White noise from any input when using good headphones.

Madpanda

So here is my setup.

PC---HDMI----TV

---

Receiver
360---HDMI----TV

---

^
Wii----Same as above---^

I have my headphones plugged in via a minijack->old giant headphone jack converter -- receiver connection.

The good headphones in question are Audiotechnica ath-a700's

Anytime I have them on I hear this white noise, almost like when you turn a stereo up with no sound going through it.

I can still hear my games and music fine if they are at a high volume, but the white noise is still there.

It is present when using any of the consoles. Changing the volume on the receiver or windows has no effect.

The white noise stays the same volume and pitch from (receiver or windows) volume level 1 to 20.


If I use my cheap gaming headset I can only hear it if i am listening for it specifically and even then it is severely muted.

Adda

Apparently this can be intended on "good" noise canceling earphones and is intended to block out background noises, not sure if that might be what you are hearing.

Madpanda

Should have mentioned.

Neither pair has any kind of powered noise canceling feature.

Adda

I'd go for the good old process of elimination then. Try switching certain devices off, connecting to other things directly etc

Azio

What sound card do you have

Motherboard sound has a pretty high noise floor usually

finalflight89

You're new headphones are probably more sensitive than your old ones, and you never noticed the noise before. You'll have to upgrade your source equipment to get the noise to go away, most likely.

Madpanda

I am using an onboard soundcard.

I still hear the noise when I switch the tv to Wii or 360 though.

So I guess either being generated by the tv which i can't replace or the receiver which is a ~20 year old aiwa.

shadydentist

Madpanda wrote: »

I am using an onboard soundcard.

I still hear the noise when I switch the tv to Wii or 360 though.

So I guess either being generated by the tv which i can't replace or the receiver which is a ~20 year old aiwa.

On-board soundcards tend to receive a lot of interference from all the EM waves bouncing around. Thats why messing with the volume doesn't reduce the amount of noise. The solution is to turn down the volume on the headphones, and turn up the volume on the computer.

If your headphones can't be adjusted... well, then your other solution is an external amplifier.

Jeltz

PC audio is transferred using HDMI, which is a digital interface. The quality of the sound card is irrelevant in that case, as is the fact that it's an onboard card. The white noise is obviously not caused by anything on the PC side, as the same noise is present on all inputs.

You say that PC and gaming console audio are connected via the TV. What connection do you use between the TV and receiver? If you bypass the TV and connect audio directly to the receiver, do you get the same noise?

Are you getting relatively high-pitched white noise, or is it more of a low-pitched hum? If the former, it is likely to be plain old analog noise. In the latter case it's more likely to be interference from a power supply or power cable.