Best cheap external USB sound card for microphone only?

[Donut the Vikingchap]

I recently bought an Antlion ModMic 4.0 that has been working great, except that I noticed that my sound card (ASUS Xonar Essence STX) has a huge problem.

 

The sound card picks up A LOT of electromagnetic interference from my graphics card (ASUS GTX 680 DirectCUII). So every time I play a game or do anything else GPU intensive, the microphone gets a lot of really loud & annoying static noise that changes pitch with the framerate. This makes it impossible to talk to people on Skype and in-game since they always hear an annoying buzz in the background when I talk (I don't hear it in my own headphones).

 

I looked up this problem online and as it turns out, I'm far from the only one with this issue. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an universal problem with the STX itself, despite it having a fancy EMI shield on it, which doesn't seem to work at all for the microphone. Even worse, no-one seems to have found a working solution to it, so right now I'm stuck with using my USB PS3 Eye Camera as a microphone as I did before I bought the ModMic, and it works just fine except for the bad sound quality, since it's USB (digital) so it doesn't get any interference.

 

I've already done all this to try and reduce interference to the sound card, I've:

• Made sure it's in the PCI-E slot furthest away from the graphics card
• Tried using the front panel connectors as well as the sound card's
• Unconnected the front panel connector cable from the sound card
• Made sure to connect it with a separate Molex power cable
• And made sure not a lot of other cables run close to it.

Nothing made any difference. By the way, my PSU is an AX750, so it's not low-quality.

 

Another thing I've tried is to re-enable the integrated sound card on the Motherboard and simply plug in the ModMic into that. It works, and it doesn't get the interference, but it makes the sound quality of the microphone really bad, and it's also very quiet, which is the same problem I had when I used my old Siberia V2 headset in it before I had a sound card.

 

SO, the only simple solution I can come up with is to simply buy a small, cheap, external USB sound card (USB to 3.5mm adapter) to plug the microphone into, since this should (in my theory at least) mean that the graphics card won't interfere with the signal.

So now the question is: What sound card/adapter should I buy? Since I will still be using the STX for the headphones, it shouldn't be too expensive and focus only on the output quality. So does anybody have a suggestion for a nice, cheap external sound card (like those usb-stick-like things perhaps) with good microphone quality? I'd love to hear!

[EmoRarity]

Sybadac would be your best/cheapest bet. 
(The STX's EMI shielding isn't, its not a faraday cage, its not EMI shielding)

[TheKDub]

Have you tried plugging the mic directly into the back of the motherboard?

[Donut the Vikingchap]

Have you tried plugging the mic directly into the back of the motherboard?

 

Yes.

 

Another thing I've tried is to re-enable the integrated sound card on the Motherboard and simply plug in the ModMic into that. It works, and it doesn't get the interference, but it makes the sound quality of the microphone really bad, and it's also very quiet, which is the same problem I had when I used my old Siberia V2 headset in it before I had a sound card.

[Donut the Vikingchap]

Sybadac would be your best/cheapest bet. 

(The STX's EMI shielding isn't, its not a faraday cage, its not EMI shielding)

 

Thanks a lot for the suggestion, but I'm not sure that would be a great option since I live in Sweden and the Syba DAC isn't very widely available, so it'd have to ship from America.

[EmoRarity]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion, but I'm not sure that would be a great option since I live in Sweden and the Syba DAC isn't very widely available, so it'd have to ship from America.

Gross, not much you can do then, hit up a local computer shop for some shit like the U3/Other external solution. 

[TheProfosist]

Stuff like this why I'd be super interested in a small USB dongle that just has a high quality mic input that wouldn't require boost for decent headsets or stuff like the mod mic. I have a essence one and would love to disable the onboard that I'm just using for mic input.

[ShearMe]

Someone posted this video yesterday:

 

[Donut the Vikingchap]

Someone posted this video yesterday:

 

 

Thanks for the tip, but it didn't sound great in that video since the plosives sounded terrible - is that related to the sound card? If so, any other suggestions?

[Donut the Vikingchap]

Anyone? I still haven't been able to decide yet.

[ShearMe]

Thanks for the tip, but it didn't sound great in that video since the plosives sounded terrible - is that related to the sound card? If so, any other suggestions?

 

No, that's related to the mic and positioning. The dongle itself is good, because the 'plosives sound the same with and without the dongle.

[Donut the Vikingchap]

No, that's related to the mic and positioning. The dongle itself is good, because the 'plosives sound the same with and without the dongle.

Okay, thanks. I thought it sounded worse but maybe that's just me, the dongle is so cheap so I will probably buy one and give it a try 

[ChronoTjai]

This is an old topic. But did you fixed your problem? Have yout tried using a plug a 3.5mm into 6.3mm and connect your modmic with it? I'm having problems with my onboard soundcard and a cheap external soundcard cause I havn't test this theory yet.

[TheProfosist]

This is an old topic. But did you fixed your problem? Have yout tried using a plug a 3.5mm into 6.3mm and connect your modmic with it? I'm having problems with my onboard soundcard and a cheap external soundcard cause I havn't test this theory yet.

This is what id recommend now personally http://goo.gl/wrhmAlthe Creative Sound Blaster Play 2. I use it for just my mic when im using my dac.

[ChronoTjai]

This is what id recommend now personally http://goo.gl/wrhmAlthe Creative Sound Blaster Play 2. I use it for just my mic when im using my dac.

 

Yea I saw this. I was about to order this play 2. How is it?

 

I'm actually still considering buying a DAC external soundcard, since I need one for my ATH M50X. In the same time I'm trying to fix my modmic problem. Something like the Scarlet 2' 2 or Creative x-fi HD. Will this be a good solution for me?

[weez]

Yea I saw this. I was about to order this play 2. How is it?

 

I'm actually still considering buying a DAC external soundcard, since I need one for my ATH M50X. In the same time I'm trying to fix my modmic problem. Something like the Scarlet 2' 2 or Creative x-fi HD. Will this be a good solution for me?

 

This is the most I would spend on fixing the modmic http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-CM-UAUD-Adapter-C-Media-Chipset/dp/B001MSS6CS/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2. Any more and its wasted money

[TheProfosist]

Yea I saw this. I was about to order this play 2. How is it?

 

I'm actually still considering buying a DAC external soundcard, since I need one for my ATH M50X. In the same time I'm trying to fix my modmic problem. Something like the Scarlet 2' 2 or Creative x-fi HD. Will this be a good solution for me?

Its quite good for the mic input. With no boot my modmic only needs to be at 74 and that is with no boost in mumble either. I have not used the sound side though. It fixed mine when using headset with my ASUS Xonar Essence One.