Nasty, Nasty PC Audio

**akwash79** · 05-08-2007, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by symon_say

so try the options you post those solve the problem in most case or try to put as far as you cant you carpc and your amp.

Many people here advise to ground the pc and the amp at the same spot. By doing this, is there a possibility of them trying to ground through each other? Just a thought.

As far as my RCAs, they are better than wal-mart quality but not quite Monster cables. Also there are 2 different brands going to front and rear and they both produce the noise.

**DarquePervert** · 05-09-2007, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by symon_say

It really doesnt matter if you put your power cable and your RCA together, the loop that the power cable creates is nothing to care about is you install your equipment propertly. Is more important to have good quality RCA than this.

I don't believe that anyone said having signal cables running alongside power cables created a ground loop.
The power cables put out electro-magnetic interference that can affect the signal, causing noise in the audio and distorted images on the video. EMI is something that is ut out by every electrical cable whether it's long or short, AC or DC, a few milliamps or hundreds of amps. It's still there to some degree.

I'm don't going to argue your experience or skills, but the general consensus is that power cables and signal cables should be seperated. That' not just by this crowd, but also by the high-end car audio crowd.

Originally Posted by akwash79

Many people here advise to ground the pc and the amp at the same spot. By doing this, is there a possibility of them trying to ground through each other? Just a thought.

No. Electricity flows in a circle. In throught he power and out through the ground, basically. It's kinda like a NASCAR race: It only goes one way unless there's a problem.

**davidingermany** · 05-09-2007, 09:25 AM

Try turning your gains down on you amps. Another option is a line driver as close to the PC as possable. The line driver will provide a cleaner output with a higher voltage and reject any signal noise you may be having.
David

**ccjustin** · 05-10-2007, 12:35 AM

is the outside part of the usb cable the ground? if so i would add a ground from it to the main ground for the amp. i have a tendency to believe the pc has a lot of resistance between where the power and ground come in and the signal goes out.

**greatwhite** · 05-10-2007, 06:42 AM

I've had everything form alt whine to pc noise to static from nowhere.

All I can tell you is to move things around, and try grounding things in different orders/places.

I eventually cured my issues with carfeul cable routing (audio and power), by putting my comp in an all metal case and grounding it to the vehicle (well, it's bolted to the body structure). My amps are mounted on mdf and go to a common ground with equal length cable runs.

I am even running an inverter right now and have no noise! (too poor right now for a DC-DC solution

) Once again, careful positioning, routing and grounding makes it viable.

It just seems you have to experiment to find the right combo for your setup and vehicle.

Good luck

**akwash79** · 05-10-2007, 12:00 PM

Well, I moved the amp ground to a separate location and it seemed to sound a little crisper but the noises still persist.

I also hooked my laptop up to the amp and there was no noise whatsoever. Nothing but clean, crisp sound. As soon as I hook the pc up to the amp buzz...buzz...whine...buzz....buzz. This happens with using both the onboard sound and the turtle beach roadie. Arrrggggg.....

If tested independently, neither of the devices are producing noise. It only seems to happen when both are connected together.

**greatwhite** · 05-10-2007, 12:06 PM

Try it with the car running, the car off , the pc plugged into wall power (if you still can). See if it's alt noise, fan noise, hdd noise.....

Cheap amps and cables can sometimes cause problems. And on the other end, high end amps can pick up sounds (noise) in a poor install that a cheap amp doesn't.

Ya gotta find where it's comming from before you can fix it.

Unfortunately, there's usually no easy way to find it. You just have to keep changing things until you find the source. It can be very frustrating and a long process. You just have to keep pluggin' away. I wish there was a definative answer or easy fix to give you, but there isn't. Sorry.

Good luck

P.S. maybe you should remove that 100% completed line in your sig

J/K.

**RedGTiVR6** · 05-10-2007, 12:08 PM

Did you check your gains on the amps and make sure that they are set up properly?

**durwood** · 05-10-2007, 12:28 PM

Sounds like maybe you have an issue where both your amp and computer and grounding the ground portion of the RCA cable. Try a ground loop isolator at this point. I am alomst 99% certain it will fix your rproblem and they are cheap <$10.

I could suggest some other things to do, but at this point I don't know if you want to do some surgery on your RCA cables or swap out your amp for a different brand.

**akwash79** · 05-10-2007, 06:19 PM

I adjusted the gains and that doesn't seem to be an issue. Thanks for the suggestion though. I think durwood may be correct on this issue and I may have to go with the GLI. They pc and amp only cause a problem when used with each other.

@greatwhite - well technically it is 100%, I just have to turn the volume up a litte and the noise isn't a problem lol. Sucks when changing tracks