Unwanted Static noise removal help

[admin_exported]

Yesterday i connected a laptop to my reciever in the main room solely for the purpose of listening to Last.FM radio. The problem I have is, I think it's called static interferance. When a track is playing it's not that noticeable but in between tracks or when nothings playing there is a horrible noise, so it must be affecting sound quality. It also happens when i scroll the page or hover the mouse over something. It's connected via the headphone socket. I don't hear the noise through headphones. I'm using decent cabling. It's as though the headphone output is knackered so i tried a newer computer but with the same results.

Is there any way to output audio via USB therefore bypassing the 'phones out socket without going the dac route ?

Any advise or alternate solutions folks?

Thanks

 

[Binman]

My laptop does the same, I guess its just a very poor sound card. This thing made by griffin sounds like it may be the sort of thing you're after

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic

 

[John Duncan]

Yup, my laptop audio output makes an awful racket (when plugged into the mains, not so when on battery). Get the sound offboard, either with a USB soundcard, or something like airport express (though with the latter, you'll need Airfoil for it to work with last.fm or anything other than iTunes).

 

[Anonymous]

The Griffin product looks relavant.

So to eliminate nasty crackles & hums I need to get the sound offboard.

Could I expect this http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-USBSCM# to do the trick. It's a cheap product, ok, but it should be better than using the current headphones socket.

 

[Binman]

That is the sort of thing you need, but I doubt for that sort of price it would be any better than your built in sound card. You may well just end up losing £10.

 

[Anonymous]

I unplugged the mains cable, clue there from JohnDuncan, thanks. It vanished, Hooray. No more static noise or whatever it's called. Great. I'm happy now.

It seems i'm left with two options now. 1- Keep the mains lead unplugged until the battery gets low. Then have break while it charges up again, then repeat process over and over. 2 - Will a mains conditioner like the Tacima resolve this.

I would really like a more permanent solution so I hope the Tacima is the way to go.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Doubt mains conditioning would help. Suspect the noise is being generated in the mains transformer.

 

[Anonymous]

Is that something I'll be unable to improve using a DIY solution?

 

[Anonymous]

Update - I have fixed the problem, (by chance), I connect from the headphone out on the laptop into the analogue rec. input on my pioneer PDR-609 CD recorder. Then digital coaxial output to receiver. I set the analogue rec level half way. I then need to press a button called monitor. I don't know the science behind it but it works, no more fuzzy noises while scrolling or during a quiet piece of music.

However, should I replace the coaxial connection to a stereo interconnect one.

 

[Nadeac]

U need either an external usb sound card creative do a nice one or better still a usb dac

Top and bottom of it is laptop sound is rubbish if uv spent a grand on a laptop then u may get better sound ,but on the cheaper ones with an intergrated sound card sound is rubbish

The problem being is the little amp in the laptop picks up interfearence from the fans psu etc all u are doing by useing an external amp is amplifying that interfearence

Also the laptop has a rubbish Dac so any digital music that needs to be converted to analouge ,whether its a digital file or a cd doesnt sound good to begin with

Mark

 

[Tear Drop]

Most people don't realise it but a large part of the inteference you get on both analogue and digital radio comes from the mains. Ferrite clamps placed on mains leads are a relatively cheap and very effective solution, 2 on each end usually reduce pretty much all unwanted noise. This is one of those things which I have done time and time again in various places and setups, and it never fails to work. You just have to make sure that the clamps are a snug fit on the mains cable.