Hearing my processor

[m17xr2b]

Hi everyone,
Just finished assembling my Crack without speed ball upgrade. All resistances checks are ok. All voltages checks are sort of ok, I get ~75 where I should get 90 but I do have the 240V ones so maybe that is normal. The issue is that I hear everything my processor does. If it is in full load there is a horrible sound and I can hear a tick every second when it''s in idle. There is always a hum in the background which only gets worse if I raise the volume. I have some shielded rca to rca that I use from Titanium HD to my Crack. Also I noticed that from my mp3 player it is dead silent no mater how high the volume is. Can I do something to keep the noise out from the crack? I have braided the cable to it's limit so it cannot be from there.
Also at the moment I only have sound in the left channel. The right one is silent.
Waiting to fix these problems to install speedball.

[Doc B.]

The noise may be coming thru the signal wire of the cable, or it may be picked up by the tubes. Try moving the Titanium HD farther away from the Crack to see if it's being picked up directly by the tubes.

[Jim R.]

Which slot do you have your Titanium HD in?  Is it close to the processor, memory, or video chips?  If so, try moving it as far away from the other ones as possible.  Do you have another source you can try to make sure the interconnects and or the titanium itself are not the problem with the missing channel?

Also, make sure all the screws on the PC chassis -- inside and outside are well fastened and secure -- sometimes these kinds of noise problems and hum can come from a dirty ground (which basically all computers have.

Sorry to say that often times those internal processor sounds are just something you get with internal consumer sound cards and most often the only real way to get rid of it is to go to an external dac.

HTH,

Jim

[Yoder]

There is a Windows utility where you can test your audio outputs. I would also pull the card and clean the slot with some compressed air and the card flanges with a cotton cloth and some alcohol, and then reseat the card. As stated above you may have a bad ground or a funky PCI slot. Try using the other slots. Like USB ports, not all PCI slots are created equal.

[m17xr2b]

I have found the issue. After extensive testing I have found that the noise is present only when the amplifier is sharing the same plug as the computer. Once I plugged the amp into a different wall socket the noise went away. Now what can cause this? And is there a solution to use the pc and amp on the same socket?
Also I fixed the silent right channel by resoldering some joints and using sandpaper to clean the tube feet. Next up speedball upgrade.

[Jim R.]

Good detective work.  Yes, this is the dirty ground issue to some extent, but it is most likely due to noise from the computer and it's power supply going back out on the AC line.

You could try an isolation transformer on the computer power cable, or possibly consider finding a lower noise power supply for the computer. Also, sometimes this may improve with my earlier suggestion to tighten all the screws in the computer -- card slot brackets, all structural pieces, disc drives, power supply, case, every single screw you can find.  I've seen and heard this work wonders more than once and this may be one of those situations where it could possibly pay off.  No real way to tell without doing it though.

-- Jim

[m17xr2b]

The pc is already as tight as it is going to get. I know as I built it myself. The power supply is an OCZ bronze certificate 750W. I will leave this issue as it is for now. Strange that I do not head any kind of noise when I use my sherwood receiver as a headphone amplifier.
Just finished installing speadball and it is wonderful with HD700. THANK YOU BOTTLEHEAD.

[Paul Birkeland]

Feeding a DAC from your computer with a toslink cable may free you from this noise without too much work on your part.

[m17xr2b]

Strange thing is that I have taken all me equipment(pc bottlehead crack) to my home and to my surprise all was working well. Even with the amp and the pc on the same plug I could not hear the processor. This happens only in the city I work. Very strange.

[Paul Birkeland]

It would be interesting to put a scope on your power line at your office, but it is very strange that you are hearing processor noise in one place, and not the other.

Is your HD a solid state drive or a standard spinning disk?  A lot of times I have observed some noise that is more related to hard drive spinning rather than the processor (determined by trying different operations that either require a lot of HD and no processor, or visa versa).

The isolation transformer is probably a good next option to try.

[m17xr2b]

I'm using an SSD for my pc. Also here is the final product:
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi50.tinypic.com%2F2n8zqd5.jpg&hash=4b50aabbcf3f00904ce900abbdf1ed32f51e6a39)