another PSU to test it with. Not sure what else I can do to test if it's the PSU short of buying a new 1.
Click to expand...

:( yea one of them lights will be the earth check and if light that means your ok but it is more of a diagnostic check,see if you can borrow a Psu or if you no an electrician even better to test it,
do you get the same issue with on-board sound as well? as you do not want to be buying a sound card as well.
 
Marsman said:
Using an external DAC with optical input I'm sure would solve the problem. Optical uses light pulses, so cannot be affected by EMI.

Getting a sound card with a better DAC, won't make any difference, if there is too much EMI. A Xonar Essence, has one of the best DAC's around, but there are people that get EMI problems, despite it having an EMI shield.

It's not a question of DAC quality, more a question of isolating the DAC process from EMI.

The X-Fi you linked, only has optical out. There is a HD version, which has optical in/out.

Might want to remove the link, as although it is Creative's site, they do sell their own products.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean, sounds like it could fix the problem then (I hope), so my exact set-up at the moment (Including cables and connections) is this:

Xonar DG's Headphone out socket -> 3.5mm - RCA cable -> RCA in headphone amp (my amp only has RCA in) -> Headphone amp 5mm jack -> Denon D2000's


With a budget of say £150, can you list me exactly what you'd buy, so which DAC you'd buy, which cable to buy to lead from the DG to the DAC and which cable that leads from the DAC to the amp.
 
TBH, there doesn't seem to be a lot of DAC's with optical in, which don't have a headphone amp, as part of it. There's quite a lot of choice when it comes to USB only, however.

There's a few cheaper ones on the famous auction site. How good they are though, is anybody's guess.

As I don't have a headphone amp, I'd probably get a Zero DAC/amp.

Project DAC USB, looks pretty good. Although the name would suggest it's USB only, it does have optical input as well. SuperFi, sell them for £120, but are out of stock ATM. £140 elsewhere, it seems.
 
That project DAC USB looks good indeed, it has optical in, and also RCA out so I could easily go DG -> USB DAC -> Headphone amp -> Headphones. Right? Or does it have a built in amp I'm missing?

So I'd need an optical - optical cable (Something like this? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-004-OP) + an RCA male - RCA male cable

Anything I'm missing? or any other DAC's I could look in to?
 
No, it's just a DAC, which is what you want, as you are adding a headphone amp to the line out.

Yep, those are the cables you need, nothing else.

There maybe other DAC's, but I can't find many that are just a DAC without the headphone amp. Also you need optical as well, which narrows the choices a bit.

There are considerably cheaper ones, but they aren't going to sound as good.
 
Sounds great, I'm going to probably take the plunge tomorrow. Will report back how everything is. Cheers for help.
 
I just found a store near-by where I could go tomorrow and pick everything up, will need to contact them first, but will see how that goes. Could maybe have everything sooner than expected.
 
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