Software - Hissing noise using Amarok with Sennheiser headphones feffer777 - 22.06.2006, 01:58 Uhr Titel: Hissing noise using Amarok with Sennheiser headphones
Just got a new pair of Sennheiser 280 headphones and was very disappointed to hear a constant low level hissing/buzzing noise when using Amarok! It's there even when no music is playing. When I move the mouse over links on the Amarok gui or other apps for that matter, the noise intensifies. It's not from the headphones as I get no noise listening to iTunes on OSX. Also using Xmms on Kanotix is "clean". I don't notice it with "cheap" headphones, but the 280's are full circum-aurial phones and are probably more sensitive. I posted this as a bug to Amarok, but they said Amarok uses the Xine engine. I checked Xine for bugs and didn't find one, so I've posted there too. Amarok had become my favorite music player, but this issue is so annoying that I can't use it.
Has anyone else noticed this behavior? I think Amarok uses Xine via the Xine arts-plugin, but I have no idea if this issue happens because of Amarok, Xine, the plugin, Arts, my soundcard or something else. Any ideas about how to isolate the problem?
Regards,
Ron
hubi - 22.06.2006, 02:23 Uhr Titel: Hissing noise using Amarok with Sennheiser headphones
Start alsamixer and have a look if some other channels are open. They might interfere.
hubi
ice - 23.06.2006, 05:51 Uhr Titel:
Static noise is due to the fact that some components are not properly shielded. In addition, applications generate interferences from servicing interrupts and polling devices. I have no idea how Amarok handles polling and interrupts, but this is most certainly not a bug. As a rule, the smaller and cheaper the box, the higher the probability of unwanted static noise. Cheap laptops are the worst.
Trick:
Don't ask me why, but I noticed that when the cpu is busy (as when you move a window across the screen) the noise on headphones diminishes considerably. So what I did is to have a second application running in the background that saturates all available cpu bandwidth. An application like BOINC is perfect because it only uses nice cpu time (it runs at nice 19) and keeps the cpu at 99% without interfering with normal operations.
I can't guarantee it will work for you but it works surprisingly well for me.
feffer777 - 25.06.2006, 20:18 Uhr Titel: System noise solved.
I had the headphones plugged into the front jack, and they were noisy! I have speakers plugged directly into the soundcard, so as some suggested, I tried plugging my Sennheisers there instead and that cleaned up the noise. I guess the fact that my old cheap headphones didn't pick up the noise while using the front in-jack threw me off.
Well I'm a little bit embarrassed by failing to try this before posting, but at least now I'm getting great sound, so I'll live with it.
