surroundman
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2023
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Hello. I have bought a great subwoofer for my needs, but I experience some noise when it is connected to my PC. However, when I connect it to my phone there is no noise. Here are the tests I made -
Phone to apple dongle to subwoofer- no noise.
Phone to tempotec sonata hd pro dongle to subwoofer - no noise.
Phone to either dongle to Fosi V3 to subwoofer (via the pre-out of the V3) - no noise.
So to me there is no issue with the subwoofer or the V3's pre out.
PC is much different:
PC (rear motherboard 3.5mm out) to Fosi V3 to subwoofer (via the V3's pre-out) - subwoofer noise AND speaker noise (even if the subwoofer is turned off; just having the subwoofer's power cord plugged introduces noise to the SPEAKERS too).
PC via the 2 dongles previously mentioned to Fosi V3 to subwoofer - same result as the previous.
PC straight to subwoofer via either front or rear 3.5 port - noise.
I managed to eliminate the speaker noise by plugging the subwoofer to the front case 3.5 mm port while the Fosi V3 is plugged to the rear 3.5mm motherboard out (PC audio driver has a setting to output simultaneously to both front and rear 3.5mm outputs).
Apparently anything I try on my PC will not solve the subwoofer noise. So I have a few questions-
1. What is causing the subwoofer issue?
2. How do I solve it? If the dongle DAC's did not help, how unlikely it is that other desktop USB-powered DACs won't face the same issue (like SMSL SU-1 or M300SE) if powered from the PC? I have seen people mentioning that powering a DAC separately from PC might solve noise issues, but is that truly tested and verified? I do not have a way to test optical, but I really prefer to use USB dac/integrated amp if I am to upgrade.
Thanks!
Phone to apple dongle to subwoofer- no noise.
Phone to tempotec sonata hd pro dongle to subwoofer - no noise.
Phone to either dongle to Fosi V3 to subwoofer (via the pre-out of the V3) - no noise.
So to me there is no issue with the subwoofer or the V3's pre out.
PC is much different:
PC (rear motherboard 3.5mm out) to Fosi V3 to subwoofer (via the V3's pre-out) - subwoofer noise AND speaker noise (even if the subwoofer is turned off; just having the subwoofer's power cord plugged introduces noise to the SPEAKERS too).
PC via the 2 dongles previously mentioned to Fosi V3 to subwoofer - same result as the previous.
PC straight to subwoofer via either front or rear 3.5 port - noise.
I managed to eliminate the speaker noise by plugging the subwoofer to the front case 3.5 mm port while the Fosi V3 is plugged to the rear 3.5mm motherboard out (PC audio driver has a setting to output simultaneously to both front and rear 3.5mm outputs).
Apparently anything I try on my PC will not solve the subwoofer noise. So I have a few questions-
1. What is causing the subwoofer issue?
2. How do I solve it? If the dongle DAC's did not help, how unlikely it is that other desktop USB-powered DACs won't face the same issue (like SMSL SU-1 or M300SE) if powered from the PC? I have seen people mentioning that powering a DAC separately from PC might solve noise issues, but is that truly tested and verified? I do not have a way to test optical, but I really prefer to use USB dac/integrated amp if I am to upgrade.
Thanks!
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