Any way to stop speaker white noise on PC without turning-off the speakers?

D

Delicieuxz

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
1,668
I'd like to stop all sound coming from my PC speakers when not using them, including the faint white noise sound PC speakers emit all the time, even while no sound is being played. I want complete silence as default, except when I'm deliberately playing audio.

Perhaps a noise-gate app will do this. Anyone got ideas?
 
There's always a noise floor.

What is your exact setup will help.

How much is in between analog stages is where a lot comes from. Amplifiers amplify everything fed to them, you can set thresholds for when you start the gain to try to push the noise floor below that but any sound created that is within that range goes away as well. So its kind of a give/take situation.

Are you not wanting static when lets say music is off or are you trying to fight the noise that exists in quiet spots in a song?

That said i have a really quiet setup that makes me happy just using a soundblaster ae-5 and a pair of mackie cr-8's. In between is a schiit magni to feed my dt-880 600ohm headphones. I know the soundcard can drive them but the interface was easier to work with using the magni.

My cabling is nothing special, monoprice stuff i got from amazon.

If you are getting a loud hiss when not at full volume i would also suspect something is damaged.
 
Darunion said:
There's always a noise floor.

What is your exact setup will help.

How much is in between analog stages is where a lot comes from. Amplifiers amplify everything fed to them, you can set thresholds for when you start the gain to try to push the noise floor below that but any sound created that is within that range goes away as well. So its kind of a give/take situation.

Are you not wanting static when lets say music is off or are you trying to fight the noise that exists in quiet spots in a song?

That said i have a really quiet setup that makes me happy just using a soundblaster ae-5 and a pair of mackie cr-8's. In between is a schiit magni to feed my dt-880 600ohm headphones. I know the soundcard can drive them but the interface was easier to work with using the magni.

My cabling is nothing special, monoprice stuff i got from amazon.

If you are getting a loud hiss when not at full volume i would also suspect something is damaged.
Click to expand...

Right now, my setup is a PC with a 2.1 speaker system and a couple of monitors being interchangeably used. I'm trying out different monitor sets to see which I like and will keep.

The noise I get from either set is low, though I'd like it to be completely silent, without switching the speakers off and on dozens of times throughout the day. When the speakers are completely off and there's no noise at all, I'm able to focus better and feel more relaxed. It's a noticeably nicer experience.

I'm not trying to minimise noise between parts of a sound file or video, but to have no noise at all when no media is being played. I imagine a noise-gate app could achieve that without interfering with my normal PC usage.


In this article, there's an app, NoiseGator, that sounds like it will do what I'm wanting. It requires installing Java, though, to run a virtual audio cable, which I wish it didn't: 7 Best Noise Cancelling and Noise Reducing Apps for Windows
 
When your computer is not playing sounds, it's also not sending noise to your speakers just to spite you. ;) That is, apps that reduce noise from microphones will do nothing for you, since there is no noise for them to remove.

The noise you hear is the analog self-noise of your monitors and 2.1 speaker system. So anything you do to try to reduce it must happen outside the computer. If it's just white noise I don't think there's much to do except turning the speakers off (or getting new speaker with less self-noise). If you get "digital" noise, tones etc. then perhaps try to use balanced analog connections as much as possible.

Edit: one thing you can try if your monitors have a gain knob is to turn that down as far as possible and compensate by turning the volume up on your soundcard instead. Try to match it so that max volume on your computer is as loud as you want to reach. I.e. optimise your gain stages to minimise the noise.
 
Easiest path would be try and it and see if that helps. Honestly I would turn off speakers before adding more clunky software into the mix. But it probably is just coming from your monitors themselves.
 
is this powered on noise or line noise? power noise you cant do anything but turn them off.
 
bitnick said:
When your computer is not playing sounds, it's also not sending noise to your speakers just to spite you. ;) That is, apps that reduce noise from microphones will do nothing for you, since there is no noise for them to remove.
Click to expand...
Well, now you've made me feel bad for stabbing my speaker with a screwdriver after it didn't obey when I told it to shut-up (jk).

pendragon1 said:
is this powered on noise or line noise? power noise you cant do anything but turn them off.
Click to expand...
It's the faint hiss noise that comes from speakers when they're on, and while no audio source is playing.
 
Delicieuxz said:
Well, now you've made me feel bad for stabbing my speaker with a screwdriver after it didn't obey when I told it to shut-up (jk).


It's the faint hiss noise that comes from speakers when they're on, and while no audio source is playing.
Click to expand...
so its there even when disconnected? then i dont see how a plugin or app is going to help that , youll have to power them off.
 
pendragon1 said:
so its there even when disconnected? then i dont see how a plugin or app is going to help that , youll have to power them off.
Click to expand...
I hadn't checked if it's there while disconnected. But I did just now, and yes, it's there while disconnected from the PC. I guess an easily-accessible power switch should be a monitor short-list qualification for me.
 
Delicieuxz said:
I hadn't checked if it's there while disconnected. But I did just now, and yes, it's there while disconnected from the PC. I guess an easily-accessible power switch should be a monitor short-list qualification for me.
Click to expand...
yeah thats what i meant by power noise vs line noise(being caused by the connection). its pretty common for self powered speakers to do that, at least every set ive ever have had did it. although none were near as nice as these...
 
Delicieuxz said:
I guess an easily-accessible power switch should be a monitor short-list qualification for me.
Click to expand...
I have active monitors too. I attached a power strip with a breaker to the underside of my desk, easily within reaching distance, and have my monitors powered through that. So it's very easy to turn them on and off both at the same time without getting out of my chair. :)
 
It sounds like it's just inherent to your speakers.
I just turned my 240W/ch amp all the way up (terrifying because playing it on a 3/10 is super loud)
Zero noise - and I mean ZERO.

That's on the coax digital out from my PC, but all my sources are digital and have zero noise.
 
tommyrick said:
After a forced shutdown (aka. holding the power button down), one of my monitors is putting out a constant white noise sound via its speakers. The audio device is disabled in Windows, but I believe it's a windows issue since the white noise only starts once windows has initialised its display drivers during boot (indicated by the screen turning off and on again). The monitor in question is connected via DP, the other, identical, monitor is connected via HDMI and doesn't have this issue. My monitor has no option to turn off the speakers, so I kind of need to solve this.

I already tried plugging out the monitor and reconnecting it, restarting windows, and obviously turning the monitor off and back on. Here are my specs:

Intel i7 4770K
Asus ROC Hero VI MB
Zotac GTX 1080 Ti
Sound Blaster ZxR Sound Card
Some other stuff I can't remember but can supply if needed.

Hope someone here has an idea.
Click to expand...
Have you tried removing the power chord for the monitor for 30 seconds, and then reconnecting it?

If you have drivers installed for the monitor, maybe uninstall them. And maybe try wiping your display driver and reinstalling it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top