Need help from computer/audio Pros pl0x

[copulatingduck]

I've had this problem ever since I bought my Senn 280's a little over a year ago. Essentially, I hear a lot of staticy, high-freq stuff, something I'm inclined to describe as "interference" though I haven't the slightest idea if that's actually the case. I've done a lot of googling, and this thread is the closest I've found to a description of the problem, and several possible solutions (the symptoms I'm experiencing match those described in that thread to the letter).

The problem is, afaict there were a bunch of possible solutions laid out, but no guarantees as to which solutions would most definitely work, and I haven't the foggiest which are the most likely to work.

Ferrite loops for my purposes will not work. Thanks to my dastardly dog, the wires from my headphones are so short and inflexible (think lots of solder and heatshrink) that incorporating a ferrous loop into this particular number just won't work. That and, as one poster pointed out, if the noise is coming from say the motherboard, I'm not entirely confident that a loop would magically eliminate interference that had already become part of the signal.

Secondly, I do have a PCI sound card. It's not a particularly fancy one, I think I paid $10 for it at Best Buy. I bought it thinking it would help but no dice. Using onboard audio is no longer a solution since it seemingly decided to blow up at some point a year ago for no apparent reason. The ports on board do technically work, but there's a shriek that comes out of the line (not a static pitch but something on the order of 15khz, so it kind of dominates anything else trying to come down the line ) I can buy a nicer sound card if that will definitely fix my problem, but I don't have a ton of money to burn, especially on a solution that might end up solving squat.

In that thread someone mentioned external solutions, and claimed they are generally much better in quality than internal solutions near-universally. Is that the case, and if so, can someone recommend a few affordable solutions (ie around $75 and $150 price points, give or take 20%) ?

I have a pair of Senn earbuds, and the interference is much less noticeable with them, though it is still most definitely present. Unfortunately they are earbuds, and they don't sound particularly nice unless you jam them into your ears, something I'm not particularly fond of doing for the sake of my hearing and general fatigue (my ears get sore really quickly wearing them like that)

Anyways, I guess that's about all I can think of. If anyone can comment on the efficacy of the presented solutions, or knows of any others, I'd be incredibly grateful for your help.

[Mission Difficult]

This sounds like a problem with your soundcard or motherboard. I would try out a ferrite bead/core/choke because you probably have some laying around, if not they are pretty cheap. It probably won't help, but it's worth a shot. I think the best solution is probably an external card of some kind. Maybe this one? There's also some super cheap ones on New Egg that are $12, but they might be shit. An internal card might fix the problem, but it's hard to tell if it's just the card or something goofy with the motherboard without having a spare of both to do tests with.

[HeK]

We had similar problems with my brother's PC when he first started recording using a COTS soundcard.
He invested in a power filter and it made a huge difference.

Right now he is using a Furman Rack Rider.

[rumsfald]

I've had very similar if not the same symptoms with the onboard audio of 2 previous motherboards (lower end with lots of integrated crap, though my current mobo with onboard audio is pretty nice). It annoyed me to no end.

On my last rig, I got lucky and salvaged a SB live PCI from a computer that someone else was throwing away, and that worked 100x better. I might still have that card laying around in my parts closet if you wanna try it.

[copulatingduck]

Well I went with an external card since that sounded like the most likely to work, and I must say, it sounds fantastic now. Thanks so much to everyone who helped