ToonHead
09-03-2006, 06:43 AM
Until now, I've always monitored on headphones (DT770s), and been very happy with my M-Audio Delta 44 and its Omni I/O breakout box/ preamp/ mixer. The recorded sound is clean and good, and the sound on the headphones is also excellent.
I've recently bought a pair of proper monitors - Tascam VL-X5, which have been getting excellent reviews. When I connect them to the Omni, I get a really obnoxious amounts of hiss! The level of the hiss is as high as, or higher than the most hissy analogue recordings in my collection (early Zeppelin etc.). It's also very high-frequency, and very tiring after an hour or so. I HAVE to get rid of this, or I'll have a hissy fit myself!!
I have tested the monitors with the output from my iPod, and they were dead quiet. So it's not the monitors.
I've tried all the different outputs from the Omni. They're all hissy.
When I mute output from the Delta with the software panel, the hiss is still there. It's completely independent of the output level from the sound card.
When I remove the proprietary cable from the Omni to the Delta, the hiss goes away.
I tried to move around the power leads to different wallwarts etc, but that only created a 50hz hum problem. It is, to the best of my understanding, not a ground loop problem.
There is also weird interference when I turn on a USB 2.0 disk.
My questions:
1)Is it normal to hear some hiss from the monitors?
2) Can any Omni owners with proper monitors tell me if the output is quiet or not?
3) Is there any trick that I haven't thought of yet?
Any help appreciated!
_________________
Cubase SX 2
HALion 3
GPO
Asus A78NX, AMD XP2200, 1 gb RAM
M-audio Delta 44, with Omni I/O
1 120 gb, 1 160 gb IDE hard-drives
I've recently bought a pair of proper monitors - Tascam VL-X5, which have been getting excellent reviews. When I connect them to the Omni, I get a really obnoxious amounts of hiss! The level of the hiss is as high as, or higher than the most hissy analogue recordings in my collection (early Zeppelin etc.). It's also very high-frequency, and very tiring after an hour or so. I HAVE to get rid of this, or I'll have a hissy fit myself!!
I have tested the monitors with the output from my iPod, and they were dead quiet. So it's not the monitors.
I've tried all the different outputs from the Omni. They're all hissy.
When I mute output from the Delta with the software panel, the hiss is still there. It's completely independent of the output level from the sound card.
When I remove the proprietary cable from the Omni to the Delta, the hiss goes away.
I tried to move around the power leads to different wallwarts etc, but that only created a 50hz hum problem. It is, to the best of my understanding, not a ground loop problem.
There is also weird interference when I turn on a USB 2.0 disk.
My questions:
1)Is it normal to hear some hiss from the monitors?
2) Can any Omni owners with proper monitors tell me if the output is quiet or not?
3) Is there any trick that I haven't thought of yet?
Any help appreciated!
_________________
Cubase SX 2
HALion 3
GPO
Asus A78NX, AMD XP2200, 1 gb RAM
M-audio Delta 44, with Omni I/O
1 120 gb, 1 160 gb IDE hard-drives