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Horrible hissing noise from Studio monitors

chubs159

So I recently got an amazing deal on some M-Audio BX-8's (way overkill for my purposes, but hey, go big or go home, right?), but they are hissing horribly. (attached is an audio recording of the sound) My current setup is I have a M-Audio M-Track 2x2 connected to my PC through USB. I then have my studio monitors connected to the M-Track through basic TS 1/4 audio cable. I know the speakers aren't damaged themselves. I hooked up my phone 1/8 in port directly to the speakers and there is no hissing. I have done some troubleshooting and will continue to and update this post as I do, but this is what I have found so far. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my PC. It only makes the hum when my PC is powered. They are both on the same circuit in my apartment, and unfortunately are basically have to be due to the way the circuits are slayed out in my cheaply made apartment. That being said, I don't know if its an issue with my PC having a grounding issue and sending bad power back to the wall, or going through USB. I also tried bypassing the M-Track and conecting my PC directly to my speakers, but that didn't change anything, still had hissing.

 

The Hissing is various, so I don't think its a ground loop(everything I've seen on that is a constant buzz around 60 hz). It also is not constant volume, so as i adjust the volume on the speaker itself, (knob on the back) the buzzing gets louder and quieter respective to which way I adjust the volume. 

 

I am fairly new to the world of audio, and I've been slowly trying to get into it, so if there's some obvious trouble shooting step that I haven't mentioned, feel free to comment, i probable haven't tried it yet. 

memo_voice_29.m4a

 

Update: i ran the audio cable down to my kitchen and powered my speakers from an outlet down there and the buzz was still there, so its not an issue with the power coming from the outlet. 

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input volume , if the device you've attached to them is set to full volume it can produce a hiss

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3 minutes ago, emosun said:

input volume , if the device you've attached to them is set to full volume it can produce a hiss

The imput volume can be all the way down and it will still buzz

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1 minute ago, chubs159 said:

The imput volume can be all the way down and it will still buzz

if the speakers work fine with a different device , then whatever device the speakers are connected to is making the hissing noise.

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7 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Ground Loop

Will it still produce a variating buzz if its a ground loop? Things that I have read showed a ground loop being a constant tone. If it is a ground loop though, how would I go about getting rid of it?

 

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Just now, emosun said:

if the speakers work fine with a different device , then whatever device the speakers are connected to is making the hissing noise.

That's basically the concision I've come to, but I wasn't sure if anyone had any ideas as to how to remove it, or if there was another possible problem. 

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Your speakers and interface both have balanced connections, use them.

I.e. Get some proper 1/4'' TRS jack's...

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8 hours ago, anothertom said:

Your speakers and interface both have balanced connections, use them.

I.e. Get some proper 1/4'' TRS jack's...

already am. I ended up calling some sound friends from work and they helped me out. thanks though.

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1 hour ago, chubs159 said:

already am. I ended up calling some sound friends from work and they helped me out. thanks though.

What did they do to solve it, and what was the actual problem?

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On 10/12/2017 at 11:35 AM, loculus said:

What did they do to solve it, and what was the actual problem?

It was a ground loop. I'm still working on a permanent solution, but I was able to figure out the issue was a ground loop by testing the speakers with ground lifted. It worked that way, but sketches me the f**k out, so im going to try to find a less sketchy way to solve it. Ill post a final solution when I get one setup 

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