[Ardour-Users] Noise when downloading files

[Ralf Mardorf]

At first I would check, if continuity, especially shield of the whole
chain is intact. Especially check breakout crap. My RME card's breakout
cable jack soldering joints are coated with hot glue at delivery, but
this doesn't protect against damage of the cables or just against dirt
and corrosion. The rear of a tower PC might be inaccessible for regular
care. In my experiences T{,R}S jacks and sockets often don't match very
good. Time for another RME rant, since the breakout cable does provide
XLR from Neutrik, but TRS from elCheapo. To be fair, audio gear of
other companies often suffers from low quality manufacturing. I had
Behringer gear with analog XLR IOs that suffered from hum noise at
delivery, Behringer repaired it, but since it is repair, a jog wheel of
that device can't be used anymore, because it jams in the chassis.
Ready to use cables and ready to use gear often aren't ready to use,
actually they tend to be partial pre-built assembly kits.

In former times the analog domain often suffered from op-amp
random noise, but without fulfilling ISO 9000, gear usually was well
manufactured. Nowadays op-amps are from better quality, but lousy
manufacturing that does fulfil ISO 9000, as well as some new
technology, such as SMPS, are the cause of {EMC,}troubles.