soundcard to hi-fi

[grace2o2]

I want to listen to my mp3's thru my home hi-fi but when I connect it plays fine for awhile and then a very loud buzzing noise starts up intermittently and if I touch the hi-fi box it stops, please help

 

[pmonett]

What sound card do you have in your PC ?
Try lowering the output from the sound card. You can always increase the level on the hi-fi amplifier, so one compensates for the other.
Sound cards are good, generally, but not all have the same level of amplification quality. It could be that your sound card amplifier chip heats up too much, or that after a given amount of time, its performance gets wobbly.
Turning down the level output of the card will decrease the chips temperature (I think), and the problem might go away like that.

Pascal.

 

[norty303]

Could be a potential grounding problem although I've not seen this much other than with vinyl systems. By touching it you may be acting as an earth and dissipating the charge. Does your HiFi ever do this at other times?

Try getting a piece of wire and touch one part to your tower (at back on bare metal) and one end to the HiFi. If the humming stops it's pretty much an earth problem.

 

[grace2o2]

Thankyou for your replies, I tried turning the output way down, it still does it as soon as I turn it on. It buzzes then plays ok, then buzzes again...It happens on both my computers. I took the hi-fi in to be looked at and they hooked various things to the aux[tv, video, cd] and it didn't do it at their shop. I have both the hi-fi and computer boxes on my desk and if I just smack the desk in front of them, it stops

 

[Jontmke]

It is probably RF interference from something in the computer. A fan or something. Try moving the sound card away from everything else in the box, and make sure the cable does not get near any other cables. Especially power cables.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[grace2o2]

its an onboard soundcard..do you think the hsp56 MR internal modem could be interfering with it Jontmke?

 

[Jontmke]

It is very hard to tell. It very well could be the grounding issue too. Are both electical outlets using the third grounding plug? Wait, I don't think hi-fi's do use that. On mine there is a special grounding plug for the turntable. Try connecting a wire to that and the screw on the outlet cover or some other grounding location.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[norty303]

So Grace202 was it the ground or something else?

Also make sure that the cable you're using to connect to the stereo (for audio) isn't laying across any power adaptors or leads as frequently these aren't shielded..

 

[grace2o2]

I think I finally fixed this problem by coiling speaker wire around and around the length of the cable from the hi-fi to t he soundcard outlet and then wrapping it in electrical tape (supersheild)

 

[norty303]

That's gotta be worth a star eh!


Glad you're listening in happiness now...

 

[dkdude]

Hey grace2o2,

Funky, yet inventive solution you came up with.

I think that norty303 has a point about grounding. In stead of the speaker cable wrapping, you can go buy a ferrit coil to loop the cable through in both ends -Should do the same.

To bad you didn't find out where the noise came from -your monitor perhaps...

Anyway, problem solved -just wanted to thwow in a few thoughts of my own §;O)


Jakob