High pitched frequency coming from speakers, any audio experts?
 

I have a soundblaster X-fi, and when I connect it to my monitor speakers through the RCA (actually TRS, tip ring sleeve) connectors, I get this high pitched whine at all times. I have to either turn off the speakers, or put some music on to drown it out.

If I disconnect the speakers from this PC and only keep it connected through the balanced 1/4" cables that go to another PC, it goes away.

If turn off this PC, it goes away too.

Any way to get this to stop? The sound card is "gold plated" etc, don't think it matters.

Maybe a new cable would help? I bought the cable new from a music store.. shrug

Ideas? The pitch is close to inaudible, but it drives me fuckin nuts. :)

Oh also I have a quality Seasonic power supply in my PC

Tried muting everything you aren't using in the mixer? If my SW Synth isn't muted I get that whine too.

I'm not an expert on these things, but it sounds like one of your components is not properly grounded...

ADG

Good idea.. Just played with all those settings and doesn't help, even when I mute everything the sound persists.

Maybe the grounding? How would I ground my PC? I live in a high rise hehe

Maybe it's just like something from the power supply to board or case?

Try Googling this: high pitch sound +grounding...lots of good advice.

Good luck,

ADG

That's what I was going to suggest.

try different plugs than any other things like tv are plugged into. but like stated above it sounds like a grounding problem.

i have a set of speakers that does that when one of the power cords gets a bad connection in the dc power plug.

How i found it:

I turned the volume up all the way and so i could here it good and started wiggling wires and connections where they plug into shit. When you find the loose one (if there is one) it will more than likely make more noise when you wiggle it or push in on it.

so it only shows up through that monitors speakers?

plug a set of headphones in and see if you hear it, if not then it sounds like your monitor speakers are the issue

what kind of monitor is it? exactly, there may be mor epeople with the same issue if you do a search

Naw it's not the power cords, they're the same plugs you use for a PC's power supply as they're powered speakers, and have individual detachable cords, and both speakers make the noise.

It's the PC for sure, and grounding sounds right.. I thought just by screwing in a power supply to a PC the case was grounded though, not sure.. I'll talk to a pc tech tomorrow and see if there's something I can do.

BV not speakers attached to a monitor, they're reference monitors.. These ones:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...StudioDesk.jpg

Open up your cpu case and touch the metal frame inside... I bet you'll feel a slight tingling.
I've had that happen once. Pretty neat but not good.
That'll cause the high pitch sound in your speakers.

get it fixed yet?

I just went to the local Tiger Direct to get a Firewire card for my new video camera, and I asked the tech about this speaker issue.. He gave me a good idea. He said since the speakers are powered, they have an amplifier, and so does my soundcard.. So the two amplifiers could be over-doing it..

So he said try to get the PC pushing smaller volumes, and let the speaker amplify. That doens't work so good, because even on the lowest settings in the PC output, they're loud as fuck.

So I just did the opposite.. There's a knob at the back to tweak the volumes on each speaker, so I turned them to the lowest, set my PC a bit less than half volume, and no more high pitched noise. :) WOOOOOOOOOOOO.. Wish I'd thought of that before!

http://www.fivefish.net/diy/RP8/images/DSCN0246.jpg