hints for troubleshooting poor sound quality.

[George Hartzell]

Lowell Gilbert writes:
 > George Hartzell <hartzell at kestrel.alerce.com> writes:
  > > I've set up an ASUS small form factor machine based around an P4S8L
 > > motherboard.  It's running 6.0BETA4 and Gnome2.12 from the tinderbox
 > > packages.
 > > 
 > > I'm kldload'ing snd_ich and (after getting a helpful pointer to the
 > > gnome FAQ) all of the sounds stuff is working.
 > > 
 > > Here's my problem:
 > > 
 > >   The machine has two mini-jacks, one in the front and one in the
 > >   back.  If I plug a set of headphones into the front jack I hear all
 > >   kinds of clicks and whirs and buzzing.  They seem to correlate with
 > >   drive activity, cd activity, and maybe even the cpu fan.  The
 > >   connector on the back seems quieter, but I still hear a bit of
 > >   noise.
 > > 
 > >   I hear less noise on a set of sony powerer-subwoofer-and-tweeter
 > >   speakers, but it's still noticable.
 > > 
 > > I haven't been able to try another sound device, the only spare card
 > > that I have doesn't fit into the space provided (riser card).
 > > 
 > > I'd appreciate anythoughts about dealing with the noise.  Is this
 > > something electrical w/ the motherboard?  Something about my Freebsd
 > > setup?
 > 
 > Well, yes, it *is* electrical interference on the motherboard.  You
 > may be able to reduce its impact, though.  Reducing the amplifier gain
 > (ogain in the mixer(8) output) may help, for example.  Also, does
 > playing digital audio see this effect, or only playing CDs?  If the
 > latter, you can switch to digital extraction for playing CDs (most
 > software doesn't support it, but some does) and avoid the
 > interference.

Thanks for the feedback.  The noise seems to be there when nothing's
happening, when I'm playing an mp3 from disk (that's what digital
audio, right?), and when I'm directly playing a CD.

Would a pci based sound card be immune from this?  Any recommendations
for one that's not as tall as a sound-blaster LIVE card (space
constraints in the case...).

Thanks,

g.