Line noise on Macbook Pro audio out

Fedallah

Мне надо много кофе
The audio-out jack on my Macbook Pro is noisy. Noisy as in bus noise - I can hear inductance or something of that nature on the bus. I can hear keystrokes, hard disk spin-up, trackpad movements, and a general electronic buzz at all times (not sixty-cycle hum).

Also odd: these sounds are only audible when the line-out is plugged into a receiver. Directly into headphones, there is absolutely nothing.

Is this typical, or is my machine just broken/defective? Either way, what's a good fix? External soundcard/DAC, perhaps? Anyone? Bueller?
 
Typically this problem is caused by the analog audio cable that goes between the cd-rom and the on-board sound card. I've experienced numerous problems with this cabe becoming a big inductor and picking up noise from surrounding components.

Open your sound control panel and see if you have the ability to mute the audio from the CD drive. It may cure your problem --unless you use the CD rom to play CDs.
 
Well, the problem goes away when I have no USB devices or external display plugged in. That's not exactly good news though, since all of my music is stored on an external drive.
 
I rebooted earlier this morning. The problem has gone away entirely, even with everything plugged in as before. The output is now completely 'black'.

Very strange.
 
Rebooting will often solve any problems. Computers, like some audio gear, will get hung in some sort of a loop or mode where they don't work right-- like a receiver clipping even at low power after being briefly overdriven-- and just ned to be turned off then on.
 
I'm glad the problem has resolved itself. You may still want to try a good USB DAC at some point to get even better sound quality. I'm using a Hagerman Chime and it's really wonderful...but there are quite a few USB DACs out there...
 
Your mac may have a s/pdif out but if it doesn't try the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro USB unit. It work with both platforms. It allows line level out audio on your/laptop that is far cleaner than any integrated line level out. It also generates an optical s/pdif out to allow connection to an external d/a converter.

I connected the optical out on mine to my Sony DAT recorder. I set the DAT recorder to "monitor" (happens when pressing rec with no tape in the transport; not all DAT recorders will do this) and the sound is 110% better.

The sound is totally free of that typical computer noise you mentioned wheher I use the digital out or analog line level out.

EVERY pc I've ever heard had some type of noise regardless of the cost price paid for the pc.

I paid something like $28 for mine at JR Musicworld. I have seen it cheaper at Best Buy and others. I just bought mine at JR because I was already there was too lazy to go to Best Buy.

You find a better upgrade for so little money.
 
Sounds like your PCI bus buffer was full or was near saturation, thus unable to provide clean signal, thus the problem will likely return, unless you plan to reboot regularily.
 
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