Sound distortion with speakers

[Bastila Shan]

Speakers: sound blaster x kratos s5 2.1.

I had sound distortion that occasionally happened when playing a game or watching YouTube, usually turning the speakers off and back on again fixed it.

I bought a 4K monitor and the sound distortion was happening frequently and I had no idea why.

I reinstalled the firmware and that seems to have fixed it, haven’t had an issue since.

My question is why was this happening? And why was it worse with my new monitor?

[Kaihekoa]

Do you mean sound distortion at high volume levels or something more like crackling and popping or buzzing regardless of the volume? If it's the latter, that is interference from other electromagnetic singals in the PC and can be fixed by using an external DAC. If it's actual distortion at higher volume levels, then it's probably caused by a low quality, integrated sound card. That can be fixed with an external DAC or a good sound card like the Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5.

[Bastila Shan]

It seemed more like a buzzing type sound, my system is new and the mobo has decent onboard sound. It happened more frequently when I upgraded my 27” monitor to a 31” 4K.

Everything’s running on one power board though don’t know if that has something to do with it

[Kaihekoa]

Running everything off the same surge protector/power switch won't cause problems. If it's a buzzing sound, that's an indicator of EM interference from other electronic devices. I'd recommend trying a digital to analog converter (DAC) to see if that sorts out the problem. If you don't want to spend money, try these suggestions at identifying and eliminating the interference: https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/210293145-How-to-Resolve-Ground-Loop-Issues-Humming-and-Buzzing-Sounds

DACs: https://www.fabathome.org/best-dac/

[Monk]

It's interference or a sign the speakers amp / volume / mixer etc is dieing, had similar issues in the past, if messing with the volume / wiggling cables can fix it. Something has gone kaput or is on the way out, how old are the speakers and I you blast them full volume often?

[Bastila Shan]

Originally posted by Monk:

It's interference or a sign the speakers amp / volume / mixer etc is dieing, had similar issues in the past, if messing with the volume / wiggling cables can fix it. Something has gone kaput or is on the way out, how old are the speakers and I you blast them full volume often?

They’re brand new. And I don’t blast them full volume

[Monk]

Interference or a bad connection then most likely, double check all connections and if possible try running it off a separate socket, audio can be a finickity sob to sort, more so than anything else Ive found over the years, be it a £60 or £2k setup it seems to always have gremlins.