Squealing / noise from speakers

iostream · 2026-01-21T17:13:44+0000

Hello - no doubt this has been covered a few times, but I just wanted to check before I buy a USB DAC. Plugging in a pair of active Edifier speakers into the motherboard results in quite a bit of unwanted noise. Sounds almost like GPU coil whine, it's a bit of a squeal.

The noise seems to fluctuate in line with CPU load as far as I can tell.

Would a cheap USB DAC solve this? Or is the interference just going to come down the USB port as well? Perhaps it depends on the DAC and any filtering it may do.

hornetstinger · 2026-01-21T17:57:24+0000

Try another source like a mp3 player, phone etc. If it doesn't making the noise then yes it's the PC, so a DAC should help.

If it still makes a noise from other sources then something is faulty inside the speakers, either the amplifier or ADC/DAC if it has DSP

Rob_B · 2026-01-21T18:02:33+0000

Have you tried different speakers, or if possible using another output (for example the headphone jack on a case maybe?)

iostream · 2026-01-21T22:12:48+0000

hornetstinger said:
Try another source like a mp3 player, phone etc. If it doesn't making the noise then yes it's the PC, so a DAC should help.

If it still makes a noise from other sources then something is faulty inside the speakers, either the amplifier or ADC/DAC if it has DSP

Tried plugging in a laptop and there was no noise, so it must be the cheap soundcard on the mini PC's motherboard

iostream · 2026-01-21T22:14:19+0000

Rob_B said:
Have you tried different speakers, or if possible using another output (for example the headphone jack on a case maybe?)

There's no headphone jack, sadly. I'll pick up a cheap USB DAC I think and report back

Gray2233 · 2026-01-21T23:22:02+0000

iostream said:
Tried plugging in a laptop and there was no noise, so it must be the cheap soundcard on the mini PC's motherboard

Almost any USB-C based mobile DAC should work, there's plenty for less than a tenner out there.

The biggest issue with PC onboard audio has always been the amount of noise that gets picked up from other components, I to this day wish there were motherboard options without built in audio for going on 15 years.

iostream · 2026-01-21T23:50:37+0000

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/creative-sound-blaster-play-3-usb-dac-amp-and-external-sound-card-sc-10e-cl.html

Settled on the above (no USB C on this motherboard), will report back in a few days...

Alz_D · 2026-01-22T07:45:26+0000

I have this issue with my PC - does your PC motherboard or speakers have optical input /output? I run my DAC off optical from the TV it's connected to, then to the PC via HDMI. This is how I used to use my Edifiers - they had optical input on my model. Doesn't matter how I connect my PC, if USB is involved I get EMI feedback noise. Using optical completely cured this. If you have optical on your Edifiers then maybe a USB to optical would be a simple solution to try.