monitor noise

co0ke

co0ke

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Jun 9, 2008
just got a second hand pair of samson rubicon r5a's today and have a couple of questions:


are powered monitors supposed to hiss slightly? even when there is no input connected?

also

how can i stop them picking up the electrical noise from my laptop when it is charging/plugged in? at the moment i just have them hooked up directly to the 3.5mm input on the side of my laptop and it is picking up a ridiculous amount of buzzing/distortion. would this problem be solved by getting a usb audio interface?

if anyone knows anything please share! thanks
 
co0ke said:
just got a second hand pair of samson rubicon r5a's today and have a couple of questions:


are powered monitors supposed to hiss slightly? even when there is no input connected?

also

how can i stop them picking up the electrical noise from my laptop when it is charging/plugged in? at the moment i just have them hooked up directly to the 3.5mm input on the side of my laptop and it is picking up a ridiculous amount of buzzing/distortion. would this problem be solved by getting a usb audio interface?

if anyone knows anything please share! thanks
Click to expand...

1. No active speakers should not have a constant hiss. faulty product im affraid
2. The only way to avoid the constant noise from the laptop being plugged in is to either buy an audio interface or unplug the lappy lol
 
Freek said:
1. No active speakers should not have a constant hiss. faulty product im affraid
2. The only way to avoid the constant noise from the laptop being plugged in is to either buy an audio interface or unplug the lappy lol
Click to expand...

This (y)

One thing to remember though, is that it may not be your laptops power supply alone causing problems, the hard drive noise and cpu fans can also be picked up by internal soundcards (especially standard laptops cards that are usualy very basic). So if you unplug your PSU and still have problems, this could be why.

And unfortunately, Freeks about right, with nothing patched into your monitors, there shouldnt be a noticable noise.
 
What!! Ignore these fools.. Of course you are going to get noise from the jack in your laptop, those outputs are not meant to be amplified therefore they will hiss, my brand new iMac makes my monitors hiss like shit - A proper sound card will deffo remove this problem - My mates M-Audio jobby cleaned them right up when tested!
 
I HAVE THE SOLUTION FRIEND.

my new monitors made the same annoying loud noise when plugged into my laptop, its a simple fix, ALL YOU DO is saw off the bottom pin on your laptops wall plug, trust me, it works, i read all over the googles and people said it was cool, and yeah it worked good, dead silent. its just the grounding pin its not needed at all.
 
LOL @ grounding pin not needed... Do you know what grounding means?

If your laptops power supply gets an insulation problem (overheating, melting wires etc) you can get an electric shock from any metal part in the computer (likely destroying the laptop in the process). If you keep the ground, it will only break a fuse.

But on some laptops it can't really be avoided if you want a clear signal I hear.
 
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hey man the google told me different i read many threads n shit, but im sure your right, i cut mine off had no problems, hard to find a metal peice on the outside of my laptop, and most new laptop adapters come with only 2 pins now days, but i aint gonna argue cos im just saying what i read : )
 
There is no solution for this as your monitors are not magnetically sheilded - hence why it's picking up on other signals. I use two top end active monitors in my studio - Genelec 8040a and Focal CMS 65 ... They are both well over £1000 a pair but the gens have magnetic sheilding so I get no feedback or signal hiss from them. The Focals however aren't and pick up on my wireless mouse & keyboard and from my mac... It's only subtle but it's annoying as you would have thought the designers would have tackled this. It still won't effect your mixdowns of nearfield monitoring though.
 
dexter said:
hey man the google told me different i read many threads n shit, but im sure your right, i cut mine off had no problems, hard to find a metal peice on the outside of my laptop, and most new laptop adapters come with only 2 pins now days, but i aint gonna argue cos im just saying what i read : )
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Yeah I guess that a laptop in itself isnt really grounded in any way, it's only the power source block. so you'll only lose that if worst comes to worst. I've only heard of this, never encountered this laptop problem myself but I've heard that it's in the build quality if there is a ground problem or not, so that most of the costier laptops wouldn't have this problem... who knows tho.
 
I think a good general rule for anything electrical, especially something thats powered by the mains, is dont fuck about with the earth. Silly idea. Even if you dont mind the odd shock here and there, if it does break, then any guarantee/insurance on your kits going to be invalid if you've been pulling wires/pins off like some madman.
 
true you guys are probably right, when i finally upgrade from my peice of shit second hand laptop ill just a new adapter or something. for now, its done, i cant take it back and it solved my problem so i dont care haha.
 
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