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Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

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Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#41

Post by pacificat0r »

LM358 wrote: post #39
ShipEveryWeek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s with the animosity towards Schiit? They seem to make decent products. Noise from using USB power delivery for audio devices is common.. that’s why you can (and should) use the dedicated power input to you DAC/amp

>They seem to make decent products I don't agree with that sentiment. Their designs are subpar and the quality of the soldering is (maybe was) unacceptable: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/h... https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/b... The above review specifically goes into the problem from OP. There's also their amplifier with a rather non-standard architecture that…

Wow, that's exactly what I have, a MODI 2. Time for a change I guess

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#42

Post by Night_Thastus »

I run into a similar problem. I have a power-hungry GPU (3080) and CPU (9800X3D).

All my audio equipment was on the same UPS (and therefore outlet) as my gaming PC.

The result is that any time a particularly stressful game would be open, I'd get buzzing in the speakers. (Especially if the framerate was at 360) If you ask audiophiles online they will swear up and down that a cheater plug, balanced cables, or optical isolation will fix it - that will not fix it. It's not a ground problem. It's not coming from the connection from the PC to the DAC - it's a power issue.

It seemed almost inconceivable to them that the problem was EMI from the computer making it into the equipment.

I temporarily got a double-conversion UPS (converts AC to DC to AC again) and housed the audio equipment on that instead (separate from PC) Lo-and-behold the noise was completely gone.

However, those UPS are extremely expensive, and far worse they're very loud because the fans run constantly.

So, I went with a simpler alternative. Just get a power strip and plug all the audio equipment into that on a different outlet. That reduces it massively. You can also get some strips that are designed to reduce EMI, but I haven't felt the need as of yet.

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#43

Post by icelancer »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #26
bluedino wrote: post #23

I remember 15+ years ago reading about certain laptops (Dell?) that you could 'hear' scrolling on websites, somehow the video chip was interfering with the sound chips. I had one at the time it was pretty weird.

Pretty common problem on builtin sound cards, even now. It's just very close to the noise source. Shouldn't really happen on USB DAC, it should have enough filtering to get any interference injected by power, and enough shielding (and just being far away enough from machine) for other EMI

Yeah this is the main reason to use a USB DAC. I guess you get marginally better sound quality (more noticeable on expensive studio headphones that need more power to drive them) but better isolation/removal from the noise source is the main reason I use them. Especially relevant because in my travel I'm often in countries that don't have ground plugs in their power sources.

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#44

Post by LM358 »

pacificat0r wrote: post #41
LM358 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They seem to make decent products I don't agree with that sentiment. Their designs are subpar and the quality of the soldering is (maybe was) unacceptable: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/h... https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/b... The above review specifically goes into the problem from OP. There's also their amplifier with a rather non-standard architecture that…

Wow, that's exactly what I have, a MODI 2. Time for a change I guess

Look, if it works for you and you're happy with it - keep it. More power to you.

I just know that if I handed over something with such shoddy soldering to a customer, I'd lose my job or at the very least lose soldering privileges. But I am working with things that cost slightly more than 99$ that you can't find on store shelves :)

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#46

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #25

It's funny that apparently "high performance" DAC doesn't handle the common issue every single USB audio device have to worry about - noisy power. From the vendor page (on MODI 5, no idea which one author has). > SPECS THAT MATTER > Distortion: inaudible; 100-1000x lower than any transducer (speaker or headphone) you're using > Noise: inaudible; far below a typical headphone or speaker amp

The fact audiophiles talk about “DAC”s is really telling. Transparent digital-to-analogue conversion is a solved problem. Any computer or smartphone worth a damn has a DAC whose output is indistinguishable to the human ear from anything “better”.

The truth is that DAC is not the problem… everything else in the analogue audio chain is. Amplifiers are messy analogue devices. Speakers and headphones are incredibly messy analogue devices. Power supplies and power conditioners are messy analogue devices. And noise is not down to any one component, but is a whole-system design problem. A particularly cool thing about power supplies is that they often create noise that will be picked up by other devices on the same circuit.

Of course, when people are buying a “DAC” they are really buying a box of some kind that also includes an amplifier, but this naming choice surely contributes to people paying attention to the wrong specs.

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#47

Post by monster_truck »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #42

I run into a similar problem. I have a power-hungry GPU (3080) and CPU (9800X3D). All my audio equipment was on the same UPS (and therefore outlet) as my gaming PC. The result is that any time a particularly stressful game would be open, I'd get buzzing in the speakers. (Especially if the framerate was at 360) If you ask audiophiles online they will swear up and down that a cheater plug, balanced cables, or optical i…

Pure sine wave UPSs are not that expensive anymore man. I think the biggest "desktop" pure sine wave cyberpower sells (1500VA/1000W, CP1500PFCLCD) is <$300 now. I have a couple of them, they are great.

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#49

Post by kevindamm »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #27
kevindamm wrote: post #6

The source is electrical noise, but the solution of isolating the audio chain from the computer's USB means that in the future you might not notice when you've introduced another GPU memory bandwidth hog into your rendering loop. Good story, though.

Just attach a scope to your power lines, boom, live feedback on what your renderer is doing. I wonder if that will be next fad in PC building, just putting live power line graph on the screen inside

replace the scope with a dimmable light and we might have a better solution than low-decibel audio hum

or perhaps live wire into the seat, tied into a transistor on this signal, so if performance drops enough you're sure to be alerted to it

Re: Why are my headphones buzzing whenever I run my game?

#50

Post by Gracana »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #42

I run into a similar problem. I have a power-hungry GPU (3080) and CPU (9800X3D). All my audio equipment was on the same UPS (and therefore outlet) as my gaming PC. The result is that any time a particularly stressful game would be open, I'd get buzzing in the speakers. (Especially if the framerate was at 360) If you ask audiophiles online they will swear up and down that a cheater plug, balanced cables, or optical i…

If you're a bit handy, you can assemble a line filter using a part like this https://enerdoor.com/products/fin27/ for a heck of a lot cheaper than you can buy a filtered power strip.

You may also be able to solve the problem with a simple common mode choke, either the clip-on type, or a toroid that you wrap the cable through a couple-few times. https://palomar-engineers.com/rfi-kits/acdc-power-line-choke...

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