Crackle during bass

gydiwon

The sound of my Audigy2 value card has improved dramatically since installing the Kx drivers. However, now I get a loud crackling noise during bassy notes.

The crackling only occurs when I hook up a headphone amplifier into the headphone jack. If I plug the headphones directly into the headphone jack I don't get crackling during bass notes because there is no bass. Everything is really high-pitched.

Is there an adjustment I can make to reduce the crackle or is the audigy2 value card just not designed to accept a headphone amp?

Nappylady

It sounds like a headroom problem. Try reducing the level on your headphone amp and see if that solves it. If it does, this simply means your headphone amp is voltage limited and shouldn't be used at high levels.

Another possibility--if you have the bass control in the drivers set too high, it could be causing it to clip. Try opening the Timbre controls in the DSP window and turn the Bass and Treble controls to normal.