[Phaenius]

Yeah right, my home is in the middle of a WWII battle...

[Phaenius]

jaclaz, on 26 January 2013 - 08:28 AM, said:

JFYI, whenever you read "lightning protection" you can be sure that it won't protect anything from an actual lightning.

Isn't the statement also true for cleaning and protection of electronic contacts ?

[jaclaz]

Phaenius, on 26 January 2013 - 08:51 AM, said:

Isn't the statement also true for cleaning and protection of electronic contacts ?

Not really.

I was talking of physics impossibilities.

You see, a lightning is by definition a burst of voltage ranging in the several hundred thousands/millions volts range.

It actually strikes because of this voltage being far superior to the dielectric properties of air.

Electricity (just like water and most natural forces) tend to have an implicit , built in, Occam's Razor and will flow following the easier path.

When something really high voltage is flowing down a conductor (a cable in this case) you cannot stop it UNLESS the length of the whatever you attempt using for stopping it and it's insulation with respect to the media (air) in which it is immersed has so high dielectric properties as to avoid making an arc outside that *whatever* (or there is an easier way to ground).

Will it stop a marginal surge due to a lightning strike in the vicinity?
Possibly yes.
Will it stop an actual lightining strike?
NO, no chance.

Have you ever seen with your own eyes (not in a picture/video) a CAT 777? (or driven it? )
Do you have an idea of how big, heavy, sturdy, tough it is?

Try stopping the lightning that did this to one of them:
http://www.miningmay...ike-on-777.html

jaclaz

[Phaenius]

I was referring as both could be dust in the eyes of potential buyers so that various companies to make a buck or two.

[nitroshift]

I'm afraid I will have to step in and put a stop to the off-topic messages.


@Phaenius:

I would STRONGLY recommend you to take the PC to a service.


nitroshift

[Phaenius]

Risking responding off topic, but that would be the worst decision on all accounts. They will only advice me to replace the sound card, physically abuse the unit, look in my data on HDDs, keep the PC for weeks in the service and me not been able to use it. And on top of those inconveniences, I will be charged top bucks. And for what ? I build the PC, I definitely know how to replace the card. They won't do more.

[jaclaz]

Phaenius, on 26 January 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

I was referring as both could be dust in the eyes of potential buyers so that various companies to make a buck or two.

Yep , and I was referring to the fact that they are two completely different examples.

In the case of anything advertised as "contact cleaner", it WILL clean contacts (BUT there may exist more cheap products/chemicals that can clean contacts AS WELL or even BETTER).

In the case of anything advertised as "lightning protection", it WON'T actually protect from an actual lightning strike (AND there is NO way on earth that you can protect something connected to a cable from a lightning strike on the cable).

I hope you can see the differences.

jaclaz

[Phaenius]

Off topic

Bruce Almighty can deflect lightnings.

On topic

OK, did some testings. Card sounds the same as before and this time tested only from the rear, since the front panel isn't working now. But I suspect to be a power related problem of some kind, because I did the following test:

I generated 2 sine wave forms, from 2 different sources. When low frequencies (who I don't know why, but it seems are eating a lot of power compared to mid and/or high frequencies) are generated, medium and high frequencies are proportionally reduced to the amount of bass I am generating. I left white noise on one source and varied the bass on the other source. The lower the frequencies and the bigger the volume, the higher the reduction on white noise. This is true for single sine wave forms generated above 1 KHz. The total dB from the two outputs seem added on the VU-meter, but low frequencies are there, the mid and high ones are heavily reduced. That explains why on "heavy" music passages, with a lot of instruments, channels and powerful bass, the mids and highs are reduces and thus the "capping". It's annoying because it I have a classical guitar with a dude singing, everything is ok. If bass is outputted on top of that, the guitar and voice is greatly reduced. Some music are like that and I can't do nothing to avoid it. In your opinion, why is this happening ? Is it a power problem ?

[bphlpt]

Don't I remember you saying that the sound card had an extra power connector that you have not connected because you felt sure that the card could pull enough power from the main card-edge connector? Try connecting the extra power connector and see what happens.

Good testing by the way.

Cheers and Regards

[Phaenius]

When I will open the computer again (since the surgeon left a tool inside - in this case forgot to plug the front panel power), I will supply the card with an additional line. This is not required, but since it's there, why not take advantage of it ?

[nitroshift]

Phaenius, on 27 January 2013 - 10:34 AM, said:

When I will open the computer again (since the surgeon left a tool inside - in this case forgot to plug the front panel power), I will supply the card with an additional line. This is not required, but since it's there, why not take advantage of it ?

Manufacturers are all well-known for putting extra connectors on their cards just because they can

nitroshift

[jaclaz]

nitroshift, on 27 January 2013 - 12:27 PM, said:

Manufacturers are all well-known for putting extra connectors on their cards just because they can

...as well as Horny Mike puts horns everywhere...
http://www.hornymike.com/

in the case of Phaenius there is no need to add them, as they (some horns I mean) will grow spontaneously out of boredom over the time he will be able to fix (or replace ) that sound card/system.

jaclaz

[nitroshift]

I wonder whether Phaenius has got it working yet...


nitroshift

[bphlpt]

I wonder as well. You could always offer to stop by and give him a hand if you are ever in the neighborhood.

Cheers and Regards

[Phaenius]

I didn't want to post anything until I am sure to have solved everything or at least addressed every issue in the final way (I mean to assure nothing can be done without replacing the card). But, since you wonder I will paste an answer written a few days ago:

I think I managed to solve the "capping" problem. It might have been a clipping problem after all.

Possible reasons:

1. Sound card's output level is too high for the input of active speakers' amplifier to handle and, at "rich" sound and powerful bass, it simply ran out of power to amplify. Volume knob handles the level of amplifying, the power given towards speakers, they don't have an input level volume, they take what it's given and, in this case, a too high volume from the sound card.

2. I read somewhere that input impedance of an amplifier must be a few times higher than output impedance of a line out. If not, amplifier can "short" the output (in a way) and this could mean a power drop.

The solution:

I set the sound card volume lower and active speaker's volume higher. At the moment, active speakers' volume knob is set at about 70%, Winamp is set at 70% volume (both fixed values) and I only adjust the volume from the sound card's output. From 0% to 30% I get reach and powerful bass in any circumstances and sound doesn't "cap" anymore. At least one problem solved. At least I hope, I did almost a week of intensive testing and it works ok.

Still, there is the matter of front panel to solve. I plugged to power cable but still no connection to the front panel. I hope I didn't break anything somehow. When I will open the computer again, I will replace my new "suppa-duppa" cable with the original one, hope it will solve the problem.

Lastly, there is the problem of "metallic" sound. Well, at speakers I don't sense it anymore, but that was detected mostly in the headphones. During my limited testing when computer was open and front panel was working I noticed an improvement listening to headphones as well, but this could have been something that lasted shortly. Have to do extensive testing as well, when I will (hopefully) make the front panel to work.