Why do I hear static/crackles in my Logitech Z4s ONLY when they are on, w/no sound?

[murphy55d]

No crackling at all when I'm playing music, watching movies, or anything else. As soon as I stop though there is a constant crackling/popping coming out. Not real loud but loud enough to irritate me. I thought driver issue with my sound card but I reinstalled the drivers(audigy 2) and it still does it.

What else can I check?

 

[Raduque]

Does it still do it when it's unplugged? Maybe the plug isn't 100% seated in the jack.

 

[murphy55d]

It stops when I unplug from the soundcard, and starts again immediately after I plug it back in. Solid connection on both ends. I don't have another desktop to try the speakers out on or I'd have done that already. Doesn't make sense that the speakers would only do it when no audio is coming out of them if it were the speakers themselves, right?

 

[talion83]

It could be just general 'noise' from the computer. Is the sound card integrated with the motherboard or a separate card?

 

[murphy55d]

as i stated it is an audigy 2. and it just started recently, was not always an issue.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Are all the inputs on the card (mic, line-in, etc.) muted?

 

[Joseph F]

It's because you can't hear the noise when your music is playing but it's always there. /thread
It's quite like how my low-impedance earphones have a bit of static when they're plugged in to my Zune HD but you can't hear it when the music's playing because it's so much louder than the noise. See: Signal to Noise Ratio
Recommendation to fix it: Get a better Sound Card w/ a higher SNR. (Such as any HT-Omega)

 

[murphy55d]

I muted everything except normal speaker output and I still hear it.

Joseph: But then why do I NOT hear it during movie playback during quieter moments in the movie? I get that it can be drowned out by the music but even during silent/quiet moments in video playback i do NOt hear it. Stop the playback and let my computer idle, and the static comes back. So which is it, is it always there, or is it just the soundcard?

I guess I could always pull the audigy out and try the onboard and see what happens. Not even sure what kind of audio this board has...it's not cutting edge by any means. Asus M2N-SLI. Think its nForce 570?

 

[Joseph F]

So you don't hear it in parts of movies/music that are quieter than the noise when it's idling? If so then I, too have noticed that when I have a file paused in WMP the noise level from my onboard audio is lower than when it's idling.