STE SOUND DAC CRACKLE & POP FIX - Discussion thread

[exxos]

Strange the LS chips did not work but well worth knowing anyway. Could literally just be they are not fast enough.

I would surmise that the STE is more of a ground bounce problem and the MSTE has more noise on the data lines by the sounds of it, pardon the pun





BTW - I have fixed your image as we do not support hot linking to external sites, so please bear that in mind

[complicated]

Strange the LS chips did not work but well worth knowing anyway. Could literally just be they are not fast enough.

I would surmise that the STE is more of a ground bounce problem and the MSTE has more noise on the data lines by the sounds of it, pardon the pun





BTW - I have fixed your image as we do not support hot linking to external sites, so please bear that in mind

Well this fix is your fix too. You suggested this when i last posted in this forum about my Mega STE DMA sound issues. However this is quite fiddly soldering so nothing you wish to do every day, thats why i did it last

Anyway a lot of thanks to you Exxos for all the tips and feel free to use my image on your site as a suggestion/tip for Mega STE users.

[rubber_jonnie]

This is something I have been looking at following up on, but due to family issues, it has fallen by the wayside, and my MSTE is quite complicated to extract from it's permanent setup location.

I'll try this potential solution when I am able to get back to it and have a bit more time outside my other ongoing projects, of which there are too many.

[DementED]

The original fix solved the crackling audio on my 1040 STE. Thanks again, @exxos!

[exxos]

The original fix solved the crackling audio on my 1040 STE. Thanks again, @exxos!

[stween]

A simple solution is to solder some wires as short and as direct as illustrated by the white wires in the image below. A typical 1amp hook-up wire is fine. It does not make any difference if it is solid or stranded. But should be of a reasonable thickness at least.

CRACKFIX.jpg

Here only to add: I just put this fix in one of my STEs and: instant fix.

The STE in question has the same high pitched noise that all my STEs have had; the sort of high pitched noise that seems clearest during long periods of RAM access. (I can listen to the RAM test on booting TOS 2.06, for example.) Is the beta fix listed here still the best fix? That page mentions the PSU as a contributing factor, but this machine whistles along whether it's a recapped original or an RD-50A.

[Steve]

A simple solution is to solder some wires as short and as direct as illustrated by the white wires in the image below. A typical 1amp hook-up wire is fine. It does not make any difference if it is solid or stranded. But should be of a reasonable thickness at least.

CRACKFIX.jpg

Here only to add: I just put this fix in one of my STEs and: instant fix.

The STE in question has the same high pitched noise that all my STEs have had; the sort of high pitched noise that seems clearest during long periods of RAM access. (I can listen to the RAM test on booting TOS 2.06, for example.) Is the beta fix listed here still the best fix? That page mentions the PSU as a contributing factor, but this machine whistles along whether it's a recapped original or an RD-50A.

I use the crackle-fix listed above in combination with exxos's DAC noise pcb, makes my STe sound crackle & whine free!

[exxos]

Is the beta fix listed here still the best fix?

Yep.

There are other things I wanted to try, but nobody wanted to do the legwork to take the investigation future.