I already own a surge protector with capacitor filter but I still get lots of noise and interference coming from AC

I already own a surge protector with capacitor filter but I still get lots of noise and interference coming from AC
any tips?

Other urls found in this thread:

amazon.com/Panamax-MR4300-Management-Protection-Conditioning/dp/B00ILH7KJI
compsource.com/pn/BML3A/Apc-Schneider-37/3Phase-Surge-Suppressor-BML3A/
thomann.de/gb/power_conditioners.html?oa=pra
isoteksystems.com/products/performance/evo3-sirius/
thomann.de/gb/samson_powerbrite_pb10_pro.htm
thomann.de/gb/adam_hall_pcl_10_pro.htm
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

How would you even know?

headphone noise and when I get close to the capacitors I hear a constant buzz

Audio ground is probably not at the same potential as the circuit ground causing a ground loop. It's likely the audio ground was kept separated from the high speed digital ground and the power supply ground and was supposed to be tied to together at a star point. The explanation for why this is done is very technical but the general gist is to prevent high speed digital and high power switching frequencies from being injected into the audio ground plane while keeping all planes at the same potential.

Chances are there's some break in the audio circuitry of your motherboard/sound card/amplifier/DAC/whatever where you audio ground is now floating not connect to the circuit ground and not at the same potential as your digital and power supply grounds. You are going to get a shit ton of hum and no low pass filter will take it out. The solution is to reconnect the audio ground. Get a multimeter and measure continuity from your audio ground (you can use the ground pin on the TRS connector) to some other grounded element (can be a power supply ground pin, the ground pin on a digital IC, etc. just no analog grounds in the audio ground plane) you should have continuity or measure a very low impedance. If not you will have to solder a jumper link of some sort in to make that connection. Ideally if you know where the star point on the circuit board is located try to solder it near there.

>Chances are there's some break in the audio circuitry of your motherboard/sound card/amplifier/DAC/whatever where you audio ground is now floating not connect to the circuit ground and not at the same potential as your digital and power supply grounds
I don't have ground in my home. The buzz is definitely coming from the 220+AC line

That's the most retarded thing I've read in my life. Everyone has a ground in there home. Nevermind OP. This repair is way over your head. Just throw whatever it is out and buy a new one.

>I don't have ground

Well shit nigga - get a steel pole and make one. Every home needs a ground, you shouldn’t event have 230 VAC without it.

>Everyone has a ground in there home
>there home
70% of homes in europe have ungrounded outlets you dummy
Ground only protects the human being while taking a shower. It's not mean to protect devices. Sure it can help but the most important thing is to use a surge protector in the 250v line (either 127+127 or 220v+grounded)

Ground is not the same thing as neutral. Most USA is 127V+Neutral while in europe it's either 250V+neutral or 127+127 wire (~240V)

>70% of homes in europe have ungrounded outlets you dummy

That's ridiculously dangerous

Also, when I was originally referring to ground in context of circuit troubleshooting what I really meant was a common return path which in electronics is called ground. Circuit ground and Earth ground can be the same sometimes but they don't have to be and often aren't, especially in mains powered devices. Circuit grounds may often rather confusingly use the same symbol as Earth ground. Every single electrical circuit in existence has a "ground" a common 0V reference point, a return path. If it did not no electric circuit would work. This is Electronics 101.

> Sure it can help but the most important thing is to use a surge protector in the 250v line (either 127+127 or 220v+grounded)

Son, without a life there is no hum free music to enjoy. My point is that an properly design protective earth is the most important part of LV/MV/HV systems (also an ELCB for LV systems, harder to do in MV/HV).

If you can’t put in an earth, you need to keep it below 30V.

Also, a surge protector will not solve OPs problem.

>That's ridiculously dangerous
but that's the way it is. Most countries didn't force new buildings and homes to have a ground (earth) up until the 70s
So you usually have 250v+neutral in many countries, also China and Russia.
In other areas in eastern europe the 250v can be provided by two 127v (from the outside transformer) in triangle
>Also, a surge protector will not solve OPs problem.
They usually have a low pass filter (capacitor) with rfi filter to help but sometimes it's not enough

In all homes you'll find a neutral in the electrical panel but not in the outlet socket
That's what I'm trying to say. It can be two 127v wires or 250v + neutral in the wall socket

Here's an illustration if you still don't understand the concept.

Yes in the PC power supply (PSU) and electronics you find a ground but I'm talking about how to reduce noise coming from the socket with no ground

ground is still to blame for it, m8

And I'm telling you that the outlet is very likely not the source of your noise.

>70% of homes in europe have ungrounded outlets you dummy
I find that very hard to believe, shithole countries like Romania and ancient installations can't make up 70%.

>Every single electrical circuit in existence has a "ground" a common 0V reference point, a return path. If it did not no electric circuit would work. This is Electronics 101.

so it's most likely my motherboard or headphone? I hear noise in my surge protector even without the computer connected.
legislation all over europe to force grounding is recent. Go to some villages in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Austria to see if you'll find a proper grounding there
Very few countries in the world also specify the type of grounding. In some countries you can choose TT or TN-C-S while others you don't have a choice

Again, I'm not talking about Earth ground. I'm talking about a return path in general. A completely floating device like your phone when not plugged in has a fucking ground. The negative terminal of the battery is ground. It is the return path for all of the current the battery sources. THAT is the "ground" I am referring to. Not whatever ridiculous system you have in Europe. Everyone knows with mains the neutral is the current return path anyway and Earth ground is solely for safety in the event of a break in the neutral or live to chassis faults.

how do these even work? i have one made by apc but idk if it really does anything but grounding detection.

That's what I wanted to know. Most APC/Belkin surge protectors come with these filters inside I wanted to know if you could use/build an external one to filter frequencies better

I'm from a smaller town in Sweden, outlets didn't have to be grounded until 1994 yet ungrounded installations are rare nowadays.

It's a common mode choke and a capacitor forming an LC filter. What's there to understand? If you know how any LC filter works you basically know how this works. You can build a better one but it's usually not necessary for simple powerline filters and if you don't know about how to properly design and characterize filters you will almost certainly achieve worse results.

>I'm talking about a return path in general.
"Return" path is phase to phase, just like with the american 2x120V=240V setups. Only difference is that european phases are usually shifted 120° from each other, not 180°, that's why you get 380V from combining 3 230V phases.

Do you think this would be a better solution?
amazon.com/Panamax-MR4300-Management-Protection-Conditioning/dp/B00ILH7KJI

250 dollar is not that expensive.. most good surge protectors cost 60~80 bucks and this has phone lines and coaxial protection

There's nothing wrong with OP's mains. It's on the low voltage side of his board that there is an issue. The audio ground plane is not connected to the digital and power ground planes hence why there is hum the filter did not eliminate. All the low voltage returns need to be commoned together at a star point on the PCB, probably near the transformer.

Dude just get a regular powerstrip. They got a few metal oxide varistors inside them to absorb big transients. Test them periodically and see if they failed if you're REALLY worried and if they have replace the strip. Will save you loads of money.

its normal in older buildings.

would not pay more than 20€ for such things.

It's a good idea to have a good surge protector/power strip with MOV like this compsource.com/pn/BML3A/Apc-Schneider-37/3Phase-Surge-Suppressor-BML3A/
Some 30 bucks APC strips come with good protection and noise elimination but I still wonder why I hear noises in my surge protector capacitors since they are brand new, it must be from the shit noisy AC

are you sure that you dont have any shitty chink devices near it? i have an ups that makes audible noise to my speakers if its too close to the amp but moving it a bit helped. something like rca cables near a power cable may sometimes be audible too.

>are you sure that you dont have any shitty chink devices near it?
Nope, nothing. Only monitor + PC
Funny that last week with the lamp on the noise was louder.

Just get a DAC and be done with it, it'll sound better anyway.

that too if you are using onboard analog outputs. a gpu might make noise on some boards.

Soviet era houses don't have ground. Playing guitar was shitty 50Hz drone metal. Fuck this, this is why I've moved to newer house.

any recommendations?

Those filters could resonate and CAUSE noise. Especially if you roll you're own half ass ones.

my friend's uncle build an noise suppressor using transistors and capacitors
I asked him the schematics 4 years ago but he never replied
it could be plugged to any AC cable or audio cable like a guitar jack

Power strips with surge protection will not solve this. Your problem is not huge variations in voltage, it's noisy power lines.

Look into power conditioners, such as:
thomann.de/gb/power_conditioners.html?oa=pra

If you need power strips which are wired individually, in order to avoid diminishing voltage if you plug more devices in it, check out this sort of stuff:
isoteksystems.com/products/performance/evo3-sirius/

There are also some power line analyzers you could use to check the noise of your power lines. But those are more expensive, not sure it makes sense to buy such a thing, if you're not an electrician.

>There are also some power line analyzers you could use to check the noise of your power lines. But those are more expensive, not sure it makes sense to buy such a thing, if you're not an electrician.
From what I could see this isoteksystems.com/products/performance/evo3-sirius/ is simply a power strip with emi/rfi filter and power conditioning similar to the panamax but this one cost 595 euros (!)
It would be better if I could buy the panamax power conditioning + make a high pass filter to connect in my P2 headphone cable
any ideas?

This one is 111 euros

thomann.de/gb/samson_powerbrite_pb10_pro.htm

And it offers p much what the panamax does.

>thomann.de/gb/samson_powerbrite_pb10_pro.htm
but it doesn't say power conditioning
It's a decent alternative to a power strip because it has some filters and power distribution but it seems the panamax is more complete for the reason it distributes stable voltage at 220 or 240 locked (when plugged to a 110v to 220v converter)
I don't know maybe I'll try this one or something below 150 euros

Check out the other models under 200 euros.

thomann.de/gb/power_conditioners.html?oa=pra

Lots of models that specify clearly they're power conditioners.

For example:
thomann.de/gb/adam_hall_pcl_10_pro.htm

I just picked that one because it also had voltage and current display on the front.

UPS with active DC/DC or power filter

Your device is shit. Try putting cap between ground and output of transformer.