Yesterday, while still getting aquainted with the ESU1808, i wasn’t paying too much attention to background noise. However, I was still aware of a ground loop caused by the laptop which was particularly evident when the monitor levels were above 12Oclock. Today i investigated further.
Maybe I had fresh ears, but it seemed worse this morning. Although I knew the source was the laptop, I thought the solution might be in the cabling. So I switched around a few balanced/unbalanced connections. Interestingly, the FS1R was a major contributor to the ground hum. Even so, unplugging the laptop always killed the hum, so I knew I had to deal with it.
Step one was to go out and buy a power conditioner / surge protector strip with in-built interference filter. No improvement.
Step two…. I ‘lifted the ground’ on the laptop plug and – voila – problem solved. Must find a safer alterative.
Next I checked the s/pdif connection from the XL-7 into the 1808. Input is detected and the signal is surprisingly strong. Only problem – ASIO4ALL doesn’t recognize the s/pdif inputs or outputs of the 1808 🙁
This could be because the digital switch is in the ESI control panel, and not on the hardware. Need to work on it….mail sent to ESI support.