Audio issues on C6H.

[unknownmiscrean]

I recently completed a Ryzen PC build, and discovered the audio output jacks play a high pitched whine to my speakers. I have tried multiple different sets of speakers and all play the high pitched noise. This issue is also present on clean installs of both windows 10 creators and anniversary, with both driver versions available on the Asus website. I have found the noise vanishes when the CPU is under heavy load, such as Cinebench R15.

My specs are below:

AMD Ryzen 7 1700X - OCed 3.92GHz @ 1.375V. Cooled by custom water loop from EK.
Asus Crosshair VI Hero - BIOS v1403.
16GB G skill Flare X 3200Mhz CL14.
Gigabyte GTX1050ti 4GB OC windforce - OCed 1911Mhz
EVGA 850 G2.
Asus Wifi card (based off Intel 8260AC)
Corsair 460x case.
Intel 540s SSD boot drive, Intel 520 SSD and 2.5" WD Caviar black as overflow storage.
I built the audio system myself, however the issue persists on other speakers I purchased, and I have never encountered this type of issue with the speakers I built before.

I am running Win 10 Creators with all latest updates and drivers. I have tested whether it is the overclock causing the issue, and have reset the bios to the optimized defaults. This made no difference, however I found the noise was quieter in the bios and before the windows login screen. As I stated above, the noise dissapears when running Cinebench R15.

So far I have tried swapping the PSU, graphics card, removing RAM sticks and trying each one separately in different slots, even removing the motherboard from the case, disconnecting everything (except cpu fan and pump power connector) and had no luck.

If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful.

[Bill]

Hello unknownmiscreant
Just out of curiosity, is your build grounded from the PSU side?
Thanks

[unknownmiscrean]

HI Bill,

My motherboard is definitely earthed through the PSU. I have done some testing and the issue only occurs with speakers that are properly earthed. I have a set of USB powered speakers that display the fault when powered off a USB port on the computer, but not when powered seperatly from a power bank. They do however display the fault if they USB connector is earthed.

All points in the build where I would expect to find earth, there is a 35ohm connection to the antistatic grounding point at my desk, (a 3D print mount,audio jack sleeves and solder dots around motherboard mounting screws.) I have discovered that impedance of the speakers connected to the line-out does not matter, and that even connecting just the ground of the line-out jack to the ground of the input to the speakers causes the fault to be displayed. (No signal wires were connected.)

Connecting the either channel output to the speaker inputs causes the noise, even if it is shorted with the ground of the line-out jack.

I am definitely running the latest audio drivers (april udpate) and even the drivers windows installs (without an internet connection) for the audio codec causes the issue. However the issue vanishes when the drivers are not installed. I have changed everything in the codec settings, sonic studio and sonic radar to no avail.

[unknownmiscrean]

Update: Connecting the ground and signal lines of the line out jack to a unity gain differential amplifier before the speakers has solved the problem. It appears the noise is common to both the ground and signal lines. The signal is the difference, so a unity gain op-amp differential amplifier solves the problem, by filtering out the common noise but keeping the actual signal.

[Eleiyas]

this sounds incredibly technical and I'm extremely curious to find out what it looks like

care to share some pictures?

[unknownmiscrean]

Its nowhere near as bad as building the speakers, but it took me a while to sort out. Here is a picture of what it all looks like on my desk atm. Theres also an arduino and RTC module on the breadboard, but they are left over from the custom Aura compatible RGB controller I just finished.

Over the next few days, I plan to implement the differential amplifier as a pre-processor inside the amplifier chassis. I will post some pics when it is done. But for now its on a breadboard.

If anyone is interested in replicating this project, I will be happy to share schematics and parts lists. However its your loss if you break stuff.

[jbasemoine]

i'm also having sound isseu's so my topic!

[kmaximo]

jbasemoine wrote:
i'm also having sound isseu's so my topic!

I've been using all along the drivers from the actual Realtek site, get the HD Audio from there. I would try these, the version number is 2.82. It too includes all the necessary software. Those were the very last ones released and the newest overall. I've had no issues with them in any way. Give those a try even though you may have the April update they may not be the 2.82 version of the drivers. If you are doing Windows 10 Previews you have to re-install the Audio and Chipset drivers just about every week upon a new build. This also fixes a lot of issues in the Preview builds.