Noise from headphones at high volumes, electromagnetic interference?

[Gurck]

First noticed it about a week ago when I paused a movie I was watching, generally have to turn the volume up a good bit for films. It sounds sort of like a motor (or a video card fan?) running in the distance. When I switched to a 3D game I was running windowed, it changed pitch very noticeably; when switching between different windows (file manager, mp3 player, web browser, etc), it did but less so - that's what leads me to believe it's possibly interference from my video card or its fan...? About a month or two ago I upgraded from a ti4600 with two small fans to a 9800pro with one larger fan. I never noticed it before that, but if I didn't notice this for 1-2 months, maybe I'm just not that sonically observant? That said, it's not terribly bad; I don't generally have the volume turned up that much, and when sound is playing I can't really notice it - it's only when I'm listening through my headphones, pause whatever sound is playing, and have the system volume set rather high (~75% or greater).

I have a p4b 2.67 with an aftermarket hsf on an Asus p4pe mb, an Audigy 2 ZS platinum pro, and an MSI 9800pro 128/256. More information on rig is linked in sig ("Main Rig"), but I think what I listed are about the only culprits? Oh, btw, the headphones in question are Senn hd280s hooked up to the Audigy's 5 1/4" drive bay i/o panel.

 

[sharkeeper]

Could be a ground loop or RF coupling through the ribbon cable that is connecting your Audigy i/o bay. Try moving that cable around to see if the amplitude of the interference changes.

Cheers!

 

[computron9000]

Almost all headphone jacks will emit noise at high volumes because they are, basically, crap. I would reccomend a headphone amp if you're serious about headphone sound quality -- not only will it improve the sound, but you can listen at a higher volume without all the static and sound degradation... I don't work for them or anything, but I've always gotten my stuff at www.headphone.com (I have Senn HD600s plugged into a Headroom Little amp from there, which are plugged into my SB Audigy Plat EX or whatevr).

The comment about moving stuff around may work, but it's probably just the interference inherent to computer audio and horrible quality headphone jacks.


Quote from headphone.com:

Imagine spending $1000 on a pair of speakers and then hooking them up to a boom box. What a waste! Well, that?s exactly what?s happening when you buy a good pair of headphones and plug them into your average headphone jack. Designers of audio equipment know that the headphone jack is rarely used, so they don?t bother to put a good amplifier behind it?what you get is usually just a cheap op-amp. It?s even worse with portable audio players?such equipment is designed with power conservation in mind, so the headphone jack is designed to put out as little power as possible. Unfortunately, conserving power is the last thing you want to do when designing a good power amp. Driving a decent pair of headphones with a portable player almost always results in a gutless mush of music. Hitting the "bass boost" switch only emphasizes the murk.

Never tried one of these, but it looks cool.

 

[Gurck]

Imagine spending $1000 on a pair of speakers and then hooking them up to a boom box. What a waste! Well, that?s exactly what?s happening when you buy a good pair of headphones and plug them into your average headphone jack. Designers of audio equipment know that the headphone jack is rarely used, so they don?t bother to put a good amplifier behind it?what you get is usually just a cheap op-amp. It?s even worse with portable audio players?such equipment is designed with power conservation in mind, so the headphone jack is designed to put out as little power as possible. Unfortunately, conserving power is the last thing you want to do when designing a good power amp. Driving a decent pair of headphones with a portable player almost always results in a gutless mush of music. Hitting the "bass boost" switch only emphasizes the murk.

Hrm, yeah I understand that point, and see it in action with money-minded manufacturers (such as Apple, with its iPod), but this is a pretty decent sound card. Further, I have a Gigaworks speaker system - admittedly not the best of the best by a long shot, but a far cry above the phono jack quality seen in iPods and $3 OEM computer speakers, which this quote seems to be referring to - and the SQ of the phono jack on that speaker system's phono jack is noticeably worse than that of my sound card - this latter opinion has been seconded by another regular poster with a far more discerning ear than me (Nebor) who owns the same speaker system.

 

[computron9000]

Have you plugged anything else into the power strip recently your computer is on? Or in that same outlet? A new laser printer / any audio products? You may just have never noticed it before. Every computer I've listened to buzzes at high volume, each with their own characteristics based on the components within them. That's why I do a digital out into a headphone amp -- it reduces analog interference considerably.

Also, I'm not an expert, but the thing about the jacks to remember (re: quality of) has a lot do with their power source. Being powered by a "noisy" (EMI) computer is considerbly worse than being powered by a clean, voltage regulated supply from an amp.