hard drive sounds through headphone amp

Phosphene

Phosphene

Horse Diaper
I just installed a new hard drive in my Roland 1880 and I now notice that I am getting hard drive sounds (very high pitched) coming through my Behringer headphone amp. It's funny because when I plug in headphones directly to the 1880, the sounds are not there. It's only when I plug it into the Behringer, and it gets the loudest on #4, and not as loud on #1. I've swapped out cables and I have narrowed it down to the headphone amp.

Is it possible that the amp is picking up the hard drive functions and I'm hearing it as a high pitched sound? It's pretty loud and it makes listening to tracks in the headphones a little distracting.

Now I know there might be better headphone amps out there, but I haven't heard too much bad about their headphone amps. I also wonder why it started with the new drive? Weird anomaly. Does anyone have ANY idea why this happens? Maybe I should get a new headphone amp? I'm really not crazy, folks.
 
Phosphene said:
I just installed a new hard drive in my Roland 1880 and I now notice that I am getting hard drive sounds (very high pitched) coming through my Behringer headphone amp. It's funny because when I plug in headphones directly to the 1880, the sounds are not there. It's only when I plug it into the Behringer, and it gets the loudest on #4, and not as loud on #1. I've swapped out cables and I have narrowed it down to the headphone amp.

Is it possible that the amp is picking up the hard drive functions and I'm hearing it as a high pitched sound? It's pretty loud and it makes listening to tracks in the headphones a little distracting.

Now I know there might be better headphone amps out there, but I haven't heard too much bad about their headphone amps. I also wonder why it started with the new drive? Weird anomaly. Does anyone have ANY idea why this happens? Maybe I should get a new headphone amp? I'm really not crazy, folks.
Click to expand...

hahaha...we know ur not crazy....many of us have experienced this sort of noise, whether it's a 'data-transfer' noise, mechanical all just electronics buzzing away and into the 'soundstream'.
Now, is your noise coming and going, (ie.eg. when the I/O HD light is flashing)?.....does it change pitch or change it's duration of pitch?
Is it a constant high pitch noise, regardless of what other function are occuring?

Have you changed back to the old HD, just to see if the sound still manifests itself?
Have you changed the location of the HD or the cables going to it?

Anyways, come back to us with that?
Cheers.
 
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It sound's like RFInterference. You didn't mention what model Behri headphone amp you're using. I hope it's that little plastic one---that's easy to solve.

Paj
8^?
 
superspit said:
hahaha...we know ur not crazy....many of us have experienced this sort of noise, weather it's a 'data-transfer' noise, mechanical all just electronics buzzing away and into the 'soundstream'.
Now, is your noise coming and going, (ie.eg. when the I/O HD light is flashing)?.....does it change pitch or change it's duration of pitch?
Is it a constant high pitch noise, regardless of what other function are occuring?

Have you changed back to the old HD, just to see if the sound still manifests itself?
Have you changed the location of the HD or the cables going to it?

Anyways, come back to us with that?
Cheers.
Click to expand...

When I hit the STOP button, it sounds for one second (I know this has to do with the hard drive). Always the same pitch. And when I play a song it will go off and on.

I loaded a bunch of songs onto the drive, and it is kind of a pain to trade out the internal hard drive on the 1880, so I may wait to test that, but I don't think I noticed it. The hard drive I got new is the same brand of hard drive and was sold as a compatible one for the Roland. I don't know....

Like I said, it's kind of crazy, but when I plug my headphones directly into the Roland, there is no noises like that (actually it is VERY faint, barely noticable)....but when I go out of the headphone output of the Roland into my rack with the headphone amp (directly into the amp), I get the noise. Maybe I should post this in the Roland area, but it's usually pretty dead over there and I thought I would get more help over here. Hard drive wierdness!

So.....how can this happen? Is my Behringer headphone amp is susceptible to hard drive noises being channeled in by the output of the Roland?
 
Paj said:
It sound's like RFInterference. You didn't mention what model Behri headphone amp you're using. I hope it's that little plastic one---that's easy to solve.

Paj
8^?
Click to expand...

Is the rack mountable 4 channel headphone amp
 
Paj said:
Is the hard drive secured and grounded?

Paj
8^?
Click to expand...


It is secured in my Roland 1880. I don't know about it being grounded to the 1880 if that's what you mean? I plug everything in my lil studio into one outlet that is grounded (so the ground indicator says on the power strip when I plugged it in). I do have everything running through an ACTUAL Furman voltage regulator AR-15II.
 
It certainly seems that the hard drive may be causing this, but something else seems odd to me as well that would point to the Headphone amp actually being the problem, and maybe not the hard drive. If the hard drive noise is being sent from the Roland, then the headphones should exhibit the problem without the Behringer as well. Also, the noise should be the same on headphone channel one as it is on channel four. What type of cables are you using to run from the Roland to the Behringer? What outputs from the Roland are you using and what inputs on the Behringer? Have you tried moving both units to see if it changes? You could also try an AC ground lift on the behringer and see if that helps.
 
xstatic said:
It certainly seems that the hard drive may be causing this, but something else seems odd to me as well that would point to the Headphone amp actually being the problem, and maybe not the hard drive. If the hard drive noise is being sent from the Roland, then the headphones should exhibit the problem without the Behringer as well. Also, the noise should be the same on headphone channel one as it is on channel four. What type of cables are you using to run from the Roland to the Behringer? What outputs from the Roland are you using and what inputs on the Behringer? Have you tried moving both units to see if it changes? You could also try an AC ground lift on the behringer and see if that helps.
Click to expand...

I wonder if certain hard drives just put out more or different frequencies that are picked up by other amps.

I am using a Mogami TRS cable to the Behringer, and I've tried others and it's all the same. I am coming out of the Headphone Out on the Roland. I am going to try and move my rack and see if it helps. I'll post on that later.

How would I go about doing a ground lift on the Begringer?
 
Phosphene said:
I wonder if certain hard drives just put out more or different frequencies that are picked up by other amps.

I am using a Mogami TRS cable to the Behringer, and I've tried others and it's all the same. I am coming out of the Headphone Out on the Roland. I am going to try and move my rack and see if it helps. I'll post on that later.

How would I go about doing a ground lift on the Begringer?
Click to expand...
easiest way to figure out where your noise issue is coming from....
disconnect the workstation from the headphone amp and run an instrument through the amp to see if you are still hearing the noise.
if you are still hearing the noise with the workstation disconnected it is your headphone amp that is the culprit and not the workstation.

if it is your amp get a Samson S-amp 4 channell stereo headphone amp
this is the best little headphone amp I have ever owned for what I paid for it
very clean and noise free channells.
I think I paid 40 bucks for it through Amazon.com

it is not a rackmount amp but is very nice and compact unit which is what I like the most about it.
 
The first thing I would try is not sending signal from the Roland's headphone amp to the external headphone amp. Try using a line level output. Start with maybe the main left and right outputs. By using the headphone output of the Roland you are sending an already amplified signal to a line input. Try sending a line output to a line input. This is the proper way to patch them together. There is also a chance that the analog path within the Roland is much cleaner from a line output. Headphone amps are often a very overlooked part of the R&D of units and I would not be surprised to find out that the headphone circuit in the Roland has had virtually no attention paid to it and utilizes a standard cheap circuit which may be prone to all sorts of interference. If you find that the main outputs of the Roland are clean when running to the Behringer headphone amp, then try a different auxilliary output besides the headphone output.
 
Well, I tried the Monitor outs and they are the same as the Main Outs. A 90% improvement. The sound is barely noticeable. Switching it to the Monitor outs should have been apparent to me, I guess I was "stuck" on using the Headphone outs to go to the headphone amp....I didn't even think about what you said about the headphone amp in the Roland, but it sure does make sense why it was the reason for the noise.
 
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