Crackle/shuddering in Right Speaker and Headphones?

[Sarah[_8_]]

Hi,

I have KRK Rokit 5 monitors (about 4 years old) and Beyerdynamic DT
770 PRO (250 OHM) headphones (bought earlier this year). I'm hearing
this crackling/shuddering sound in the right headphone and right
monitor only during bassy bits. My volume level is fairly low. I'm
not sure whether the problem is with my speakers and headphones (seems
unlikely) or with my source material (which is high quality .wavs, not
compressed mp3s).

Any help identifying and fixing the problem would be hugely
appreciated!

Thanks so much,

-Sarah

[Mike Rivers]

On 1/21/2011 9:58 PM, Sarah wrote:

> I have KRK Rokit 5 monitors (about 4 years old) and Beyerdynamic DT
> 770 PRO (250 OHM) headphones (bought earlier this year). I'm hearing
> this crackling/shuddering sound in the right headphone and right
> monitor only during bassy bits.

Uh . . . what's the source that's feeding the headphones and
speakers? A mixer? A sound card? An old AM radio? Whatever
it is, I think it's broken.



--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be
operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although
it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge
of audio." - John Watkinson

http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and
interesting audio stuff

[Scott Dorsey]

Sarah > wrote:
>I have KRK Rokit 5 monitors (about 4 years old) and Beyerdynamic DT
>770 PRO (250 OHM) headphones (bought earlier this year). I'm hearing
>this crackling/shuddering sound in the right headphone and right
>monitor only during bassy bits.

What are they plugged into?

> My volume level is fairly low. I'm
>not sure whether the problem is with my speakers and headphones (seems
>unlikely) or with my source material (which is high quality .wavs, not
>compressed mp3s).

Switch the left and right channel on the file, play it back again. Does
the problem move to the left channel? If so, it's in the file. If not,
it's in the playback system somewhere.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Bill Graham]

Sarah wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have KRK Rokit 5 monitors (about 4 years old) and Beyerdynamic DT
> 770 PRO (250 OHM) headphones (bought earlier this year). I'm hearing
> this crackling/shuddering sound in the right headphone and right
> monitor only during bassy bits. My volume level is fairly low. I'm
> not sure whether the problem is with my speakers and headphones (seems
> unlikely) or with my source material (which is high quality .wavs, not
> compressed mp3s).
>
> Any help identifying and fixing the problem would be hugely
> appreciated!
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> -Sarah

Swap the channels (left & right) stage by stage, until the trouble moves to
the other channel. As soon as it does, you have found the problem.

[Sarah[_8_]]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for the help. This is very useful.

My apologies for not being more specific in my original email about my
sound source - it's a 6-year-old US-122 audio/midi interface.

Bill - good idea to swap the channels. I did so and found that the
noise moved from the right headphone/monitor to the left one. I
assume that this rules out a problem with the monitors, headphones or
USB interface.

So, as Scott suggests, the problem is probably my source material
then, right?

Thanks again,

-Sarah

[Bill Graham]

Sarah wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> Thanks so much for the help. This is very useful.
>
> My apologies for not being more specific in my original email about my
> sound source - it's a 6-year-old US-122 audio/midi interface.
>
> Bill - good idea to swap the channels. I did so and found that the
> noise moved from the right headphone/monitor to the left one. I
> assume that this rules out a problem with the monitors, headphones or
> USB interface.
>
> So, as Scott suggests, the problem is probably my source material
> then, right?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> -Sarah

Yes, if you swapped them right at the input. It must be the source signal.
You can use this method everywhere along the signal processing path,
however, in order to find out which of your units is bad. I had a problem
with intermittant noise on one channel several years ago, so I swapped
amplifiers, and a couple of weeks went by before the noise appeared again on
the other channel, so I knew my amp was bad. But it took a while for it to
show up.

[Scott Dorsey]

Sarah > wrote:
>
>Thanks so much for the help. This is very useful.
>
>My apologies for not being more specific in my original email about my
>sound source - it's a 6-year-old US-122 audio/midi interface.
>
>Bill - good idea to swap the channels. I did so and found that the
>noise moved from the right headphone/monitor to the left one. I
>assume that this rules out a problem with the monitors, headphones or
>USB interface.
>
>So, as Scott suggests, the problem is probably my source material
>then, right?

Sounds like it. Try adding a 40 Hz highpass filter. Does that help it?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."