Troubleshooting: Yamaha HS7 crackle caused by something in my computer. Maybe?

[Kippers]

Hi all. Immediate apologies for the long post.

New computer from here arrived yesterday and everything's dandy except a crackle coming out of my speakers. (Scrub to the bottom to see computer build specs). If this finds itself being more relevant in another section, please move it.

I'll list what I've done to troubleshoot so far, below, but I want to note first that I've had the speakers up and running for the last 3 or 4 weeks on a Mac with no issues of added noise, so I'm most confident at the moment that they aren't the issue. I troubleshot them anyways, to make sure.

Secondly - When I first launched the computer with the speakers connected, I wasn't connected to the internet and they were sounding as normal. That's to say silent minus a subtle hum that I'm fine with. Once I hooked a connection up, the "Armoury Crate" program installed and that is when I suddenly noticed the new crackling sound. So please bare these two things in mind as you read through my troubleshooting. The second point could just be a coincidence.

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AUDIO SET-UP AND TROUBLESHOOTING

My set up is as follows - A Yamaha HS7 pair going into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen via balanced XLR (speaker side) to TRS (interface side) cables. The interface is then USB'd into the back of the computer.


Troubleshooting done so far:

1) Unplugged XLR from speaker so only power is going in. - No crackle, so not a speaker issue?

2) Tested the XLR to TRS cable. - No crackle when used with other devices, so not a cable issue?

3) Proximity. I moved the speakers as far away from everything else as was possible - No luck.

4) I connected the speaker power cables to different sources (wall sockets) but it continues.

5) Made sure any other source of audio was muted / inactive on the computer. I'm using an Eizo ColourEdge CG248 so there are no speakers built in to the monitor to consider.

6) Disconnected everything from the back of the computer except the unit's power supply and the Audio Interface. These were an Ethernet cable and a USB dongle for mouse / keyboard detection. - This didn't affect the crackle.

7) Checked drivers. Everything appears to be up to date.

8) I thought maybe the RGB on my 2080 Super X Trio was generating the crackle, so I turned that off through the MSI Creator Centre. ("Aura Effects" doesn't work.) - The noise still persists.

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Now the reason I mention the "Armoury Crate" program installing is because the only way I seem to be able to alter the crackle in any way, (usually making it worse), is when I switch between the RGB pre-sets in "Aura Effects", even when I have the RGB switched off as mentioned above. At the moment, "Dark" makes it the least annoying.

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THE NEXT STEP / SUGGESTIONS PLEASE

The next line of investigation obviously seems to be to uninstall "Armoury Crate", but it seems Motherboard related and I'd be hesitant is get rid of it without absolute confirmation that nothing will mess up, and can be reinstalled easily if that isn't the issue??


Are there any other ideas as to what else I could troubleshoot? I bought pre-built in the hope that I wouldn't have to open the case and touch things that I don't really understand.


I think this is as detailed as I can get, but anything else let me know. Thank you for any help and sorry if it takes a few hours to get back to anyone with a response.

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BUILD SPECS

As promised here are the build specs. (Relevant bits C+P'd from Invoice):


- RENDA G5-CC9 Content Creation Workstation - Frequency Enhanced Intel Core i9K
- Phanteks Eclipse P600S Glass Silent Midi Tower Case - White
- Intel Core i9-10900K 3.7GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - OEM
- MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive
- WD 4TB Red Pro 7200rpm 256MB Cache Internal NAS Hard Drive (WD4003FFBX)
- Asus ProART Z490-Creator 10G (Socket LGA 1200) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
- Team Group Xtreem "8Pack Edition" 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz


Thank you again in advance,
Mark

 

[Kippers]

Could be a grounding issue maybe. Try other speakers and audio interface with your PC and/or your Interface and speakers with another PC? Do you still get crackle?

Hey there.

Thanks for the response and the suggestions. These are the results:

1) The speakers and interface worked nicely with a Mac set-up that I had before the computer with no crackle. I had that hooked up for 2-3 weeks with no extra interference in the speakers. The crackle is emitting from the woofer, if that helps any?
This new computer is taking the same power supply as the Mac was.

2) I connected the interface and speakers to a second computer in a different room, and there is no extra crackle from there, which is great. Unfortunately that's a family computer so it's very low spec and not an option to use that one for work. (video editing if you're curious)
I also moved this problem system into the same room with the interface and speakers hooked up, and the crackle could still be heard.

3) I just plugged in a pair of cheaper USB speakers, (Advent Multimedia Speakers), and the crackle is present in them too. The crackle is less invasive, but the audio is tinny and so they aren't suitable for work.
I then plugged those same Advent speakers into the Mac and the crackle is gone.

Unfortunately I don't have a second interface to test. Seems excessive to buy another to troubleshoot with.

I'm still heavily leaning towards the issue being in the case itself. Maybe even with the USB ports as plugging that cable into the back, either from the interface or the Advent speakers, is the only part of the chain that creates the noise. Maybe something is loose inside? At that point I'm looking at needing someone professional to take a look.

 

[Kippers]

Thanks. I'll give these a go.

Searching around I see the "Behringer HD400" being strongly suggested for ground loops. It seems that I could connect this in between the speakers and the interface to catch the noise.

Have you by chance had any experience with this little box?