VOX amPlug 2 Bass Headphone Amp

I finally got one of these. When I connect the AUX cable to my computer, I get more buzz than I can tolerate. Would putting a ferrite bead on the AUX cable correct this problem?

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I got one of these recently and the buzz is pretty rough. The only way I’ve found to reduce it is by taking the tone control on it all the way down to 1, which stinks that I lose the option of tone control. Please let me know if you do find a better fix.

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Same here. Tone control on 1 and volume on 10 to be able to hear it very well. I wasn’t expecting much from it other than convenience but this buzz makes it unusable for me.

I’m hoping one of our tech wizards can give me some tips or it’s going back.

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Hmm, I didn’t have that issue. I mean it wasn’t perfect but it was still usable. Are you running the line from a line out or headphone out?

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It’s a headphone out on my laptop.

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Interesting. I was running mine from a line out on my soundcard.

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I was pretty surprised by this. I’ve never had a problem using headphones so I didn’t think this would even be an issue.

Having headphones connected to the amPlug doesn’t cause any buzz.
Connecting the Bass doesn’t cause any buzz.
It’s only when I add the aux cable connection from laptop to amPlug.
Also, if I touch the laptop while the aux cable is plugged in the buzz almost completely disappears.

Does any of that reveal anything?

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Ahh, yeah, sounds like a grounding issue.

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Is the aux cable shielded?
I have a Vox Amplug 2 as well and I don’t have any buzzing when I use it.

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I got my vox (bass option) 2 days ago and I boxed it back after the 1st attempt to use it! The buzz on my headphones was just killing me. I plan to return it today.
@eric.kiser was it the bass option you got?
I’d be watching this tread for a few days to see if there’s any solution b4 I send that thing back.

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I have the same issue with mine. That frequent buzz all the time when the tone is not set to 0.

Tracking this post to see if someone found a solution for that.

PS.: I have the same problem with both active and passive basses.

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Yes, I made sure of that when I got it.

Yeah, though I had to double check when you asked. :rofl:

I checked through all the fixes for that and it seems like the only things I’m going to be able to do are either send it back and get something else or try one of those ferrite beads on the aux cable.

I’m going out to get the ferrite bead on Monday. I’ll post here about the results.

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Try it with a phone and see if it buzzes. If it doesn’t, try it with the unplugged laptop on battery.

What I think is happening is that with the floating ground on the bass/amplug, when you plug it in to the laptop, the only path it has to real ground is over the ground connection in the audio cable going in to the aux in, and you are picking this up as noise.

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Yes, If the laptop is unplugged then the buzz goes away.

However, my laptop is pretty old and the battery is pretty dead. It shuts down hard within 60 seconds of having it unplugged. So, I have to look for some other solution.

For everybody with an amPlug 2 for Bass, the device has 3 modes: green, orange, red.

When it turns on, it’s on green and you can click the button again to cycle through the options. It sounds like three different gain stages with each one providing less gain than the last. You get less noise but you also get less volume.

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This makes a ton of sense. I get the buzz when using my phone, which is in the same situation of having such a dead battery it needs to be plugged in constantly. I will test this with my wife’s phone while unplugged and see if it works!

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After doing more research, I’m starting to think the ferrite bead isn’t going to help in this situation.

Can anyone say whether this is a viable option or is it something I’m going to have to try and see what happens?

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As I understand those things, the ferrite bead would help with line interference caused by the cable picking up noise. That is not what this is.

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Yeah, that was my impression too.

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I had the same issue when I plugged the 3.5mm cable from my laptop to my Fender Rumble 40, it buzzed like crazy and it wasn’t the good BassBuzz :slight_smile:
I bought a:
Ground Loop Isolator
and it worked perfect!

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Ferrite can reduce the noise. If you are using a laptop most likely the ground is floating. I bought one of these Vox Amplug 2 bass devices but no noise from my computer. I’m a ham radio operator and the computer is at my ham radio station which has grounding for not only safety, but also for RF noise reduction and lightening surges. I have some speakers in another part of the same room and when I would key up the one of the ham radios noise would come out of the speakers. I used ferrited cores to reduce the noise. There are different types of ferrite, so it depends a lot on what frequency needs to be filtered.

Here is a good article that may help with your decision.

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