Front Panel Audio - DEAR GOD WHY?!

[Ambious]

So I have a pretty great soundcard on my motherboard with great quality - it's an Asus Maximus Hero VII and everything is great.

Until I use the front panel audio jack - that is (which I rarely do, but when I do it's because I don't wanna crawl on the floor and switch the speaker cables out).

That's to be expected though, as the panel is not part of the motherboard and therefore not subject to the same standards - but my case isn't half bad either, it's a Coolermaster Haf-X, which is a pretty decent case (or at least was when I got it), and you'd expect such a high-quality case to have high-quality cabling and PCBs, but... that's not the case (no pun intended).

The audio from the front panel is SUPER noisy, and it sounds like EM noise which - weirdly enough - respond to changed on my SCREEN. 

I thought maybe the front panel cables were running too close to the GPU - but nope, they're pretty neatly tucked and don't go anywhere near it.

So the question is... what now?

I'm currently without a job so a solution that doesn't require me to buy an external DAC or an alternative front panel would be nice.

A quick internet search suggests maybe breaking up the different grounding circuits on the PCB, but that seems risky and sketchy AF.

Does anyone know a solution for this problem - which seems common - without paying for expensive additional gear?

I'd appreciate any tips/recommendations/horror stories you may have on the issue.

Cheers!

[Windows7ge]

From what I've been told. Cables carrying audio signals can be manipulated by electromagnetic fields cause by high voltage or current wires. In other words. The front panel HD audio cable is acting like an antenna. The noises produced from the electrical components in the case are distorting the signal in the cable. Kind of like a signal jammer. Move the cable as far away as you can from any power wires.

[Ambious]

Thanks for the response.

I just found a link to the Audio Interference Troubleshooting Guide and they indeed suggest there's a link to the power cables used for the GPU.

So I fired up FurMark and what do you know - the noise is directly tied to GPU stress.

So yeah, I'm guessing it's either the power cable or the fans? I'm gonna try replacing to a single power cable (like the guide suggests) since I think I'm using two different ones atm and report back.

[mariushm]

If you have a bit of talent with the soldering iron, you could make a sort of extension cable using a shielded cable (where you'd connect the shielding to one of the ground pins to protect the wires inside from catching noise from outside)

 

Some noise may also  be picked up from the USB ports, some case front panels connect the usb power ground to the audio ground so the switching noise from 5v of your power supply can be "injected" into the audio. Try and see if disconnecting the usb headers that go to your front panel make any different in the sound of your front panel connectors and if so .. other than physically separating the grounds on the tiny front panel circuit board, the only other solution would be to just NOT use the usb connectors.

 

[elira]

Buy a 3.5mm extension cable, plug it in the back, and put it wherever you like.

[Ambious]

Hi so, thanks for all the responses.

I didn't have a split power cable and my PSU is only half-modular anyways, but I DID notice my front panel audio cable was bunched up with all the power cables coming out of the PSU in my cable management, so I re-routed it and made sure it's not near any other power cable and.....

Not a single difference.

The problem with buying an extension cable or a splitter as some have suggested is that I quite like that when I plug in my headphones to the front audio panel the sound is automatically rerouted so I don't have to mess with the volume or turn off the speakers manually. It's a lazy nit-picky thing, I know.

I will try disconnecting the USB headers and see if that helps.

[Kierlan]

Hey, 

 

So one thing you might want to do is check that the soldering to the front panel audio connectors is done properly, as much of a bother as electrical cross talk is, i've had way more issues with bad soldering joints on speakers etc. Beyond that you could try something simple like wrapping the FP audio cables in say some kind of shielding material like say aluminium foil (1-2 layers wrapped about the cable as a test) to help isolate it from the crosstalk. If it works, you can get some 3m aluminium tape to replace the foil