Hey everyone,I am having problems with static and crackling sound coming out of my speakers. I am using a brand new built computer. The motherboard I am using is the Gigabyte x58 UD5P for the Intel Core i7. If you need any more info on my computer specs, I will add if needed.I am not sure if it is a faulty I/O audio ports on the motherboard or not.
I did a test on my old computer and I did not get any of the static and crackling sound.So, with that said, is there something wrong with the motherboard's I/O sound ports? Do I need to upgrade a bios or driver? I did try plugging the speaker connector in all of the I/O ports and I only get sound out of the bottom middle green one.I did try playing with the settings in the Realtek HD Audio Manager, but I still couldn't get rid of that pesky static & crackling noise. Due to my experience, I am not sure what to do next.Thank you all for your help.
Neither of those issues sound like speaker problems to me. They are likely both stemming from digital processing. The center speaker might not have its cross-over point set high enough and might be a bit too high in level in comparison to the LF and RF speakers. The rear speaker static noise could be digital steering artifacts from the processor. From your description, it seems that the circuitry which detects whether or not there is audio signal coming in is faulty. Many active speaker manufacturers feel the need to implement an auto on/off feature, that you can't even bypass!
Thank you for your reply.How do you connect a 3.5 connector to a internal dvd burner?Actually, there is nothing wrong with my speakers because as I mentioned above I tested it on my old computer and I had no problems like I am having right now.I have updated the audio driver and that didn't work. I called Gigabyte and they had me unplug the FAudio connector and even try replugging the 3.5 inch connector into another slot, but nothing seems to work.They said, I can RMA it, but before I do that I want to wait another week to see if I can solve this issue.Any other suggestions? Static noise can be generated from many different sources.poor grounding, bad connections, internal PC components, etc. It could be difficult to determine exactly where it's coming from.1.
Check all PC connections.2. Re-route speaker wires with as much separation from/perpendicular to other cables/wires.3. Keep speakers as far away from other components as possible (tough to do, but might be necessary).That's the easy stuff. If those don't work, then you'll have to start eliminating things like internal noise, bad sound card, and grounding problems to name a few. Thank you for your reply.
I reinstalled and even updated the audio drivers and I am still having the same problem. I called Gigabyte and they had me unplug the FAudio connector and even try replugging the 3.5 inch connector into another slot, but nothing seems to work.They said, I can RMA it, but before I do that I want to wait another week to see if I can solve this issue.I did try some of the things you mentioned, but did not eliminate the problem.Any other suggestions?
How do I fix grounding problems? Should I just RMA the motherboard? A grounding problem could be anywhere from inside your PC to your home wiring. Unless you're having problems elsewhere in your building, I would stick with checking all connections in the PC. If you don't know how to use an ohmmeter, then just be sure all PC connectors are secure.Other equipment in your home could also generate noise in your speakers, so try turning off anything else that's on (TV, radio, microwave, fans, etc.). It can be tricky to pin down.Unfortunately you may have to resort to replacing the motherboard, but you would be smart to eliminate all other possibilities. Hey everyone, sorry for the late update.
I did not solve the issue and the fustrating thing is I am still having it with my new one. Here is the scoop.
I was able to RMA the motherboard and ended up buying a new one and a new case, but same model. I am still having the same issue.
It has to be a case issue now. People who have bought this case do not seem to be having a problem like I am. The computer I am using right now that I built 4 years ago, the sound is coming out crystal clear.I am just going to buy a different case this time.
Hopefully that will be the answer. The crackling noise I hear from my speakers is also audible on headphones-and what's more, when I record audio (from a guitar, say), and then play back the recorded audio file on another computer, whose speakers are ordinarily fine, I hear the crackling.That tells me that it's not the speakers, but rather something else-sound card, maybe, or possibly interference from the power supply? Incidentally, I see graphic distortion as well, stippled display of the desktop and dialog boxes, for example. That stippling is intermittent, but the crackling is constant.This makes me wonder if the two issues are related. Would PSU interference cause both problems?
Suggestions?Using an Audigy 2 Platinum sound card and an ATI Radeon graphics card. Its over.ITS FIXED! Unplug your power supply from the Laptop! Thats it!At least for me, after hours and days of collecting info and techy babble, and me accusing Windows and Sony for hijacking my machine as of HDCP and spiteful Apple (paranoa) I have cracked it.
My 30,000 tracks are now free to listen to as I WANTED THEM TO SOUND LIKE. If this is an overblown way to say 'un-plug the power supply from your laptop' Im very sorry.UNPLUG THE POWER SUPPLY FROM YOUR LAPTOP. I have 30,000 tracks I can listen to without the overwhelming static. WHOO hooooooo.Tonight Ill probably move the power supply (for my laptop) away from the other 11 plugs I have under my table from (the 12 way splitter).Again again and againUNPLUG THE POWER SUPPLY FROM YOUR LAPTOP then find a better place to position the power supply. If you have many plugs close together, induction and magnatism from your portable hard drive - printer -PSU and other PSU's is causing the problem. I for one was amazed and did this as a last chance saloon! I thought it was an algorithm prob with windows.
Mine is very subtle though, I only notice it late at night when there isn't a sound anywhere else in the house, and even then I have to wear my earphones. That's how I know it comes from the motherboard itself and not my speakers, because which ever type of speakers I use I get that subtle crackling.I think mine is related to my hard drive somehow. When I click thing and play with programs, I hear the clicking get more frantic, then when I do nothing it slows down. Almost like the mobo is getting interference from signals coming from or going to the HDD. I'll be getting a new mobo soon, but even so. I find it quite odd.Are sound cards worth getting when something like this crops up?
At long last, I set up my stereo for surround sound over the holidays. I am using 5 Thiel speakers and no sub. My amp allows me to reconfigure so that the other speakers handle the work of the subs. For the back or rear speakers, I'm using my smaller Thiels (5.1s) that I used before I replaced them with the bigger 3.6s.
The center channel is being handled by a fairly small Thiel bookshelf speaker. I appreciate that ideally all 5 speakers in the configuration would be the same but this is all I'm going to be able to get away with.I've noticed 2 issues with this new set up. Regarding the center channel speaker, with certain recordings such as the SH Nat King Cole SACDs, where the vocals come through exclusively through that speaker, the sound in that speaker is boomy and muddy sounding. With other recordings, such as Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here SACD, where the bass isn't so much a focus, all speakers sound fine to my ears. I bought the center speaker used and had not tried it out before so suspect the woofer might be damaged? I'm in the same town as Thiel so may take that speaker to the plant to have them check it out.
I'm assuming that the fact that the center speaker doesn't need as much amps to power it as the other speakers are getting is not causing the boominess. In other words, I assume it's not getting too much power just in that speaker. Is that right?While I expect to some extent the deficiencies in the center channel speaker, I am more concerned about what is going on with the left channel rear 1.5 speaker. While I never noticed any issues with playback when I used these as my main speakers, now I have heard some static on multichannel playback coming just out of that speaker.
I've heard it on a couple of recordings so assume it is speaker-based and not recording-based. However, it is not continuous and it seems that once the song gets going I do not hear the static. Could this be a problem with the speaker wire I'm using?
The connections, at least at the speaker itself, seem fine (I've not pulled out the amp to check the wire connections on that end). What are the most common causes of audio static during playback? At long last, I set up my stereo for surround sound over the holidays. I am using 5 Thiel speakers and no sub. My amp allows me to reconfigure so that the other speakers handle the work of the subs.
![5.1 5.1](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125661147/298687940.jpg)
For the back or rear speakers, I'm using my smaller Thiels (5.1s) that I used before I replaced them with the bigger 3.6s. The center channel is being handled by a fairly small Thiel bookshelf speaker. I appreciate that ideally all 5 speakers in the configuration would be the same but this is all I'm going to be able to get away with.I've noticed 2 issues with this new set up. Regarding the center channel speaker, with certain recordings such as the SH Nat King Cole SACDs, where the vocals come through exclusively through that speaker, the sound in that speaker is boomy and muddy sounding. With other recordings, such as Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here SACD, where the bass isn't so much a focus, all speakers sound fine to my ears. I bought the center speaker used and had not tried it out before so suspect the woofer might be damaged? I'm in the same town as Thiel so may take that speaker to the plant to have them check it out.
![Tv surround sound speakers static speakers Tv surround sound speakers static speakers](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125661147/802774382.jpg)
I'm assuming that the fact that the center speaker doesn't need as much amps to power it as the other speakers are getting is not causing the boominess. In other words, I assume it's not getting too much power just in that speaker. Is that right?While I expect to some extent the deficiencies in the center channel speaker, I am more concerned about what is going on with the left channel rear 1.5 speaker. While I never noticed any issues with playback when I used these as my main speakers, now I have heard some static on multichannel playback coming just out of that speaker.
I've heard it on a couple of recordings so assume it is speaker-based and not recording-based. However, it is not continuous and it seems that once the song gets going I do not hear the static. Could this be a problem with the speaker wire I'm using? The connections, at least at the speaker itself, seem fine (I've not pulled out the amp to check the wire connections on that end). What are the most common causes of audio static during playback? Click to expand.Neither of those issues sound like speaker problems to me. They are likely both stemming from digital processing.
The center speaker might not have its cross-over point set high enough and might be a bit too high in level in comparison to the LF and RF speakers. The rear speaker static noise could be digital steering artifacts from the processor. It could also be a transport problem or a processor problem relating to RF interference (perhaps poor internal grounding of one of the components, poor layout, or component value drifting). Lots of possibilities inside those black boxes. Speakers are pretty simple devices and Thiel is a good brand, so I really doubt that trouble is there. You can swap the two rear speakers to prove that. If the LR speaker was defective, it'd have that same noise move to the RR after you swapped it to that position.
My bet is that the noise stays in the LR no matter which speaker is there.-Bill. Click to expand.Yes, the Primare gear is very well built. I was assuming a cheaper receiver. Also I totally spaced on the SACD mention and just thought about the more common DVD and CD formats used through receivers on surround systems. All kinds of problems can arise with cheap transports and receivers via the digital input. In your case here though, with the SACD, you must be using analog output into the Primare processor.
So the only thing the Primare can help with will be the cross-over and levels for the center speaker.All of the digital processing on SACD is done in the SACD player. So that's where the trouble would be with the digital steering and of course the transport problems if that is indeed the cause. Static sounds can be a sign of RF troubles and transports as well as connected digital gear operate at very high frequencies and so things can get noisey if there is a problem in that range. That isn't a sure bet for the issue, just a guess based upon seeing it occur before a few times.There is also the issue of improper disc authoring where the transport or decoder has trouble reading it. I find it hard to believe that Sony would allow that to happen considering their death grip on the SACD processes but one never knows, especially with today's digital pirating plants.
They might be able to fake just about anything in China now. So the test to determine if it's the disc or the player is of course to try other discs. If it occurs only with a couple of discs, then those might be suspect.
It could still be a hardware problem in the player developing however and just showing itself on discs that it finds more challenging. If there is a random order of the problem or if it happens with all discs, then it is almost certainly the player at fault. Swapping those rear speakers will still prove that the speakers are not the cause if the problem remains in the left channel. I'd just be looking more at the SACD player since it is doing the digital work.To test the Primare inputs, you can also do a similar test as with the speaker swap.
Once you have confirmed the problem is still in the LR channel, just swap the LR and RR audio output cables from the SACD player or into the Primare processor. Either end will work. What that will do is then send the SACD LR source over to the RR speaker. Then, if the problem moves to the RR, you have confirmed that the issue is in the SACD player. If it stays in the LR even after the LR info was moved to the RR, the the problem is in the Primare unit.
The Primare has digital processing even though it is likely not being used in the case of its 5.1 analog inputs. So there could be some bleed-over of noise from the digital to analog section if it has developed a problem. The other scenario is that the Primare may convert everything to digital to implement its own processing functions before converting back to analog for the output. I'm not sure what unit you have or how it is set-up internally.-Bill. Thanks, Bill.
For full disclosure, I'm using a Primare Spa21 and for playback of SACDs and DVD-As a modded Denon 5910si Universal player. Probably the cheapest thing in the current set up is the speaker cables I'm using just for the 2 rear 5.1 speakers. I'm using Blue Jeans 10 gauge speaker wire for the front 3 speakers but a much smaller (higher gauge-maybe 16?) older set of cables for the other 2 speakers.
In part, that's to keep domestic tranquility as my wife hates the thicker wire running all over the room and I can put the smaller cables under the carpet while running them to the back speakers and 'hide' them. Thanks, Bill. For full disclosure, I'm using a Primare Spa21 and for playback of SACDs and DVD-As a modded Denon 5910si Universal player. Probably the cheapest thing in the current set up is the speaker cables I'm using just for the 2 rear 5.1 speakers. I'm using Blue Jeans 10 gauge speaker wire for the front 3 speakers but a much smaller (higher gauge-maybe 16?) older set of cables for the other 2 speakers. In part, that's to keep domestic tranquility as my wife hates the thicker wire running all over the room and I can put the smaller cables under the carpet while running them to the back speakers and 'hide' them. Click to expand.Professionally upgraded by the Upgrade Company in 2008 (before I bought it).
As I understand it, they switch out some of the factory electronics with better versions, and claim it is thereafter comparable to much pricier high end units. I don't have a $20k CD/SACD player to which to compare but I've always been pleased with its performance.After work, I put in Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad DVD-A and instantly heard crackling out of the left rear channel so switched the 2 speakers as recommended.
I haven't heard anything odd out of either speaker since, so wonder if it doesn't occur primarily at start up. I'll keep listening over the weekend.Re: the center channel, my Primare lets me set the cross-over point from 40 to 200 hz, and not knowing what that means, I had left it on 40. What do you think is a good number? I switched the left and right rear speakers and can now confirm the static is a left channel issue and not a speaker issue. It's not a constant thing and seems to occur primarily at the start of a disc.
All things being equal, I don't see spending any money to remedy it if it isn't something related to the speaker wires/connections, etc. I guess it's just a quirk of surround listening on my particular set up.Revisiting the cross-over points, I suppose the only thing I can do is experiment with the settings until I don't think it sounds boomy. I've moved it to 80 and it sounds OK on what I've played but it seems like the most noticable offender is the NKC 3 Channel recordings so those will be my litmus test.