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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?

#51

Post by Night_Thastus »

monster_truck wrote: post #47
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.

It's not about pure sine wave - it's double conversion. Only double-conversion would actually isolate the equipment from EMI on the line. Without that pure sine wave won't do squat for EMI.

And one of those, even the cheapest ones, run for about ~$900. And they are LOUD.

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

#52

Post by Yeask »

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…

No need for UPS, a good external usb soundcard with power supply will solve that problem.

I have all connected to the the same power circuit and with a Elektron Digitakt as audio device and have zero noise.

With audio devices powered by USB there is a lot of noise.

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

#54

Post by LM358 »

Gracana wrote: post #50
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...

A filter like that will have very little attenuation in the audio spectrum.

I agree however that indiscriminately throwing ferrites at problems can be a good solution!

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

#55

Post by bob1029 »

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 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.

Lifting the ground on my studio monitors absolutely fixed my noise problems. I run them off a MiniDSP 2x4HD, so other sources like EMI aren't really a factor.

The problem I have with a double conversion UPS is that it isn't an ideal sinusoidal source. It implies it is on the tin, but when you've got protected loads with PWM power delivery slamming around 1+ kilowatts, there's no way to guarantee a smooth waveform with a typical ~2500VA unit. Directly passing through to the grid could provide cleaner power under the most transient conditions.

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

#56

Post by fleroviumna »

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…

[dead]

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

#58

Post by Kirby64 »

pier25 wrote: post #33
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

> 100-1000x lower than any transducer This seems like a lot but it's only 20-30db lower than whatever reference they're using. This is the spec that really matters: THD+N: 0.0003% which is roughly -110 dB. It's very good and completely inaudible but not exceptional these days.

THD+N is irrelevant for the issue the author is describing, through. You need to spec PSRR (power supply rejection ratio). Many individual ICs do not spec this, and pretty much every system does not spec this.

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

#59

Post by blep-arsh »

Yeask wrote: post #52
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…

No need for UPS, a good external usb soundcard with power supply will solve that problem. I have all connected to the the same power circuit and with a Elektron Digitakt as audio device and have zero noise. With audio devices powered by USB there is a lot of noise.

I also have a splitter which lets you power an USB device from a separate power supply (i.e. D+/D- lines are connected to a host and +5V comes from a separate plug, ground is shared though). And optical TOSLINK is a nice option where available.

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

#60

Post by Night_Thastus »

Yeask wrote: post #52
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…

No need for UPS, a good external usb soundcard with power supply will solve that problem. I have all connected to the the same power circuit and with a Elektron Digitakt as audio device and have zero noise. With audio devices powered by USB there is a lot of noise.

Sigh, it's almost like I had this conversation before.

My audio equipment is not connected by USB. It's connected by optical (TOSLINK) to an external DAC. TOSLINK is not great, but it shows that it is not a USB noise problem.

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