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Electric hum in Headphones at high FPS

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9 hours ago, JaN0h4ck said:

Isn't coil whine the thing you hear all the time and not only trough your headphones?

 

But I do agree with you and have the exact same issue as have (although I kinda got used to it by now).

 

The funny thing about reports of this issue is that every single one I find either has the same MB or GPU as me AND the HD 558, it might as well be a manufacturing error from Sennheiser. (But I doubt it and will try a DAC once I get some money)

Coil whine is from a physical object in the GPU resonating. It can happen in any electrical device that has a coil.

Yours however is different. The GPU power (from the PCI-e slot) is too close to the audio traces. The electrical noise jumps from the GPU power trace to the audio trace and then you hear it. Using V-sync will lower your FPS, and so your power draw, so you'll get less noise.

 

I had this problem after adding in too many PCI-e devices and a high powered GPU. I later on slapped in a dedicated shielded SPU and bam, the sound was gone. Since then I've heard nothing.

Hello dear people of the LTT Forum,

a while ago I bought new Headphones (Sennheiser HD 558) because my USB Headset always had a lowkey buzzing sound which was annoying af. But the new ones also have a weird buzzing sound which is most noticeable when there are few sounds and high FPS (for example main menus of games). A bit of google research suggestet that my case might not be properly grounded, so I got myself a Fractal Design Define S Window and I still had this Issue.

I tested it on the audio jack on the back of my MB, the front audio and the headphone jack on my monitor but this issue was on all three of them (although it least noticeable on the back of my MB). What's even weirder is that the Realtek HD Audio Manager doesn't pop up when I connect my Headphones at the back of my MB.

So does anyone know how to get rid of this humming/buzzing? Would a additional sound card fix it?

 

Here are my specs:

Spoiler

CPU: i5-4590

MB: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3

Bios Version: F7

RAM: 24GB DDR3-1600

GPU: RX480 4GB with a NZXT Kraken G12 and Thermaltake Water 3.0 140 Red for cooling

PSU: Thermaltake Hamburg 530W (80+ Bronze)

Case: Fractal Design Define S Window

 

 

Sorry for my bad english.

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26 minutes ago, JaN0h4ck said:

<snip>

There'll always be some hum, a PC is a noisy environment; lots of digital switching signals and switching power supplies are not a benign audio environment. You could try disconnecting the front panel audio connector on your motherboard. It's a giant antenna that picks up lots of noise and back-feeds it to the audio circuits, so the noise it picks up (partially) travels back so it can be heard in the mobo's rear output as well. Try keep noisy power/signal cables and cards that have their own switching power supply onboard away from the audio circuits on the motherboard. We once had unbearable hum which was solved by moving the geforce to another slot. The cards (switching) VRM was on the front of the card hanging directly over the motherboard's audio codec.

 

There's no guarantee a sound card will be better noise wise. They might employ better filtering/shielding but it's no magic pill. A true audiophile solution would probably be a quality external sound card with it's own linear power supply. 

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58 minutes ago, Unimportant said:

We once had unbearable hum which was solved by moving the geforce to another slot. The cards (switching) VRM was on the front of the card hanging directly over the motherboard's audio codec.

I actually read about a guy with the same Motherboard having the same issue and he simply fixed it by moving his graphics card up one slot. But mine is already in the spot that doesn't interfere with the audio chip.

I unplugged the front audio, but it's still not better :/

Would something like a FiiO E10K Olympus work?

Sorry for my bad english.

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2 minutes ago, JaN0h4ck said:

Would something like a FiiO E10K Olympus work?

Possibly. At least it is outside the noisy PC environment, but it's powered by the USB itself which again creates a direct link to the PC's noisy power supply. It's a shame they did not place a adapter input for a separate clean power supply. (But it could be easily modified if you know what you're doing).

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I am having this same issue. I have the same headset and same gpu. From what I noticed it happens a lot and terribly more when the gpu exceeds a certain wattage. Even scrolling down a webpage affects this. If I find a solution I will tell you. From what I read online it can be so many things. It can be caused by your gpu, it can be caused by psu. You also need to check your surge bar to see if there are any issues for grounding. People said having certain things plugged in can cause it. I am probably gonna test removing the rx 480 because I read that the card commonly has a lot of coil whine that can contribute it.

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It's the motherboards power layout.

The GPU is interfering with the SPU.

 

Using an external SPU would solve it. Using a dedicated SHIELDED SPU would solve it. Limiting your FPS would lower the problem. Properly grounding the computer would help the problem, but won't solve it.

It's not a race to the bottom.

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16 hours ago, kratox said:

I am probably gonna test removing the rx 480 because I read that the card commonly has a lot of coil whine that can contribute it.

Isn't coil whine the thing you hear all the time and not only trough your headphones?

 

But I do agree with you and have the exact same issue as have (although I kinda got used to it by now).

 

The funny thing about reports of this issue is that every single one I find either has the same MB or GPU as me AND the HD 558, it might as well be a manufacturing error from Sennheiser. (But I doubt it and will try a DAC once I get some money)

Sorry for my bad english.

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9 hours ago, JaN0h4ck said:

Isn't coil whine the thing you hear all the time and not only trough your headphones?

 

But I do agree with you and have the exact same issue as have (although I kinda got used to it by now).

 

The funny thing about reports of this issue is that every single one I find either has the same MB or GPU as me AND the HD 558, it might as well be a manufacturing error from Sennheiser. (But I doubt it and will try a DAC once I get some money)

Coil whine is from a physical object in the GPU resonating. It can happen in any electrical device that has a coil.

Yours however is different. The GPU power (from the PCI-e slot) is too close to the audio traces. The electrical noise jumps from the GPU power trace to the audio trace and then you hear it. Using V-sync will lower your FPS, and so your power draw, so you'll get less noise.

 

I had this problem after adding in too many PCI-e devices and a high powered GPU. I later on slapped in a dedicated shielded SPU and bam, the sound was gone. Since then I've heard nothing.

It's not a race to the bottom.

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  • 2 years later...

I'm going through the same problem and would like to attempt and fix the issue without purchasing a new PSU, but i can't really figure out what SPU means in this thread ? Could someone provide me an explanation, Thanks ! 

My Rig: A Potato With Wires coming out of it connected to a 14inch crt from the 90' resolution 640x480. JK but not that far off 

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