Help with noise reduction and connections (NZXT B550 + Edifier MR4 + Monoprice Subwoofer) [Electrical noise issues]

waronthemoon1 · March 20

Hey! I've had some issues with my audio and never bothered fixing it until now. I was hoping to get some advice on how to proceed.

MY SITUATION:

1.) My powered Edifier mr4 in general will buzz at a certtain volume whern idle (the roller on the speaker itself). I keep the roller a little down which is just fine, it's not the issue.

2.) my NZXT B550 motherboard rear 3.5mm connector is broken for no reason. They cannot replace/repair because it is no longer selling. I use the front panel 3.5mm connector instead.

3.) My audio configuration is using a 3.5mm out header on my O11D front panel connector. It connects to a Y-splitter. One side of the splitter goes to my Subwoofer (3.5mm to RCA splitter), the other side goes to my edifier MR4's. I do not move the rollers (for levels) on the subwoofer and edifier MR4's as I prefer to adjust volume on windows directly. (Adjusting the speaker would require me to adjust the subwoofer and it sounds weird otherwise)

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THE SOUND ISSUE I HAVE:

ISSUE: outside of the buzz in my situation #1 above, I hear high pitch noise when my mouse moves, and it's really obvious if i temporarily increase volume roller on the speaker. The buzz occurs when I scroll etc. Ther sound seems change a bit if my CPU or GPU is under load, a constant buzz when this happens.

My research: My research led me to believe it is not the cables, and it is likely involving lack of EM shielding in the computer. That or it's related to ground loop issues. I've also heard this is an extremely common issue with USB. Apparently, the toshilink is handy here (optical), which I happen to have on my motherboard.

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HOW DO I PROCEED?:

After reading many forum pages on reddit and LTT, I was considering an external DAC or Audio interface. People have suggested DAC over budeget audio interfaces because the quality of the DAC unit inside the audio interface may be very bad (and that the device often focuses on input and ports as opposed to output). Im also told that those dongle DAC's like apple's USB-C one are pretty good.

However, I've also read that toshilink's dont allow noise to travel like USB does,and so I've ultimately been looking into

Budget DAC's that have toshilink input. Will this solve my issue?

SUMMARY: please let me know if this works:

B550 -> Toslink Cable -> Budget DAC -> (Y-splitter into powered sub and powered speakers) OR (connecting speaker and sub directly if DAC allows)

SOME OTHER IDEAS: Optical to Reciever, audio interface, etc. However, none seem to be economic.

Additional Quesitons:

Would having a Dac with tube amplifier benefit over one without? Something like this: AIYIMA T10 JAN5654 Tube Vacuum Preamplifier Audio Decoder
Do all DAC's inherently have an amplifier inside? Will this matter much for powered devices like mine (speaker and subwoofer are both powered)
Will my toshilink cable->DAC idea work in reducing noise on the motherboard? (Mouse movement noise, CPU/GPU load noise, etc)
Noticed all the budget DAC recommendations only have 1 output (L/R RCA), any good way to add on more without it becoming gimmicky (bad quality) or super expensive
Any sub-100$ DAC recommendations for USA Amazon?

If you read these, don't feel pressured to answer ALL of them. that's a ton of work but I do have a ton of questions. Any advice/info is useful