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I have an old Creative Inspire 5.1 surround system hooked up to the computer I use with a movie projector. The speaker system has recently begun to give off a weird sort of discharge sound, and it really does sound like a very deep "whoomph", lasting about half a second. The sound appears to come from all speakers, not just one of them, and it happens mostly when the computer isn't playing a sound but I've also heard it while watching a movie.

What can cause such a sound? It sounds like some sort of power build-up that is released at uneven intervals.

Update:

  • I wielded a screwdriver and inspected the subwoofer's electronics. I remember an old motherboard once died of bad capacitors and thought this might be part of the problem here, too. A visual inspection of the capacitors and the electronics board in general didn't reveal any problems though, so the bad-caps hypothesis is ruled out.
  • The computer is ruled out as well because the speakers go "whoomph" even when not connected to any source.
  • That leaves the 220->110V transformer as possible cause, and I can't definitely rule out the subwoofer electronics either. Testing the transformer for this phenomenon is simply not practical, and I have no further means to test the speaker electronics. It seems I can't pursue this any further; sadly I might have to replace the speaker system entirely.

Some techie details about my setup:

The subwoofer acts as a connection hub, so all cables go from there -- 5 speakers, 1 volume/power control, and 3 "stereo walkman" cables to the computer (no digital audio signal). The computer is configured to use a 5.1 speaker system. (Computer-related details have been removed after I ruled out the computer as root cause. Check the post history if you're curious.)

The only special thing is that the trusty old Creative 5.1 set is 110V but my house is on 220V, so I've always had the speakers powered via a 220V->110V transformer. This was never a problem, but perhaps age is catching up (I bought it in Japan 12 years ago!). I don't have a spare transformer to test, nor any other 110V equipment, so it's difficult to test whether the transformer is at fault.

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Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
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1 Answers1

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Sound Blaster Live 5.1 is an audio card, which you probably don't use anymore, since you replaced you computer, with all-in-one motherboard. Speaker system must be one of GigaWorks or Inspire, but you didn't provide that information.

Since you wrote this started happening from the thime you replaced your PC, I will share what I experienced myself, see if one of these applies to you.

  • Speakers are connected with Digital Cable (SP-DIF or the likes) and when no sound is playing, speakers "go to sleep". When sound starts to play again (any system-sound, for example Windows bleep when browsing internet, in my case) speakers restart with big whomph (my logitech 5500 does that, exactly as you wrote, half-a-second thump).
  • Your sound driver / application is set to "energy saving" or whatever, that causes it to disconnect it's outputs when no sound plays for certain amount of time. Try finding and changing that setting. I can't provide exact step, because I have no ubuntu desktop and can't know how driver / application looks like. I will provide, however, screenshot of my DELL computer's driver app. My system isn't english, though. Note, that when this is turned on, I also get a quiet thump in my headphones, but not as alarming as the one from Logitech Z-5500 and my desktop PC.

Dell MaxxAudio

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