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Topic: Scratching/distortion on heavy bass notes when using digital coaxial? (Read 1991 times) previous topic - next topic
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Scratching/distortion on heavy bass notes when using digital coaxial?

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum so do forgive me if I didn't pick the right section for this question to be in. I recently got some decent audio hardware (two Acoustic response 3311's and two acoustic series 707... i think i got the names backwards but that's beside the point. Also I know these are known white van speakers, so save the comments about them please, they sound decent enough to me and I know that they're not the problem.). My receiver is a Kenwood VR-6050 and the audio device is my computer, the motherboard is an ASRock Extreme3 R2.0 and the motherboard has coaxial digital output while the receiver has an input. When switching to using coaxial digital from just using auxiliary connections (3.5mm jack to rca input on the receiver), I noticed that there's scratching or distortion on heavy bass notes on rap songs, mainly Swing My Door by Gucci Mane.

That can be heard in this video. (profanity warning)

So where do you guys think the issue lies? I'm at a loss and I really don't want to fall back to auxillary. In the very short time I've come to known digital coaxial, I already love it as it sounds way way way better. Thank you for any help!

Re: Scratching/distortion on heavy bass notes when using digital coaxial?

Reply #1 –
Without being aware of it you are probably playing louder than you played before and now have surpassed the speakers' or amp's performance limit.  Any speaker or amp circuit will distort if pushed hard enough.  Hook things up using analog ("auxillary") again and play at the same sound level.  Let us know if the distortion still there.

Re: Scratching/distortion on heavy bass notes when using digital coaxial?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Apesbrain on
Without being aware of it you are probably playing louder than you played before and now have surpassed the speakers' or amp's performance limit.  Any speaker or amp circuit will distort if pushed hard enough.  Hook things up using analog ("auxillary") again and play at the same sound level.  Let us know if the distortion still there.

It does work that way. Switching to analog remedies the issue but really sacrifices audio quality and fidelity, and that's something I'm not very willing to do. I tested that this morning.

Turning the receiver/amp down has the scratching persist. I talked to my teacher today and he theorizes that maybe it's because I have the volume all the way up on the computer. I won't have a chance to test this till I leave campus, I'll keep the thread updated. Any other theories are welcome and encouraged however. I may need them.

Re: Scratching/distortion on heavy bass notes when using digital coaxial?

Reply #3 –
Quote
Turning the receiver/amp down has the scratching persist. I talked to my teacher today and he theorizes that maybe it's because I have the volume all the way up on the computer.
He's probably right...  Usually, the digital volume control only goes up to 100% so there's no problem, but there are exceptions (the volume control in VLC goes over 100%).   But if you are using a software equalizer, especially if you are boosting any frequencies with EQ, that can drive the digital levels into clipping (distortion) and you may have to bring down the (digital) volume. 

Quote
It does work that way. Switching to analog remedies the issue but really sacrifices audio quality and fidelity, and that's something I'm not very willing to do. I tested that this morning.
From what you're saying, it seems like fidelity is worse with the digital connection.  ;)     The analog output is probably fine, especially since you didn't mention anything specifically wrong...

Re: Scratching/distortion on heavy bass notes when using digital coaxial?

Reply #4 –
So far my teacher seems to be right. I turned my computer down to about 75 (out of 100% volume) and the issue seems to be remedied. I'll keep the thread updated if anything chances. Thanks for the help anyways though, guys!
UPDATE: It seems that it was actually the wire running to the left A speaker, and that I was only listening to that speaker make the noises. Hmmmm, I had no idea these speakers were beafy enough to need better wire :O