[LAU] debugging hiss

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 05:39:08PM +0530, Rustom Mody wrote:

> Of late I am getting some amount of hiss from my speakers.
> I believe its a software problem because it is absent at startup and
> audibly starts sometime during the boot process.
> 
> My system is fairly vanilla h/w -- ordinary Intel desktop with builtin
> soundcard, ordinary speakers.
> 
> The only non-vanilla things maybe some things I installed when playing
> around with a TASCAM

How on earth can anybody help you if you give so little information.

* Do you have active speakers (built-in amplifier) or is there an
amplifier in between the sound card and the speakser ? If so, which
input are you using ? How are things connected ?

* Using ALSA/Jack/Pulse ??

* TASCAM is a brand name. They are hundreds if not thousands of
different things with that name on it. So what is 'a TASCAM',
and what did you install for playing around ?

Apart from that, hiss is usually the result of either

- something broken,
- or using the wrong inputs,
- or a volume control set too high.

Another cause could be the mic inputs of your sound card 
routed to the outputs. Check the mixer.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

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It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris
and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow)