Noise and Proximity

[zenpmd]

Are there certain components that should be moved well away from your DAC and amp? My wireless router is right next to it and I am concerned that it is causing some noise. Is it? What else causes noise?

 

Thanks

[esldude]

Well, you could test some of it yourself.

 

Feed your DAC output to your analog input on the computer soundcard. Record either silence or a simple sine wave test signal. Look at the result in Audacity using the FFT. You'll have a picture of the noise floor.

 

Turn off the router and repeat.

 

See any difference in the noise floor?

 

Now admittedly there could be other interactions that wouldn't show up in this test. But any that did alter the 20-20khz noise floor certainly are base level effects you need to take care of.

 

If you do see a difference, you can repeat the test by moving the router or your components and see if you can make the interference go away. Sometimes a few inches makes it disappear or even a 90 degree rotation may drop the effect down in level if you are picking up noise.

 

Now having looked at this sort of thing some with a couple systems, I would as a precaution keep the router at least 18 inches away from the rest of the system.

[wgscott]

I noticed that if I put a $10 cheesy cell phone near my Audioengine A2 speakers, I get a lot of static.

[sandyk]

Some valve amplifiers are particularly susceptible to cell phone interference.