White Noise

[Techless]

Hello, i'm new here, so please forgive the lack of know-it.

Right now, i'm using the built in sound on my a7n8x-e deluxe, but when I use my ear buds or headphones, there is a lot of white noise as well as general computer operation noise (like, hard drive spinning up). I've already muted everything except wav and synth. Does anyone know how to get rid of the noise?

Or maybe, a suggestion to a nice replacement sound card? I don't want to spend more than $150CDN, so, maybe the m-audio or something...

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Codesmith]

There are really two types of sound card cards designed for musicians and cards designed for games.

The ones that are good at one usually are horrible at the other. No real gamer would use an m-audio or Edirol to play Unreal Tournament. Nor would a real musician settle for an SoundBlaster.

Personally I live the SB Live 5.1, it works well with all the games, has pretty good sound. The Audigys don't really sound better, though they are very good at better recording.

I use high quality headphones for playing 3d Games, but when I listen to music or watch DVDs I use the SPDIF to connect to my digital reciever. The reciever decodes all the audio so the sound is perfect!

PS I changed my mind about real musicians not using a Sound Blaster. The Audigy2 ZS's RightMark Scores are excellent and it has full ASIO 2.0 support.

If you are just interested in high quality recording/playback, it is by no means a bad choice, but probably not the best choice. Probably the best choice for gamer/musicians.




<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Codesmith on 01/31/04 05:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[HammerBot]

White noise and computer operation noise on onboard sound is a common problem. Ive heard it on all computers I can remember. Personally I disable onboard sound and use a sound card. Even the cheapest sound cards usually have better noise performance than onboard sound.


<i><b>Engineering is the fine art of making what you want from things you can get</b></i>

 

[Techless]

Codesmith:
Thanks for the response. I also use a pretty decent pair of headphones for some gaming, but mostly listening to music. I use to use the Live! value, but it still had a lot of white noise, even after muting all the things in the sound options.

HammerBot:
Yeah, i've noticed that. My old Live! value didn't have the computer sounds, but it did have a lot of white noise.

What i'm wondering is, would a better soundcard, like the M-Audio Revolution have any? or atleast, not as pronounced as the Live! cards?

I'm really just looking for clean sound, and game performance is an after thought.

Maybe... USB 2 card of some type?

 

[Xrtaea]

what is your budget?

 

[Techless]

About $150CDN, before taxes.

 

[Xrtaea]

Where are your headphones connected to when you listen to that white noise?

Yeah, there are cards that have clean and accurate sound that will suit audiophiles.
But... uh... how much is $150CDN in $US?

 

[Techless]

I plug them in to the speaker frount out. None of the soundcards i've had ever had a headphone out that I was aware of.

Well, make that $150USD then.

I'm not too much in to critical listening, so perfect reproduction isn't necessary, it's just the noise when theres no sound that really irritates me.

 

[Codesmith]

I did some research, you motherboard already has a very respectable sound card. "SoundStorm™ / Dolby® Digital Audio" correct?

The reviews show its Right Mark Audio Analyzer scores are pretty solid. Its has the best gaming performance and is the only solution capible of Dolby Digital (5.1) encoding. RightMark is a great tool, but for some reason they don't keep up to date centralized scores for cards. You need to do some searching to check out a card (+RightMark +SoundStorm).

I believe what you are experiencing is what is refereed to as a cards "Noise Floor". This is best measured using the SourceForge Noise Floor test.

Unfortunately Noise Floor is SoundStorm's Achilles Heel.

Here is a chart. I found it by searching for (+SoundStorm +"noise floor").

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1167238,00.asp

If Noise floor is your primary concern I would recommend the Audigy2 based on this chart.

However if you are not a hard core gamer, you might want to search for Noise Floor Test results for M-Audio's Revolution 7.1. I read reviews where people describe it as good, or say it should be good given some spec, but haven't actually seen a real benchmark yet.

Either card can be found for around $100.

Actually I am thinking of purchasing the same motherboard as you, and so I am very interested in your concerns regarding SoundStorm audio.

Do you have your speaker setting on 2 Speaker or Headphones? Many people forget to switch this when using headphones, and occasionally it can make a huge difference.

Is this noise bothersome when using speakers, or only with headphone?

Is the noise when there is no sound the only problem you have with this card?

Have you ever connected this card to a Dolby Digital capable receiver?

 

[Techless]

Didn't expect anyone to research so much, thanks.

I think I will get the revolution 7.1, and go for the dual soundcard route. So, revolution for music and the soundstorm for games.

I only have the problem with I use my headphones, my speakers are pretty poor quality, so it isn't very sensitive. I don't find very much difference between the headphone and 2 speaker settings on this motherboard. But it was quite apparent on the Live! (headphone setting being very very bad).

I don't have Dolby Digital recieve unfortunatly, so I can't test it.

 

[Codesmith]

No problem, I have thinking of getting a SoundStorm certified motherboard so I was going to look up the information anyway.

Anyway that would be the perfect setup, if you can get both cards working like that without problems. If not the Revolution can handle all the gamming API's, but only in software. That mean your FPS will take a 15-25% hit compared to the SoundStorm.