connecting a computer to the system

DracoAmericanus

I have my computer connected to an onkyo m-504 though a hitachi HCA-8300 the sound meets my needs for music but I get noise from the sound card in the computer, any ideas for a better sound card that has less of a noise floor? Even direct grounding has not solved the noise floor problem

DracoAmericanus

oh the speakers are SDA 1B

falconcry72

DracoAmericanus wrote: »

I have my computer connected to an onkyo m-504 though a hitachi HCA-8300 the sound meets my needs for music but I get noise from the sound card in the computer, any ideas for a better sound card that has less of a noise floor? Even direct grounding has not solved the noise floor problem

Don't use a sound card. Use an Asynchronous USB to SPDIF converter like the Audio GD Digital Interface, Musical Fidelity V-Link, or Musiland Monitor 02 or 03.

Do you want to be connected to the Onkyo via a digital connection or an analog connection? If digital, all of the above would work. If analog, only the Musiland has its own DAC. But in that case, I'd recommend the Musical Fidelity V-DACmk2.

thejck

get a sound card with optical spdif out and that will eliminate any ground loops

malvrich

has anyone used the audioengine W-1?
this is what i am currently looking at to deal with this noise which i blame for repeated tweeter damage.
http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-W1

falconcry72

Nevermind. Just saw that your pre and amp are all analog, so connecting digitally is out.

I still stand by my recommendation of going USB out of the computer; it's the best way.

Here are your 3 options:

- hard-wired with an asynchronous USB to SPDIF converter > external DAC
- hard-wired with an external DAC that has an asynchronous USB input
- wireless with a squeezebox touch


Your budget and preferred interface will help narrow it down.

falconcry72

thejck wrote: »

get a sound card with optical spdif out and that will eliminate any ground loops

He would then have to add an external DAC, which is a good thing in terms of sound, but asynchronous USB output sounds better than SPDIF out of a motherboard.

Mystery

Is it a laptop or desktop?
Laptop usually has hum due to the battery.
When I need to hear loud, I use Alesis multimix usb mixer as external sound card.
For lower volumes, there is no hum even direct from laptop.

Face

thejck wrote: »

get a sound card with optical spdif out and that will eliminate any ground loops

But it will not eliminate all noise generated from a PC/laptop, only Asynch USB will do that.

malvrich

so it's the battery?!
Dang!

Mystery

malvrich wrote: »

so it's the battery?!
Dang!

Yes and you can test that by removing the battery and running lappy directly with the adapter.

Also, make sure you don't have a LCD monitor close to a TV/audio cables and other A/V electronics.
I had to completely unplug my 22" LCD monitor to remove hum when watching movies in my TV hooked up from laptop.
Just turning off the monitor was not working but as soon as I unplugged power cable, everything became crystal clean.

PSOVLSK

falconcry72 wrote: »

- wireless with a squeezebox touch

I'm only a week into ownership and I haven't even scratched the surface of it's full potential, but I'm loving my Squeezebox. On sale at Amazon for $230.

DracoAmericanus

I forgot to mention that i do have an AVR, onkyo tx-nr709 that does have it's own DAC so i could use that with a digital input, optical and coaxial

Mystery

This thread has a lot of replies...
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?128174-Laptop-Audio-Output

falconcry72

DracoAmericanus wrote: »

I forgot to mention that i do have an AVR, onkyo tx-nr709 that does have it's own DAC so i could use that with a digital input, optical and coaxial

So either:

- USB to SPDIF converter

or

- Squeezebox Touch


Sound quality is comparable. The main difference is the interface. There are advantages to both.

Both are cable of delivering truly high-class sound.

DracoAmericanus

thanks for the input, i also forgot, the computer is a desktop, the hum or noise you hear from a lap top battery is probly the charging system as it is most likely a PWM system and they do make noise, same for the backlight inverter in a lcd screen, they tend to create noise as well

falconcry72

DracoAmericanus wrote: »

...the computer is a desktop...

Unless you can comfortably place the desktop within 6' of your system (or 12', 6 for the USB cable and 6 for the digital coax or optical), go Squeezebox.

Unless, of course, you prefer the mouse to the touch screen.

And just as an FYI, the Touch can be controlled by both Apple and Android-based smart phones. Very nifty.


OR


Buy the V-Link and V-DAC combo, and then have the ability to use any preamp you want, including your current M-504, if you think it's better-sounding than the TX-NR709.

You could still use any preamp with the Touch, if you were running its analog outs, but the V-DAC will sound better.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?128639-Musical-Fidelity-V-DAC-nd-V-Link-Combo

DracoAmericanus

i have all my "stuff" crammed into a mobile home so the computer is with in 6-8 feet, i have a second computer i used to use an hdmi cable and optical to the tv and avr, but that has been subplanted a bit as my tv plays the same video from a usb hard drive, thats a bit off topic though, even my friends seem to give the sqeezebox good rateings,
thanks for the links

malvrich

Back to report that removing the battery did not alleviate the hum.
I have noticed though that i can tap the laptop or move the analog audio cable around and it will stop but eventually returns intermittently. Seems like a grounding issue but still unsure.

Mystery

malvrich wrote: »

Back to report that removing the battery did not alleviate the hum.
I have noticed though that i can tap the laptop or move the analog audio cable around and it will stop but eventually returns intermittently. Seems like a grounding issue but still unsure.

Does it hum without power cable hooked up running on battery alone?
The A/C adapter close to audio cable can also cause hum when volume is loud.

malvrich

yes it will hum running on battery alone which baffles me.
could be just a crappy cable though

Jstas

The humming from computers is not necessarily related to the sound card but poor grounding in the power supply. They aren't very well isolated or shielded either so you can end up collecting alot of junk from the 60 Hz household power cycle.

Another source of noise is the quiet, brushless fans in many computers. They can generate a great deal of noise and even static fields that present as noise on low-level outputs like stereo and/or RCA outs.

A USB or SPDIF output to a converter gets rid of that noise handily. USB is probably the better option because you can get longer length out of the cable. You don't need a wireless solution unless you don't want the wires everywhere. A USB cable, depending on the standard, can run anywhere from 9 feet to 15 feet max. USB 1.0/1.1 is 3 meters (~9 feet (1M is approx. 1 yard and 3 feet in a yard)). USB 2.0 is 5 meters so about 15 feet max. Once you get that to the converter box, you can get another 30 feet of signal cable before you lose quality due to cable length.


But if you have noise and stressing the mini-jack on your laptop makes the noise come and go then you have a poor ground on your audio jack. Not an easy fix for a DiY'er. USB output is still your best option in this case. And you can get a D/A converter that will accept USB and work with an analog input on your receiver.

Gatecrasher

If you just want an inexpensive way to play both audio and HD video, for $99 you can go get a Seagate Go Flex HD Media Player.

Even though I have an HTPC, I also have a Go Flex TV box that I can take anywhere.

It plays most audio & video formats as well as NTSC and PAL DVD video displays to 1080p.

The sound is very good, especially when playing lossless audio files and the unit is silent.

It has HDMI, S/PDIF as well as RCA analog outputs. It has USB 3.0 input and is remarkably fast.

Just another option to a full-blown HTPC that is inexpensive, compact, and plays just about anything.

I bought mine on Amazon for $99.

Schurkey

http://www.headphone.com/headphone-amps/headroom-total-bithead.php

"High-end"? Maybe not, but I love mine. Doesn't cost a fortune. Very satisfactory; works fine as a DAC that can plug into line-level inputs if used with an appropriately-terminated interconnect cable. As a portable unit, it makes train/airplane travel more enjoyable, too.

They have much more expensive models, with higher quality internals also.

michael1947

Is this what you mean by an ascnchronous USB deal-ieo. I cannot spell it let alone pronounce it. I would like to do a similiar thing, would this be a good piece of gear? http://emotiva.com/xda1.shtm?gclid=CITBqZal-a0CFScTNAodZmDXfQ

huy

I have M2Tech hiface S/PDIF interface to use with my Laptop using foobar software. It sound great. The jitter is very low.
Modified hiface version from JKeny is better but more expensive.

IMHO, i like to play via CDP than computer.

malvrich

Hi all
just want to report happily that the prob was the Y cable.
bought a new one for 4 bucks and the sound is now stable.
of course the cable is still laying on the floor but the $100 wireless solution is now officially on the back burner.
thanks to all you guys/girls for your helpful insight.

Bobsama

falconcry72 wrote: »

Unless you can comfortably place the desktop within 6' of your system (or 12', 6 for the USB cable and 6 for the digital coax or optical), go Squeezebox.

Unless, of course, you prefer the mouse to the touch screen.

And just as an FYI, the Touch can be controlled by both Apple and Android-based smart phones. Very nifty.


OR


Buy the V-Link and V-DAC combo, and then have the ability to use any preamp you want, including your current M-504, if you think it's better-sounding than the TX-NR709.

You could still use any preamp with the Touch, if you were running its analog outs, but the V-DAC will sound better.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?128639-Musical-Fidelity-V-DAC-nd-V-Link-Combo

You can use better Toslink cables--not all are made of plastic fiber. Any latency induced is truly negligible--the greater concern is the connection itself. The larger point about using a PC as a source is actually control: it's tough to use a remote with a good media player so you'll need a keyboard, mouse, and screen.

Anyways, OP, good to hear the problem's solved. You'll still get better performance out of a decent sound card (Asus Xonar is pretty good) or external DAC.

downhiller2010

I would second Audio GD if you do eventually decide to go with a dedicated DAC.