Crackling through new Monitor speakers

[awx]

Hi Guys i recently bought a pair of KRK SYstem Rockit 5 active monitor speakers and i am experiencing some high pitch static coming through the speakers when the cpu is underload or burning a cd. It even just play music with nothing else running in the back ground just when the intensity of sound picks up. This has never happened before with my crappy stereo speakers. The static is also not there when im playing nothing and the cpu is under load

I have also recently installed 2 sata harddrives which have been installed in removable racks.

This seems only to happen with audio playback thru winamp or wmp and also with video playback. I recently had some problems with the same static happening when using guitar rig. I messed around with latency and still did not fix the problem.

My setup is as follows.
Delta 1010lt to Behringer MX1604a to Krk Rokit 5 speaker via jack cable.

If anyone could shead some light on how to fix this problem it would be greatly appreciated because it is starting to drive me nuts.

Thanks in advance
awx

 

[treymonfauntre]

crackling while burning cds isn't too abnormal, sometimes system clocks get screwed up when you type too fast even, but when music gets louder is very strange. maybe you're overloading the behringer

 

[cpl_crud]

Does the "high pitched" part sound almost like it's some cheezy, 70's style "almost-high-pitched-but-not-really" sound?
That could be your SATA motor doing a short read- if your CPU is under load then it's possible that you're using some space on the SATAs as virtual memory, hence the short reads. This could possibly be transferred to the SPU.

There may also be some SPU (Sound PU) overload caused by shared interupts. 99% of the time, a shared intterupt is'nt going ot make a difference, however under high CPU load the error checking goes out he window and an IRQ can sometimes be misdirected- this can lead to noise (discussed in another thread that I will find after this post).
EDIT: This thread here: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=193048

It could also be a power thing- try moving the monitors to a seperate power source (like, from a different room).

You could also get some small, inline isolators like the Rapco Isoblox- they may help.

Also, somethign I just thought of, how "big" is your computer PSU, and what are you actually driving with it?
A lot of stock PSUs are only around the 300W mark (and that's their "sticker" value- the true value could be less). With two sata drives and your standard assortment of cards, it's possible that you're running close enough to the PSU's redline to create some noticeable fluctuations when you're drawing a lot of power- when you're spinning up a drive or burning a CD for example...

 

[cpl_crud]

Oh, another thing, did you also install the soundcard recently, or did you use it with youre "crappy stereo speakers"?

 

[zradioman]

move the card to another pci slot

This just happened to me with the Delta. . .moved the card to another pci slot. Took care of it.

 

[awx]

No Cpl Crud the sound card has always been in my system.

As for the PSU i have only just recently bought a new on and it is a 400w. I made sure it was a decent watage cos the last one crapped out on me. But the PSU could perhaps still be an issue i have 2 sata drives and dvd-rw and a IDE drive running on it. I might pull out my dial up modem out of on e of the pci slots and see what happens.

While im at it i might just change the 1010lt to another pci slot. I'll let you know how i go. Thanks for the help.

 

[awx]

Well i have changed it down one pci slot.

The crackling has reduced but it is still there a little crackling going on.

Anymore suggestions?

 

[emils]

Are you using balanced cables. Unbalanced cables will pick up a lot of noise between your sound card and the speakers.

 

[awx]

I was using rca cables now im using balanced cables.

Seems to of fixed it.

I'll see for how long tho.

 

[awx]

It still seems to be crackling thru the speakers just not as readily as it did before.

I have also noticed it is crackling thru the headphones that i have plugged into the same mixer.

I've got the latest drivers so would it be saffe to say that perhaps it might be a problem with the mixer?

 

[cpl_crud]

I think you've had a number of problems at once here, however I think you're getting close to a solution.

As well as your intterupt settings creating noise, I would say you're now getting pops/clicks from one of two sources: Digital error or power issues.

Due to a bit of shuffling in my apartment, I moved from using my main speakers as my "listneing" speakers (as opposed to monitors) and got out my old computer speakers. I noticed that I was getting some clicking, which, as far as I could tell, was caused by shitty power. The number of times something turns on/off in your copmuter is incredible, and a not-so-great power supply can create some noise in the power lines. If your speakers aren't the greatest quality, they can pick these up and create some annoying crackling.

To fix this, isolate the speaker power supply from the computer power supply.

The other noise source, digital noise, comes from bad data. Now, the sources of this are, unfortunatley, numerous. Everything from crap clocks, bad software, HDD issues, CPU overload... Fixing this is a bit of a problem, espically if the tracks are recorded with the digital noise. The easiest way to test this is to listen to the raw tracks with a standalone player like winamp or WMP. If you hear the clicks in the same spot as you do through your software, then you're stuffed- the raw audio has bad data and will always sound bad. If not, then chances are your software is to blame.

RE: The mixer being at fault, try taking it out of the chain. You should be able to take the line outs of the delta straight into the speakers. If this fixes your problem, then it was obviously the mixer. However, a failing mixer usually won't sound like crackling unless you're moving something (like a fader or trim pot). If it is crackling, then it is basically fuxored, and has loose connections internally, or damaged signal paths. I wouldn't put it past behringer to have such faults, but if you bought it new then you should be able to get some use out of it before such a total failure...