Soundcard Output Levels

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MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

Topic # 30636 16-Feb-2009 12:48

I have been trying to measure the voltage coming out of our soundcard.

Is a VIA mini-ITX EPIA-CL with Onboard Audio - VIA VT1612A 2 channel AC97 Codec

Had a technician out to one of our remote sites and said the output is measuring less than 10 millivolts so i wanted to compare with one in the office.

Went and bought a Digital Multimeter from DSE (cheap one) but i dont think its sensitive enough to read the output.

What is the average output from soundcards? is >10 millivolts normal? or should we be replacing the PC?

Have googled everything but didnt turn much up...

ESGold

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 197257 22-Feb-2009 12:49

without knowing your OS:

You'de think a new card might be more frugal than an entire new box.

Think about it!

MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 198701 2-Mar-2009 09:14

Well... a replacement soundcard would be the option; if the only free SLOT on the MINI-ITX wasnt already being used by the modem...

and surely the operating system would have nothing to do with the amount of power coming out of the sound card???

grant_k

3535 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 125

Trusted

Reply # 198707 2-Mar-2009 09:54

MallAudio:Went and bought a Digital Multimeter from DSE (cheap one) but i dont think its sensitive enough to read the output.
What is the average output from soundcards? is >10 millivolts normal? or should we be replacing the PC?

A Digital Multimeter will be of little value in measuring audio signals unless you have a single frequency tone at a constant level e.g. 800Hz or 1kHz are commonly used for measurements.

If you are trying to guess at the peak level of speech or music, an oscilloscope is the best tool to use. If you can't get your hands on a real one, there are various virtual oscilloscope programs which use a PC's Soundcard as an Analogue to Digital converter to display the signal on your monitor.

According to this info:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg/RECORDING-FAQ.htm#S3_Input_Line_Level_Signals

The Line Level Output signal from a PC Sound Card can be up to 2V RMS. I expect that would be with all the controls wound up to absolute max. In typical operation, you are probably looking at a signal in the 100s of mV range.