UR 22 Phantom Power Noise

Oh wow, I had it all wrong.
For some reason I had it in my head that the UR22 was powered with an adapter!
I’m running the UR28M, maybe that’s why I assumed this, sorry.
I understand though, the unit must be attached directly to the computers USB port, being Bus powered, the loading effect of other devices could be significant.
Do you have any other peripherals attached via USB?

  • Any effect by removing them if possible?
    
  • Any effect by connecting the other USB peripherie via a powered hub?
    

Any improvement when running the laptop powered from mains?
If you deinstall the driver, then reinstall, connecting the UR22 to a different physical USB port socket, does this alleviate the problem?
I all fails you might report the actual USB subsystem chipset manufacturer.

One of the conveniences of the UR 22 that I noticed is that there is no power supply. I’ve been used to having to plug most electronics in via the wall wart.

The noise is generated at various USB ports from my lap top. I’ve been running the UR 22 with no other devices connected. It is, however, interesting that you mentioned running my computer with main power. I’ve been running it with battery power. I’ll attempt with wall adapter. Thanks.

Where I’m at in trouble shooting the phantom power noise is my microphone. I’m in the process of purchasing a new condenser. From there I’ll determine if the noise was being generated by a defective condenser microphone.

Hi,

Steinberg Support answered me that with the only one returned unit for this reason of noise, they did tests on multiple machines and don’t have the problem… They said that in similar cases they had seen, including other brands, the cause is usually on a specific system and caused by computer’s USB power system.

If could be an USB power issue, why some customers did the same tests with other brands USB-powered interfaces and there was absolutely no noise? Only happens with UR22… Maybe UR22 requires a best USB power than the other brands.

Have you tried on others desktop and laptops?

Yes, I have tried it on my main Desktop DAW, that I use with my UR824 and the issue is still there. My main DAW has USB 3.0 ports and USB 2 and is more than capable of powering the UR22.

If the issue is noise generated by the laptop, then why is the hum completely absent if I use battery power to power a pencil condenser microphone instead of the UR22s phantom power?

I filed for a return today and will be getting a refund. I’ll wait a while and let the user reviews roll in and let the hype die down before deciding if I will buy another one. If they are blaming the consumers for problems with their hardware, the user reviews are going to show it.
I bought the UR22 based on how satisfied I have been with the UR824 and thought it would make an excellent portable addition to my studio. Seems I was wrong.

I’ve had zero issues powering other devices with my Toshiba laptop (Core i3, 4GB RAM), such as Wacom Intous4 graphics tablets, external hard drives, charging phones etc.

Blaming the customers hardware is pretty poor practice. It doesn’t fill me with confidence or make me want to get a replacement unit, especially when there are other units that apparently don’t exhibit this problem on the systems that do have it with the UR22.

If that’s the case, especially for desktop PCs (and even Laptops), I would pay particular attention to the PC PSU.
Budget PSUs are an ailment to audio PCs - introducing ripple noise harmonics and shortening the life of components (Can you say D e _ _ or H _).
Higher quality active power correction +80% PSUs are the only ones I use in desktops. There are budget power
bricks available for Laptops with inferior components that will not provide stable power day-in & day-out.
60 cycle hum filtered for your listening pleasure!

I always test the output voltages on all new PSUs; e.g. 5v output (+/-) 5% = 4.75v to 5.25%. But, that’s just one part to be concerned over. A PSU is as important as a Preamp in today’s digital world.

By the way, how many mA supports the computers USB power you tried the UR22? My laptop has 500mA.

Do you know the UR22 mA maximum consumption? I did not found on UR22 specs web page, there is not this info.

To anyone having this hum issue, try this just out of curiosity (if you haven’t already)…

On Windows 7 based systems (no idea about Mac) go to your control panel, then go to ‘power options’, then ‘edit plan settings’, then click ‘change advanced power settings’.

A dialogue box will open in a new window called ‘power options’, open the branch ‘USB settings’, then the branch ‘USB selective suspend setting’.

Here it should have two options, one is ‘on battery’ and the other is ‘plugged in’, set both (or just ‘plugged in’) to ‘disabled’.

Also, go to the branch PCI Express, open it, then open ‘link state power management’ and set it to disabled as well on ‘plugged in’.

You can also set ‘turn off hard disk’ to ‘never’ by entering the value of ‘0’.

The lack of specs always keep us guessing, but I will say this. A 24. buck laptop power supply has the same specs as a
124. buck version but that is probably where the similarity ends. Quality is different in several ways. HP will charge a lot for a 24 buck power converter/inverter, but the only interest toward the end user is, will this system safely
get past the warranty period.

The hum is there regardless of whether the laptop power supply is connected or not. Basically, as long as you have phantom power engaged, and drive the pre-amp more than half way, there is hum.

If you drive the pre-amp to it’s maximum the hum is -10db of gain. -20db of gain 3/4 full. That’s unusable.

Any and everything along this line is a step in the right direction. Just like disabling sound in the BIOS and
stopping Windows search service.

I’ve found each system has it’s own quirks and peculiarities. Of course, you may be looking at a problem with the UR22, or a combination of things. I guess doing all we can on our end and having an awareness of difficulties we may face gives us a leg up. Our UR22 has only been used with a dynamic mic, so I can’t relate any more than my experience along that line. Sorry.

Mine works fine with a dynamic mic as well. Completely silent. You should really try it with a condenser mic of some kind, or a few different ones.

After trying each of my mics, each one suffers from the hum, but the larger diaphragm mics seem to suffer the worst.

I am wondering if USB bus power is really the issue here, if a mains powered USB hub might solve the problem?

I think I would try that as long as the hub is properly powered, but I don’t know much about USB hubs - maybe they
are buss powered.

I hate that I can’t DI the one guitar I wanted to through the UR824. I’ll have to mic the amp for that one.
I haven’t DI-ed the UR22 yet. I guess it’s hard to get one device to do everything. I wish that wasn’t so.

I suppose that would be a 50 Hz Euro hum and a 60 Hz Americano type. That reminds that a monitor in the vicinity
can cause problems. 60 Hz (+) 60 Hz (+) 60 Hz (x) amplified.

I wonder if a power conditioner would solve this?

I wouldn’t fixate completely on the power supply, there are different chipsets from a number of manufacturers which comprise the USB subsystem (TI (Texas Instruments) are one of the most common used), and some of these chipsets are known for causing problems with certain peripherals. This is perhaps an unknown problem hence the reason I mentioned before that you might try and find out which chipset is used in your PC/Laptop, and report this here or at least to Steinberg Service.

I think that USB peripherals problems due to some chipsets are more about data speed issues than the power. Still, I agree that it is valid to report here the computer chipset model which problem occurs.

On UR22, seems to be a problem related to insufficient power when the Phantom Power is turned on. All the rest works fine.

My 2 rode M3 microphones produce a hum working on phantom power, using a battery works fine.
My dynamic phone is operating fine.
It must be a design problem of the UR22.
What is Steinberg going to do about this problem?

Hi, rodipoet.

What is your computer? Laptop x desktop? Do you know the chipset model? Have you tried on others desktop and laptops?

Steinberg Support answered me that with the only one returned unit with this noise issue, they did tests on multiple machines and don’t have the problem… They said that in similar cases they had seen - including other brands - the cause is usually on a specific system and caused by computer’s USB power system.

I also think that must be a design problem, maybe related to insufficient power only when the Phantom Power is activated.

My desktop asus p5k with an Intel P35/ICH9 chipset.
The problem exists only in phantom power mode. :frowning:

Although people often choose to ignore this when I mention it, It can sometimes help by plugging into different USB sockets (and in this case de-reinstalling the driver. You see the various USB ports are generally controlled with different interrupts (IRQs) and depending on what these are shared with, can often be a source of noise, also some ports (often those on the front of the computer) are established with an expansion module, which runs a cable from a connector on the MB to the module - this cable can pick up induced noise.
There’s no guarantee this port switching will work, but it’s worth a try.
Unfortunately the motherboard manuals rarely go into detail these days regarding the manufacturer of the actual chips used on them (we’re not referring to the proverbial “chipset” usually referenced in the manual - this has more to do with the BIOs, and nothing to do with the USB subarchitecture. This can then only be done by visual inspection of the chips themselves on the board, they will usually be in the vicinity of the actual USB risers. Best to get someone familiar with computers on a hardware level to check this.