I have a 2.1 Creative speaker system. While I'm happy with the sound quality, there's a small amount of noise or cracking sound being produced when the speakers are not in use (ie. no audio being played). What's causing this and how do I fix it?
I've read this question, and it's definitely not the same problem. One thing I've noticed is that it happens when I switch from Avast to a different antivirus, which makes me think it might be a software problem.
Best Answer
Besides eliminating interference, another suggestion:
Turn down the sound card/chipset volume from 100% to 75%.
Turn down inputs to the sound card/chipset from 100% to 75%.
Then, use the speaker's amplifier to compensate for any deficit in listening volume.
Why does this work? Amplifiers amplify, and when there is no useful sound to amplify, they will amplify noise. By turning down the sensitivity of their inputs and the volume of their outputs a bit, you'll cut the noise a lot.
In addition, it may improve your audio sound quality. When everything is set at or near 100%, a form of distortion called clipping occurs. This is when the tops and bottoms of sine-like waves get cut off flat, because they exceed the capacity of the amplifier (or sensitivity of the pre-amp inputs, etc). The result looks more like a square wave than a sine wave and sounds more like a square wave, too.