@Everblue

I hear both the "hissing" (sounds more like "fuzzing" to me) and the distortion. However, its volume appears to go up with the soundtrack so I suggest it is a byproduct of the audio being played, not a background sound.

Do you hear this when there is no audio playing? If so then you may have an unterminated input combined with a lot of amplification? I just checked the Sam460 manual and it turns out there are 3 sets of audio inputs: J24 (CD/DVD audio in), J25 (audio expansion port) and J41 (front panel AC97 connector). If there is software to control the input levels try that. You could try doing manual input termination but that means a bit of hardware "hacking" and unless you feel really comfortable doing that I don't recommend it.

@gregthecanuck

When no audio is being played there is no noise/hissing/fuzzing of any sort.

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The recording didn't contain much hiss to my ear, it sounded more like sample rate conversion artefacts, quantization noise and the odd clipped spike*. Being mpeg format, it's hard to tell whether some of that is actually a side effect of being compressed.

It's almost as if it was being crudely converted to 8-bit 22kHz or something.

Last edited by Karlos on 01-Jan-2013 at 01:02 PM.

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Doing stupid things for fun...

@Everblue

I hope you get the gfx card soon, i now many disagre that this will fix the sound interence,
But at least then you know..

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nox's in the house!

Thanks a lot for everyone's feedback. Keep it coming :)

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Quote:

Karlos wrote: The recording didn't contain much hiss to my ear, it sounded more like sample rate conversion artefacts, quantization noise and the odd clipped spike*. Being mpeg format, it's hard to tell whether some of that is actually a side effect of being compressed. It's almost as if it was being crudely converted to 8-bit 22kHz or something.

I agree. This isn't hiss. A couple of different types of distortion.

@gregthecanuck

Well english isn't my natural language so maybe hissing is not the right word, but whatever is is it is very annoying :p

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@Everblue

Check the Mixer in Exchange. If the input levels are set high, especially if the sound chip has a digital input capability, all sorts of nasty noise can get through. Set all the inputs you find in Mixer to zero and see if that makes a difference.

Roy Leith

@royleith
Thanks for suggestion will try it when I get home

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As already stated on Facebook on behalf of ACube Systems:

We are investigating with Conrad this issue. Our tech department is working on it. Obviously if it should be related to an hardware issue we will replace the board. Customer satisfaction is our first commitment!

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Stefano Guidetti
AmigaOS 4 Translator & Betatester

AmigaOneXE G4@1Ghz 2GB RAM Radeon 9000 PRO 128MB
Sam460ex@1,1GHz 2GB RAM Radeon X1550 PRO PCI-E
Both running AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6 (BETA)

@Everblue

i listen your audio and seems ok

Last edited by Seiya on 01-Jan-2013 at 03:35 PM.

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Following Stefano's comment whilst thanking him for the support I will wait a bit more to see if they can fix the problem with an audio driver.

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Quote:

it sounded more like sample rate conversion artefacts, quantization noise and the odd clipped spike...

@Karlos

Exactly. This noise is not from hissy analog components, it's digital noise.

I recorded this sample using a patched AHI driver from user m3x as a test. The audio is actually also playing back faster than it is supposed to compared to the original song along with being noisy.

I chose this song for two reasons: It has a quiet intro, and it was released in the 1990s so the CD that it came from was not dynamically compressed to within an inch of its life. I think these two factors make it very easier to hear the distortions.

Recorded from SAM audio output to the line level input of my USB Creative XMod. Program used to capture was Audacity. Converted to AAC using Fre:ac.

@royleith
Everything else other than the main one was to the minimum, so no difference heard.

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@Everblue

The other comments sound as though the driver is not configuring the chip correctly. IIRC it is a CMedia chip which can also be used in cards with digital inputs and I assume it needs unused circuitry to be disabled by the config in order to mute electronic mush.

As other commenters say, pass the problem back to the suppliers telling them all the measures you have taken to get rid of the noise.

Roy Leith

@royleith

Thanks, I told them I need this fixed, but they are trying to fix it via an audio driver update of some sort.

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@Everblue

I think a revised audio driver is what is needed to configure the chip correctly. It sounds like they know what they need to do.

Roy Leith

FWIW, I finally "solved" the SAM460 sound hiss and other problems by side-stepping the whole issue with an alternative card.

It means that my SAM460 now has the HDD plugged into the motherboard, and that it then lacks DMA. It also means I can't use the optical drive.

But working sound more then make up for both of these! I have no need for a optical drive, except perhaps for booting and reinstalls etc And the lack of DMA is surprisingly not a problem; I still get about 8MB/s out of the SATA HDD and I don't really notice much difference in normal use (opening programs etc). I guess copying big files about the place would be slower, but hohum.

The soundcard is a EMU10K, soundblaster something or other, and it works great. I can now (finally) enjoy MP3s, emulated old amiga games, and old MODs. Am finally happy with my setup, at least sound wise. ;)

It would, of course, be great if the sound driver could be fixed, but I don't really see it happening.... Another cool thing would be to find a working soundcard that used the single channel PCIe slot, thus freeing up the PCI slot for the 4 port SATA card.

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Blog

@Aslak3

You can get USB optical drive, so you don't need to be whit out.

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http://lifeofliveforit.blogspot.no/
Facebook::LiveForIt Software for AmigaOS

@Aslak3

the root cause of the audio issue has been identified, and there will be a statement on our website in a "few" hours on how to solve it.

About a PCIe solution for the 1x slot, has been reported to us the ESI Juli@ XTE card works correctly with current AHI drivers.

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Massimiliano Tretene, ACube Systems, Soft3