insanely high noise floor (at night only?!?)

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I don’t see why they would.  A bird half a mile a ay singing is still making air vibrations. It would fix crosstalk, which could be included in noise floor problems, but it would do only that.   This is why people make anechoic chambers and hang sound insulation everywhere and stuff.  Sound stages are traditionally put in basements mostly because they’re automatically surrounded by concrete and dirt.

Without my headphones on I can't hear ANYTHING. I open my window I hear nothing. The only noise in this room are the fans of my pc

[ShearMe]

A bird flapping his wings has nothing to do with the noise floor of an electrical audio system 

[Guest]

Just now, ShearMe said:

Set all your digital volume controls to maximum, and see if that makes a difference. Digital volume controls naturally "raise" the noise floor.

I've already tried that, someone suggested it to me in an earlier thread. You see, for some reason digital volume controls don't make a difference. I can take out the input cable of the CTH, the noise floor is still the same. And if I was to crank up digital volume, Id have to move the analog dial from the middle to a lower position -> raises the noise floor

[Guest]

1 minute ago, ShearMe said:

A bird flapping his wings has nothing to do with the noise floor of an electrical audio system 

Couldn't you have said that earlier? Already murdered my pet bird, made no difference

[ShearMe]

2 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

I've already tried that, someone suggested it to me in an earlier thread. You see, for some reason digital volume controls don't make a difference. I can take out the input cable of the CTH, the noise floor is still the same. And if I was to crank up digital volume, Id have to move the analog dial from the middle to a lower position -> raises the noise floor

I dunno man... you sure the amp isn't just defective? You've tried not using it?

[Bitter]

Go up to the source and work your way down, you might just have a lousy amp.

[Guest]

Just now, ShearMe said:

I dunno man... you sure the amp isn't just defective? You've tried not using it?

IT'S ALL THE AMPS. Not only the CTH. Monitor, mainboard, the one in my audio interface i use to connect my mic. The only sound source that doesn't have some weird noise floor here is my phone. That works perfectly. But it's probably optimized for very sensitive iems and therefore has almost no noise / is shielded very well or whatever that's called

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

Without my headphones on I can't hear ANYTHING. I open my window I hear nothing. The only noise in this room are the fans of my pc

Ambient noise is like that.  In my town there’s this gigantic park that has a big hill in it with a valley in the middle.  In the center of that valley so a single picnic table.  Imho it’s the coolest picnic table in the state.  The deal is the hills block noise pollution from the surrounding city. It’s actually quiet there.  If you go there and eat lunch it’s enough time for your  brain’s background noise cancelation to bleed off.  As you walk out you start to hear city noise and realize how incredibly lout it is.  It’s this gigantic roar.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

Ambient noise is like that.  In my town there’s this gigantic park that has a big hill in it with a valley in the middle.  In the center of that valley is a single picnic table.  Imho it’s the coolest picnic table in the state.  The deal is the hills block noise pollution from the surrounding city. It’s actually quiet there.  If you go there and eat lunch it’s enough time for your  brain’s background noise cancelation to bleed off.  As you walk out you start to hear city noise and realize how incredibly lout it is.  It’s this gigantic roar.

 

[ShearMe]

Just now, OddGreyFox211 said:

IT'S ALL THE AMPS. Not only the CTH. Monitor, mainboard, the one in my audio interface i use to connect my mic. The only sound source that doesn't have some weird noise floor here is my phone. That works perfectly. But it's probably optimized for very sensitive iems and therefore has almost no noise / is shielded very well or whatever that's called

Oh... do you have an optical DAC to try? Could be dirty elechickity or a ground loop or something.

[ShearMe]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Ambient noise is like that.  In my town there’s this gigantic park that has a big hill in it with a valley in the middle.  In the center of that valley so a single picnic table.  Imho it’s the coolest picnic table in the state.  The deal is the hills block noise pollution from the surrounding city. It’s actually quiet there.  If you go there and eat lunch it’s enough time for your  brain’s background noise cancelation to bleed off.  As you walk out you start to hear city noise and realize how incredibly lout it is.  It’s this gigantic roar.

Ambient noise has nothing to do with the electricity running through his audio system.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, ShearMe said:

Ambient noise has nothing to do with the electricity running through his audio system.

This is true.  Totally different thing.  They would be totally different sources.   The thought that it might be ambient sound is based totally on the concept that it’s higher at night.  Electronics stuff would be the same because it would be on no matter what, unless there was additional electronics noise coming from stuff that was only on at night.  Ambient is very hard to control or account for though other than building some sort of bunker.  Electronics stuff makes more sense to chase down simply because it can be affected.

[Guest]

Just now, ShearMe said:

Oh... do you have an optical DAC to try? Could be dirty elechickity or a ground loop or something.

I do not unfortunately. Regarding that ground loop thing. I've tried different outlets, for example i had the CTH connect to my phone and no other device that is connected to an outlet, so it's no groundloop.

[ShearMe]

4 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

I do not unfortunately. Regarding that ground loop thing. I've tried different outlets, for example i had the CTH connect to my phone and no other device that is connected to an outlet, so it's no groundloop.

Different outlets doesn't mean anything as one building usually uses only one ground.

 

Phones aren't grounded devices, so there'd never be a loop. Try plugging it into your charger while it's going to the amp.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, ShearMe said:

Different outlets doesn't mean anything as one building usually uses only one ground.

 

Phones aren't grounded devices, so there'd never be a loop. Try plugging it into your charger while it's going to the amp.

I'd need an usb splitter to charge it while it's connected to the amp. But my pc is obviously plugged in to an outlet.

[ShearMe]

8 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

I'd need an usb splitter to charge it while it's connected to the amp. But my pc is obviously plugged in to an outlet.

What kind of power plug does your amp have? If it's a standard 3-prong, get a polarized grounding adapter to remove it's ground connection https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-15-Amp-Single-Outlet-Grounding-Adapter-Gray-U-09/203456716

 

If you have a spare cable for it, you can also just remove the ground lug from the plug. This is just for testing, so I don't want to recommend any permanent damage.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, ShearMe said:

What kind of power plug does your amp have? If it's a standard 3-prong, get a polarized grounding adapter to remove it's ground connection https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-15-Amp-Single-Outlet-Grounding-Adapter-Gray-U-09/203456716

 

If you have a spare cable for it, you can also just remove the ground lug from the plug. This is just for testing, so I don't want to recommend any permanent damage.

american plug with an adapter (no frequency converter) to use it here in europe. I think you meant the plug that goes into the amp though, that's attached

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

american plug with an adapter (no frequency converter) to use it here in europe. I think you meant the plug that goes into the amp though, that's attached

That’s a vacuum tube sticking out of the top of that thing

[Guest]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

That’s a vacuum tube sticking out of the top of that thing

Well, yeaah? and?

[ShearMe]

10 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

american plug with an adapter (no frequency converter) to use it here in europe. I think you meant the plug that goes into the amp though, that's attached

Wait, you have a converter on an american transformer (wall wart)? Can you take a picture of the sticker?

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

Well, yeaah? and?

Pre semi-conductor tech.  Very old. By definition analog.  Analog sound has a whole bunch of totally different issues than digital sound.  

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, ShearMe said:

Wait, you have a converter on an american transformer (wall wart)? Can you take a picture of the sticker?

 

[ShearMe]

5 minutes ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

 

 

That's got the proper input voltages, so can't be the issue...

 

Do you have a laptop you could troubleshoot with?

 

Otherwise, I'm at a loss of what to suggest for further troubleshooting. You could try a ground loop isolator or an optical DAC to break any kind of loop. However, there's no guarantee that's your issue. Your recordings don't sound like a loop to me, but if the amp works fine off your phone that usually indicates a loop.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, ShearMe said:

 but if the amp works fine off your phone that usually indicates a loop.

It doesn't. Same noise floor when it's connected to my phone. What I said earlier was that with the headphones connected directly to my phone, there is no noise, unlike with everything else

[ShearMe]

1 minute ago, OddGreyFox211 said:

It doesn't. Same noise floor when it's connected to my phone. What I said earlier was that with the headphones connected directly to my phone, there is no noise, unlike with everything else

oh damn I misunderstood. Then there's definitely something wrong with your amp!