creative soundblaster ae-5 electrical noise?

[Davanius]

Hi, does anyone know why I can hear electrical noise on this card when I mute the sound while gaming?

When muted I can hear it changing pitch when turning my mouse. I removed the molex cable which powers the led and the noise stops.

Any ideas?

 

[EsaT]

When muted I can hear it changing pitch when turning my mouse. I removed the molex cable which powers the led and the noise stops.

Well, there you have the cause.
That power cable for senseless bling bling garbage pick ups some interference, which is then enough to leak to sound card's audio side.
(though guess it could come also from PSU)

 

[Marsman]

Interference being introduced by unnecessary bling. That's almost hilarious. It's a sound card!

I remember when some people moaned because older Xonar sound cards such as D1 and D2, required a power cable from the PSU for the PCIe controller, which looked unsightly. Now we have a sound card that does not require additional power, but gets introduced anyway because of bling? Oh my days.

 

[Davanius]

. Thanks guys for your replies. Gave me a chuckle.

Anyway I have reduced it by (as a last resort) moving the card to the lowest slot away from my graphics card.

I can only hear it a little when playing rise of the tomb raider now so I will keep it. That game makes my gpu whine a bit so....

Thanks again.

 

[EsaT]

Sticking sound card next to graphics card is another bad thing.
Graphics card's power circuitry handles very high currents (100+ amps) and that makes it very good as possible interference source.
(of course craphics card can also heat sound card)

 

[Davanius]

Just a quick update on this problem. It seems that my headphones are a cause for the noise as well or at least adding to the issue.

They have an inline mic which I don't use and it may be possibly causing more interference. I have tried two pairs of different Sennheiser's today and the noise is damn near undetectable.

So I would rather buy a new set of headphones than find a new sound card to be honest.

 

[EsaT]

I guess that floating wire of inline mic could act as some kind antenna with interference then leaking to headphone wires.
What headset you have and is there difference between mic unconnected and connected?

Amplifier of that card is enough for pretty much any headphones, so you don't have to limit choise because of that.
Do you have noisy or quiet environment?
Closed environmental noise isolating headphones have major challenges in soundstage and balancing sound.
Open headphones can balance lot better between some strength in bass and overal detailed sound.

 

[Davanius]

I have a Sony xb950 which is the one producing the issue. I also have Sennheiser hd 558 and 485 which are older but these don't produce the noise.

I know that the Sony's are not high grade at all but they have deep bass which I like for movies and gaming. The Senn's are both better for gaming as the sound stage is much better.

Going to try out the Beyerdynamic DT770 80 Ohm version later today. Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

The environmental noise is more often quiet.

 

[EsaT]

XB is Sony's nothing but eXtreme Bass line, so overall would expect them to suck more than vacuum cleaner in picking game sound details.

While apparently good for its price DT770 is still closed can and loses lot in soundstage to good open headphones.

For open (dynamic driver) headphones lowest "rumbling" bass can never be as strong, but there are some with good strength in bass.
For its price Beyerdynamic DT990 is oen the best with good bass and big soundstage with detailed sound.
"Pro" version meant for studio use with coiled cable and little more head band clamping force can be had fot not much over £100.
Pro (Black) Limited Edition would have normal straight 3m cable.
(as bonus Beyer's design is very easy to DIY mic mod if needed)
AKG K712 would be another good bass strength open headphone. (after very bass neutral 701/702)

 

[Davanius]

Thanks. I will look into those.

 

[Davanius]

The DT770 Pro was delivered yesterday so I've had a day with it. I liked the sound quality indeed with good low end bass and the sound stage was better than anticipated for a closed headphone.

Unfortunately I discovered a fault with it. I felt that the sound was ever so slightly more to the left so I found a headphone test and sadly the left can was buzzing slightly with low end frequencies.

A replacement should be here today but I have now discovered that this is a common problem so if this happens again I may try out the K712.

It is quite expensive though so I will only try it as a last resort.

If anyone could tell me what gain settings I should be using that would be great.

The DT770 is 80 Ohm. I have low, normal and high settings available with normal being 32-149 and high being 150-600 Ohm.

How important is the lowest number such as the normal setting when connected to the 80 Ohm headphone?

Thanks.

 

[Marsman]

Sorry to hear you had a problem with the DT770's. Hopefully the new ones will be fine. Must admit, I wasn't aware that this is a fairly common issue. It's something I haven't come across.

When it comes to gain setting, the lowest number is not very important at all. It's just a rough guide. To be honest, it's best just to try them all and pick the one that suits you.

It won't make any difference to the headphones in that they must have a certain setting. Some people question whether if the gain is too high it will damage the headphones. If you're wearing the headphones, you'll bugger your hearing long before the headphones suffer any ill effect from too much gain. Likely the 150-600 setting will to be too loud after a few % of volume, but that might suit someone with cast iron ears.

 

[Davanius]

Sorry to hear you had a problem with the DT770's. Hopefully the new ones will be fine. Must admit, I wasn't aware that this is a fairly common issue. It's something I haven't come across.

When it comes to gain setting, the lowest number is not very important at all. It's just a rough guide. To be honest, it's best just to try them all and pick the one that suits you.

It won't make any difference to the headphones in that they must have a certain setting. Some people question whether if the gain is too high it will damage the headphones. If you're wearing the headphones, you'll bugger your hearing long before the headphones suffer any ill effect from too much gain. Likely the 150-600 setting will to be too loud after a few % of volume, but that might suit someone with cast iron ears.

Thank you very much for your advise.

The normal setting sound more or less the same as high but only needs to be around 40-50% volume for a good balance.

The new headphones have arrived and are much better. I have thoroughly checked the sound using a headphone frequency checker and it is perfect. The sponges are a better shape as well and it doesn't have the buzzing at all so it looks like the first set was a dud.

I really like these so I will be keeping them unless something else goes wrong.

 

[EsaT]

The DT770 Pro was delivered yesterday so I've had a day with it. I liked the sound quality indeed with good low end bass and the sound stage was better than anticipated for a closed headphone.

Illusion of head in bucket soundstage being proper sound is what you get from using supermarket consumer junk...
If needing closed cans might myself get DT770.
Though soundstage would likely feel rather small compared to DT990 and HD595 Sennheiser along with closed design's bass covering other details.

The normal setting sound more or less the same as high but only needs to be around 40-50% volume for a good balance.

That should be pretty good for having adjustment range.
Also volume setting of music/video player can be increased if volume is too low, because those should act as 0-100% modifier to played back signal before it's passed on to sound card.
(if they wen't over 100% and amplified original signal that would cause clipping risk)

 

[Davanius]

Illusion of head in bucket soundstage being proper sound is what you get from using supermarket consumer junk...
If needing closed cans might myself get DT770.
Though soundstage would likely feel rather small compared to DT990 and HD595 Sennheiser along with closed design's bass covering other details.


That should be pretty good for having adjustment range.
Also volume setting of music/video player can be increased if volume is too low, because those should act as 0-100% modifier to played back signal before it's passed on to sound card.
(if they wen't over 100% and amplified original signal that would cause clipping risk)

I put the Sony headphone back on just for kicks and boy.......what was I thinking?

Head in bucket underwater is more like it.

Thanks to you as well EsaT. You have been a great help.

 

[EsaT]

Guess air instead of water inside bucket would be overestimating reproduction of mids and treble of such bass boom junks...
And movie dialogue should sound like they used potato in place of mic.

I assume you have correct settings for getting binaural-simulation?
For more competitive gaming dropping bass some dBs with equalizer could help distinguishing footsteps etc.
As closed design DT770 suffers more from bass masking other frequencies than open DT990.

 

[Davanius]

Guess air instead of water inside bucket would be overestimating reproduction of mids and treble of such bass boom junks...
And movie dialogue should sound like they used potato in place of mic.

I assume you have correct settings for getting binaural-simulation?
For more competitive gaming dropping bass some dBs with equalizer could help distinguishing footsteps etc.
As closed design DT770 suffers more from bass masking other frequencies than open DT990.

Still playing with the settings. I have tried most if them.

7.1 for gaming and it works a treat. Direct hp for stereo is great without any eq.
These headphones with the creative ae-5 is a good combination imo. The extra rear simulation is really noticeable.
The bass is just right for me without any tweaking as I usual add a bit more but I may indeed drop it a bit as I experiment.

And no more buzzing from the card or headphones. I am very happy with this setup so far.

Gonna keep tweaking.

 

[EsaT]

That direct single button press stereo/2.0 mode is what Z serie lacks.
For that have to separately disable both SBX Pro Studio and change Windows playback settings to 2.0.

Super sensitive headphones are also super sensitive to any slightest interference and noise floor of circuitry.
So fashion chase for ever lower impedance and lower power need is in technical sense completely brain dead.

 

[Davanius]

I have sold the sound blaster z as I am satisfied with the ae-5. The ae-5 adds another dimension imo and it's a step up that only needs some refining on the software side as it's still a bit lacking. Some settings don't always store correctly but updates can fix the issues.

What is your opinion on the sample rate settings?

It defaults to 24 bit, 48000Hz. It goes up to 32 bit 96000 Hz and 32/96000 Hz studio quality.

On direct hp it goes up to 32 bit 384000 Hz.

 

[Oasis1974]

Bit disappointing when I set it to Stereo Direct to get the full 32bit 384000 no sound will work in nearly all my games. 32bit 192000 everything is dandy is that software issues on Creatives side or the games itself you think?