X-Fi Forte headphone background clicking - help needed

[HanMies]

I recently bought the Auzentech Forte 7.1 and Sennheiser HD 555 headphones. When I plug the headphones in the headphone amp on the card, there is a constant rhythmic throbbing or clicking sound, which can be hear when there is no sound output or also between tracks.

I have the latest drivers, and have tried other headphones as well - the throbbing is still there. On the other hand, optical out works fine and front panel headphone jack gives "normal" static. If it's relevant, I have a Crosshair IV MB.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[MattiasNYC]

I take it that the front panel headphone jack is not an Auzentech panel, but the "built-in" outs of the mobo, right?

I would guess it's one of the following:

~ A digital clock issue where there's a mismatch in settings between the Auzentech and some other component, or
~ An issue with electrical interference of other components inside the computer.

For the former look at all the settings available to you in software of the player and devices. For the latter double check to ensure that there are no cables touching the card internally etc.

I should probably mention that I don't really work with consumer audio stuff but I figured I'd throw this out there to see if it helps....

[Mescalamba]

Try newest drivers from Auzentech. Second, I dont remember that correctly, but maybe you can disable SPDIF, which makes quite a problem with Bravura.

Also try with some advanced musicplayer to set sound at 48KHz and above..

Plus, if you have Win 7 (recommanded for audio), you can by right clicking volume icon access Playback devices and recording ones. Disable everything except headphones. By right clicking on headphone output, you can set numerous things, try in Advanced setting to set audio to 192/24.

For listening to music, I can recommand FooBar with ASIO or WASAPI. Or ReClock with WASAPI (WASAPI is Vista/Win7 only) and then Media Player Home Cinema. Or uLilith and WASAPI + Headphones as output.

[HanMies]

Thank you for the suggestions. I tried disabling everything other than headphones, and that didn't work. In fact, I also tried disabling the headphones, but the sound is still there.

I'm no expert, but doesn't the fact the sound is there even when the headphones are disabled, point towards interference? But usually when people complain about interference, it is static. The noise I'm getting is not random at all, more like a regular pulse or beat, around two beats per second. Can electromagnetic interference be so regular?

Just to answer some of the questions, the front panel 9-pin audio connector was plugged to the soundcard, and there was no noise. I'm using Windows 7 64bit.

[Rattle]

i had interference, clicking and a rolling buzz barely detectable, I put a small nylon washer between the bracket and the case where you screw it in and on the other side. So basically the screw that holds it in the expansion slot is surrounded by nylon washers. CURED it for me.

[HanMies]

First, thanks to everyone for the suggestions!


Try newest drivers from Auzentech. Second, I dont remember that correctly, but maybe you can disable SPDIF, which makes quite a problem with Bravura.

Also try with some advanced musicplayer to set sound at 48KHz and above..

Plus, if you have Win 7 (recommanded for audio), you can by right clicking volume icon access Playback devices and recording ones. Disable everything except headphones. By right clicking on headphone output, you can set numerous things, try in Advanced setting to set audio to 192/24.

For listening to music, I can recommand FooBar with ASIO or WASAPI. Or ReClock with WASAPI (WASAPI is Vista/Win7 only) and then Media Player Home Cinema. Or uLilith and WASAPI + Headphones as output.

Thank you. Tried disabling everything other than the headphones (just to clarify, I don't actually see "headphones" in the list of devices, what I see is my GPU for HDMI output, SPDIF, and speakers, which routes to my headphones and my lousy desktop speakers). I can probably improve overall audio quality by upgrading the player, but I think that I have to fix this background noise first.


I take it that the front panel headphone jack is not an Auzentech panel, but the "built-in" outs of the mobo, right?

I would guess it's one of the following:

~ A digital clock issue where there's a mismatch in settings between the Auzentech and some other component, or
~ An issue with electrical interference of other components inside the computer.

For the former look at all the settings available to you in software of the player and devices.

Thank you for the advice! I am not sure what settings I should be looking at? Also, please keep in mind that the noise is present even when no player is active (as mentioned above, it's there also when headphones are disabled).


i had interference, clicking and a rolling buzz barely detectable, I put a small nylon washer between the bracket and the case where you screw it in and on the other side. So basically the screw that holds it in the expansion slot is surrounded by nylon washers. CURED it for me.

Thank you for the suggestion, I will try this. Just to clarify (as I am still a bit surprised at the regularity of the pulse the headphones give), was the clicking this cured constant or random?

The card probably makes contact with the case at other parts than the screw, so I will probably have to try to isolate these as well?

[SoulsCollective]

Whereabouts in the world are you? Is your mains power 240 or 120V? How old is the wiring in your house/apartment? Do you have separate circuits? Is your PC behind a UPS or some other power-conditioning device? Is there anything else on the same wall socket (ie. also on a power-board) that might be drawing large amounts of power? What PSU and motherboard are you using?

[HanMies]

Whereabouts in the world are you? Is your mains power 240 or 120V? How old is the wiring in your house/apartment? Do you have separate circuits? Is your PC behind a UPS or some other power-conditioning device? Is there anything else on the same wall socket (ie. also on a power-board) that might be drawing large amounts of power? What PSU and motherboard are you using?

Overall you could probably classify my electricity as "not so good". I'm in Finland where we have 230V. Unfortunately I live in an old building with about 2 sockets per room, so I have my PC, monitor and printer (usally switched off) all on the same extension cord, without any UPS. I am using an Enermax Modu 87+ 700W PSU and Crosshair IV MB, which are both fairly new.

EDIT: A friend promised to lend me an Asus Essence something for testing, so we'll see how that works. It has a fancy EMI shield and power straight from the PSU.

[SoulsCollective]

PSU and mobo are fine, so power-through-slot probably isn't your problem. The nature and regularity of the tone you're hearing is sort of making me think that power condition is your issue, though, especially given what you're saying about your wiring etc - do you have any capacity to test your card in another machine, or test your machine in another house? At a mate's house perhaps?

[Rattle]

To try and answer your question, when I moved my mouse or used my scroll to move web pages up and down I would get a very FAINT buzzing. I don't remember if I had clicking noises actually I dont think so.
I did not have to insulate the card from anything other than where I described, drivers don't make a difference.

[MattiasNYC]

He's talking about a clicking sound though I think, not a buzz or tone....

[Mescalamba]

To try and answer your question, when I moved my mouse or used my scroll to move web pages up and down I would get a very FAINT buzzing. I don't remember if I had clicking noises actually I dont think so.
I did not have to insulate the card from anything other than where I described, drivers don't make a difference.

Try to separate mouse cable from case or audio cable. My did same, until I created some distance between mouse cable and headphones one.. and kept it off metal parts of case. I have G9x, I guess Logitech bit missed something..

[HanMies]

Just a brief update: I tried the Asus Essence STX today, and the tapping was not present. Don't know if it's the EMI shield or dumb luck.

The best description I can think of for the sound is maybe a regular tap tap tap, fairly faint, and very regular at maybe two taps per second. My uneducated theory was that it must be EMI, but I just realized that the tapping was constant regardless of system (i.e. GPU) load. EMI should apparently be stronger when the cards (I have twin 5870s) are under load.

[Mescalamba]

You can try asking Auzentech always.. They respond, though not sure that they can help. :)

[dctokyo]

never like the the Auzentech Forte 7.1, as you mention, after you changed the card the clicking it is not there, could be a bad card, are you able to RMA it?