Every now and then I get strange audio issues on my PC that makes the audio sound like you didn’t tune your radio right with an echo on top. Here is an example to download Yes, it really sounds like that. It randomly starts and gets worse over time. This time, as a first, it suddenly stopped on its own and the audio worked again like normal. The one thing that “fixes” the issue temporarily is to restart the PC. This works every time, reliably.
Hardware/Software
PRIME x370-Pro Motherboard
some low end Logitec speakers with an internal amplifier where I can’t read the model number any more
Sennheiser m2 ieg momentum - in ear headphones
Philips 227E Monitor
fedora 28, Kernel 4.18.14-200
16 GiB ram
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
graphics: Radeon RX 560
Troubleshooting
I usually have my Logitec speakers plugged into my rear IO panel, so thinking it could be a defective port I switch the cable over to the front panel.-> no change
Thinking my on-board audio is defective I plug the speakers into the back of my monitor which receives audio digitally over the HDMI cable. -> no change
Thinking my (two times repaired by me) Logitec speakers failed in a strange way I changed to my headphones. -> No change!?? wtf?
I have wiggled and unplugged/plugged-in-again every cable here. No dice.
In my mind there are only 2 possibilities left:
Some kind of interference from somewhere that does not seem to correlate with anything and always stops (18+ times, repeatable) when I reboot my PC. Also what kind of interference creates an echo?
Some strange (software???) error that causes this issue on both the on-board analogue audio-out and the graphics cards digital audio-out. This just does not sound like a software error.
My next step is plugging in a cheap USB audio card to exclude some possible software issues. The problem is, the issue starts randomly and I probably have to wait a day for it to reappear. Also I’ll try to change the OS, maybe that solves it?
The issue did not repeat itself until now and I consider the problem solved.
The takeaway: Even if something looks like a hardware/analogue issue it can still be a software problem.
after listening to the audio it sounds like theres some audio eq somewhere giving that reverb-ish echo. attempt to isolate the sound devices if you can use optical audio out to isolate everything might jsut be a odd electrical sound imo
okay, I’ll try optical
I just thought testing with audio via the digital HDMI link would exclude some problems, but some ground issue might explain it.
I already have a Toslink cable to my living room, just did not think of testing that yet. It’s a bit of a problem for testing that the issue only appears maybe once a day.
Do you mean on the motherboard? How would that degrade a digital signal in that way? Also how would that explain the same problem for two different speakers and on two different outputs (HDMI ->graphics card and onboard sound)
I just can’t find a reason that makes sense.
That’s an interesting approach I have not thought of yet.
However, I use a switch mode power supply and that is not how I would expect the output to behave. On the other hand a degrading filter cap could explain the strange behaviour but not really the frequencies.
In my case however of both the monitor and my on-board sound right? Maybe I am misunderstanding how sound on a system like this is distributed.
Depends how the monitors are connected. When they get their signal analog (for example 3.5mm jack), then anything along the path can introduce noise.
When it is digital (USB, coax, optical, etc.), then it gets a bit more complicated.
One of these two (probably the yellow one):
Just confirmed, the yellow one is the audio chip.
the only time i had an issue like that effect was after a software update screwed up amarok with a pulse audio driver.
simple fix to roll back the driver and deselect pulse audio.
but you could be getting a latent echo from both the speakers and the monitor,
transmission rates would differ between hdmi and analog or digital cables
That means the monitor could be the culprit (and onboard sound from the mainboard does not do anything for the speakers as of right now). Anything preventing you from connecting the speakers to the speaker port on the mainboard? That way the monitor is out of the equation. nevermind, need to read OP more carefully
