Monitor speakers whine

Hi...is it normal for monitor speakers to emit a (not very loud...but noticeable) whining/ fizzing kind of noise from the tweeter cones when idle? There's no sound from the bass cones on the speakers. If I put my ear close to my Mackie MR5's I hear a fizzing/ whining sound...which can be heard faintly more than a meter away in the desk chair. It's not really noticeable if there's music playing through the speakers. thanks

How do I 'ground' my PC and all the stuff hooked up to it?

Out of the wall (out of 1 wall socket)...is a 5x power board...powering the PC, LCD monitor, 2x MR5 Speakers...out of one of the slots of the 5x power board a 4x board powering a preamp.

DO you have any sort of wireless or IR devices nearby? 

Things like wireless mice, cordless phones, wireless headphones, light dimmers, fluorescent lights, those new eco-lights with the curly bulbs, and other sorts of things like that can be the cause. 

All of them emit high frequency radiation and when that is picked up by an audio circuit, at times a beat frequency is produced like on the old time AM radios...... "hetrodyne whine" it was called. 

Thanks for the tips and ideas... No Mike...when the 1/4 jack is unplugged the noise is gone...when plugged in the noise is present. So I suppose it is coming down the signal line. Maybe my California cables aren't balanced or something. None of those things you mention Guitarhacker. LCD Beagle...speakers are 80 or 90cm away from monitor. Possibly a problem with my Firebox soundcard? It's running off firewire cable...not mains as such...does that mean anything in the scheme of things?

Bristol_Jonesey


Unplug everything - disconnect all of your mains gear.

Then reconnect one at a time and see if this pinpoints the problem. (Obviously start by plugging in your monitors)

The Firebox is running off the firewire cable. As soon as the PC is turned on the noise starts up...when off the speakers are just quietly idle. Seems to be the firewire cable. When I unplug that cable and the speakers idle there's no noise...as soon as I plug the firewire cable in it hisses and fizzes and squeaks and whines....it's not overly loud...but noticeable. With the Firebox powered by the 12v cable the speakers HUM and whine. 12v plugged into same board as rest of PC. I can't help but notice that when the PC boots up the speakers whine and fizz almost in tune with the boot sequence/ thinking of the PC. After it's booted the speakers don't whine or fizz as bad............One more thing to add....if I am on a website that has a lot of moving/ scrolling/ flashing graphics then the fizz and whine is accentuated when the graphics move. Here's a website that typically causes a lot of whine/ fizz/ electrical sounding activity: http://www.couriermail.com.au/

Right...and how do I ground things?

Have you tried new monitors? 

It could be that the old ones are starting to fail internally. 


See if you can borrow some or get some from a store with a 100% refund return policy and try some new speakers in the system. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here.

It seems as if Monty is saying that he is using the firewire bus power because the Wall wart caused hum when he was using a star ground type layout.

If I have that right then follow along.... otherwise forget it.


I don't enjoy bringing the idea up... but perhaps the power connection on the fire wire bus is slowly degrading. If it has occurred, then it's too late... and so when the wall wart is reinstalled it just adds the hum it always did.

I'd try hooking up the wall wart. Some firewire adapters have the ability to turn off bus power thru the driver application. I'd turn the bus power off if possible. Then I'd hook up a fresh firewire cable. I'd try to get rid of everything but the "hum".

If that helps then I'd start figuring out how to get rid of the hum... which might involve placement of the wall wart, the mess of wires at the power strip, and perhaps the speakers and speaker cables.







If you can't get rid of the fizzy noise with those recommendations than it can be just about anything... but I'd still prioritize the power supplies of both the firewire card and the system. It can be one of any number of capacitors going bad... and it can be a resistor too.





One last thing I'd like to say... and I want to say it gently so as not to step on Beagle's post.

Cables are not balanced... circuits are balanced.

A stereo cable may or may not be a twisted pair. So, just to make sure it's covered; you want to make sure you are using a cable that uses a twisted pair and is suitable for balanced circuits. Stereo interconnect cables are routinely supplied without twisted pair construction because they are not usually part of a balanced circuit.

Good luck!


all the best,
mike

Sorry....I don't know how to make this site use paragraphs in a reply or how to use BOLD... EIKELBIJTER: When I play back audio through the speakers the fizz/ whine/ electrical noise from the tweeters isn't obvious. It is drowned out. DI boxes between the outputs of the Firebox and the inputs of the speakers? Maybe...I'm not sure. I know that when the firewire cable is unplugged the fizz/ whine disappears. I have tried a brand new firewire cable to no effect. I'm sure it's something to do with that firwire cable and its proximity to my usb mouse and keyboard...all plugged into the motherboard in and around each other. GUITARHACKER: These Mackie MR5's are virtually brand new. They idle perfectly quietly...only the connection of the firewire cable causes the fizz/ whine/ electrical distorted type noise from the tweeters. BEAGLE: The power supply is a good quality 700w unit which isn't taxed too hard. Bought for it's 'silence'. It could be a PSU issue in terms of whatever interference it may be emitting. I've had this fizz/ whine/ electrical noise issue with 2 or 3 PSU units of different types over the last 7 years or so. I can't really swap it out all that easily. If I was to swap it out with my old PSU from the build before this PC...there's likely to be the same issue (if it is an issue with the PSU at all) because my last PC build gave me the same noise problems from the tweeters or my speakers. MIKE: Could be that the power connection on the firewire bus is/ has degraded...the Firebox firewire connection port on the back of the Firebox is somewhat loose and always has been...the Firebox was criticised for it's design in that regard...the connecting bracket is out there and the cable has never really sat in the port with any kind of serious rigidity...it connects in...but it isn't a tight fit if you know what I mean. Next...I am not sure if I can turn off bus power...in the Firebox software I haven't seen that option anywhere. I assumed that bus power would be auto turned off whenever the wall wart plug was affixed. I have only ever used the wall wart to power the Firebox once in it's 7 or so years of use, yesterday, and that gave me fizz/ whine/ electrical output noise in the tweeter (predominately in the tweeter I should add) and huge hum from the bass speaker. So...was the firewire bus power being terminated when using the wall? I don't know. As far as I know there's nowhere to turn bus power off in software for the Firebox. Research continues.

Edit: Can anyone tell me why all my posts display as a huge chuck of spewing words? I'm typing with paragraphs, honestly...but they post as a block of text...

you're using Firefox.  Firefox doesn't work with the forum software.  use IE or Chrome.

I got the same whine...and mouse noise using the Firebox..... It went away when I used the Power supply that came with it instead of using only bus power.  Im going with USB next time around. FW has too many issues from Chipsets to whine.

 For anyone interested, I uploaded a sample of the noise at my soundclick page. It's the first 'track'. You can hear me at the start hovering my mouse cursor over the 'back' button in Mozilla...and then later around the 25 sec mark me scrolling a webpage with the mouse wheel. It could be my best recording ever ;)
 
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=355705&content=music