I used to hear tv tubes, power supplies and all sorts of high frequency noise. These days I mostly just hear tinnitus. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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My monitor has a power led that blinks when in stand by (and not receiving a signal.
And the coil whine between the onn/off-switching is audible.
I used to hear this...back when I was in my 20s π
Same I used to be able to tell when my boss shorted his board by the sound of the power supply going into overregulation. Now it's just eeeeee all the time.
Yes. On a side note: do not buy hp printers they are really bad for their power supplies.
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I can't hear it but I can often tell when it clicks over because it causes a spike in my tinnitus.
I have tennis and can still hear the noise. Itβs weird. I have that background noise but I can still separate it from the other sounds around me. I actually went to do an audio test recently and had perfect hearing except I that I also hear extra things. Annoying as hell.
I used to hear all these sounds, but I'm 40 now so I don't hear them anymore.
43 years old here. I can still hear it. I think I put about 10-15 chargers in the bin because of the noise. I also really hate those anti-mosquito ultrasone emittors people put in their yards. I can hear them whenever I walk around the neighborhood.
Do you remember when you could hear text messages over your speakers before getting the on-phone alert?
Yup, I remember that π
Freaking Nokias man... haha
And it was these speakers
They may not look very nice, but at least they didn't sound very good.
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I did when I was younger but I don't hear it since I hit around 30
Since I got older this got better. One benefit I guess?
Coil whine ? Yup. They told me it would go away as I got older and lost range of hearing. Still waiting for that.
Edit: typo
the moment I could bearly hear an old CRT when a younger friend winced in pain, I knew I was old
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I just remembered that the Dell docking station Iβm using makes a sound when it processes data. I can literally hear my mouse move.
Donβt buy Dell.
FFS, that's what that sound at work is...
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Yes and it drives me bonkers. I've had to leave rooms because the noise was just too loud
I hear some of them. There's a real cheap one my parents got with a security camera thats real loud to me, but they don't hear it.
Even past 30 and with (mild) tinnitus, yeah my hearing is still great so I'm going to hear it. Light bulbs, chargers, the router etc.
Recently my computer's PSU has started randomly buzzing a not-quite-high frequency. It could be age (it's from 2019) though I'm pretty sure it's some kind of interference because sometimes it won't make any noise at all for days and I'm pretty sure my light bulb (an LED filament bulb which doesn't have much in the way of components) seems to also make different pitches of buzzing that coordinates with how much my computer PSU will buzz.
Anyways it bothers me, so as soon as I post this I'm going to power-down and unplug my computer and switch to a different device for the next day or so.
The switching frequency is usually set by a small capacitor that is on the mains auxiliary power circuit. This may degrade depending on what kind of capacitor was used. There is also a small electrolytic capacitor that smooths the auxiliary power for the chip itself. If this capacitor degrades too much, it can cause some switching frequency stability issues too.
My current laptop supply sounds about like R2D2 when my GPU is running full tilt and I'm maxed out on 18 of 20 cores with AI.
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Everyone with fully functioning ears can hear it if they pay attention. Just a reminder to protect your hearing!
Inside your ear are hair cells that detect sound. You're born with the only hair cells you'll ever have, and damage to them is irreparable. Hair cells naturally sustain damage over time and people's hearing decreases as they age. This process is accelerated if someone constantly listens to things at loud volumes. So, maybe don't turn it up to 11!
We have a VR system set up in our living room. I don't even want to talk about how long it took me to figure out the receivers were making a steady, high pitched noise. There are 4 of them and they are situated near the ceiling.
I hear it from a lot of things when it's quiet enough. Clock radios, tvs, monitors, my pugmill, heaters. There was a noisy power strip with a flashing one-off switch that I'm still convinced was going to kill someone.
I DON'T know anything about electricity - so mostly it makes me anxious that my house is going to burn down. I have bad enough hearing loss that I have to use closed captions on my TV - but it IS mostly because deep voices are extremely muddled. I'm surprised a bit by how many "not really" answers I see.
I still don't get why the lighthouses can't be turned on/off via SteamVR. There's no reason they should stay running if I'm not actively in VR, and with the amount of noise they create, I have to imagine it's negatively impacting their lifespan.
One of these days, I'll get a smart plug for them, but I really shouldn't need to imo.
You can.
You have to enable Bluetooth in the SteamVR Settings, and they'll automatically turn off when you quit VR, and back in when you start it up again. Only downside is (at least for me) when you don't use it for a longer time the connection seems to drop, and they won't turn on automatically anymore. But nothing that can't be fixed with a quick un- and replug
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I leave mine unplugged. It would be nice if they would turn off.
Well the flashing light is just a tiny low current neon tube that can't hurt anything. The main thing to worry about with power strips is that they securely hold the connectors in place and not overloading them with more than their rated power, and the power of the circuit they are attached to in your home.
Switching power supplies for cheap consumer stuff are usually operating in the 20-30 kilohertz range. This is just outside of the audible range. What you are hearing is usually the windings or powder ferrite core of the miniature transformer physically vibrating. The audible sound is likely some lower order harmonic resonant peak that is in the audible range.
At the manufacturing level, the frequency of switching can be tuned to avoid unwanted noise, and the magnetics can be potted in a resin or other techniques used to dampen the vibrations. If you build your own power supplies like I have, they tend to make a lot more noise at the first prototype stage.
It's all Science Magic to me. I am continuously thrilled that the world is filled with people who are much smarter and more curious than I am.
I'll sleep a little better knowing the quiet strip flickering under my aquarium isn't a ticking time-bomb though.
Yes, but a bit less as I've aged probably because the higher frequency hearing we have starts to diminish the older we get.
My friends and I used to drive out to an area of the desert, away from people and the general noise of civilization. However, there were large power transmission lines going through the area and we could listen to them crackle in the night as we watched the stars. Just a nice way to relax and get away from it all.
I don't think I own anything that makes noise like that anymore, but we used to have a big TV a few years ago that I could tell was on or off from the other side of the wall.
E: I just remembered that my speakers sometimes make noise if I listen at a certain angle and last week I heard someone's iPhone charger make a ringing noise while sitting on the socket so I disconnected it.
I canβt of anything that makes an unwanted sound. Old CRT TVs used to, but I havenβt used one in years. My monitor at work makes a sound when it turns on or off (I believe thereβs an ass-old fuse in there), but it makes no sound otherwise.
Iβm still young and hear very well, as exemplified by my annoyance of half-closed bottles of carbonated drinks, which do make a sound.
I did a lot of stuff with CRTβs during βRona and man sometimes that whine just pierced my ears - my dog (RIP love ya bud) would just look at me and slowly walk off every time lol
Ugh. Now you got me thinking about hearing my heart beats.
Next you'll start seeing your nose
(Sorry)
Yes
When my monitor is on stand-by the led slowly blinks and every time it turns on I can hear it. Aside from that, I don't think so.
Yes, and CRTs as well.