Audio output leaking into microphone

Question

I noticed that my audio output (anything from system sounds to music) is leaking into my microphone.

Stereo Mix is disabled and the audio is not loud enough to be recorded by the microphone externally, probably it's crosstalk from the wires but I tried with a brand new headset (by the way they're both with 3.5mm jacks) and the problem persists.

I also tried (with both headsets) to connect the microphone and the headphone to different sides (microphone front and headphone rear, and vice versa), but still it leaks audio into the microphone, sometimes even when the microphone is disabled hardware-wise (with the button).

I know that probably there's something wrong with the motherboard' sockets but i noticed that TeamSpeak3 is the only software i know of that isolates audio output and input when selecting the "Windows Audio Session" option, so maybe there's a solution with a software that enables WASAPI for any application.

I'm not trying to record audio, i mainly use my microphone for stream and VoIP (Discord really detect any sound from the output and redirects it into my microphone, i can't listen to something loud without letting the other users listen to the same thing and if i lower the sensitivity they cannot hear me).

Solution 1

The crosstalk problem appears to be an electrical design issue of the "common audio ground" of the mic and speaker jacks. Connecting an amplifier speaker to the headphone jack seem to not cause the crosstalk, its only headphones. The solution is to separate the grounds for the two connectors. I resolved it by running a separate ground wire from the rear pc stereo output jack's sleeve, by looping it around the speaker jack end, to the headphone jack's ground; as suggested in this question: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/373716/pc-headset-crosstalk

Solution 2

Found a fix for this, right click on speakers on the bottom right Click on sounds Click on playback Right click on every single item displayed and disable it except for the one you are using. Do the same thing for the recording tab. Test.

Comments

[Tetsujin]

It's not clear from your question - do you have any sound at all coming from any speakers, or is it all just through the headset?

[Iztooi]

it's all through the headset, i don't have any speakers, I also disabled every audio source except for "Speakers" which is the main sound output source

[Tetsujin]

'speakers' ... shouldn't that be 'headset' ? I think we need pics of your sound manager setup.

[Iztooi]

There is not any other socket. There are the green and the pink one, pink is for input, green is for output either headset or speakers

[Iztooi]

I thought about using an headset as microphone only but it would be messy. I wonder how Teamspeak can isolate the two audio sources even if there's a faulty headset

[ChanceH]

I don't think that would be practical. If the headset is letting the output bleed into the output, I wouldn't expect any software to be able to do much to remedy that.

[Iztooi]

As far as i could understand the "Windows Audio Session" option is doing that. On Teamspeak, with the second headset when any sound is played there is no microphone output, unless I talk, but nothing is leaking through.

[ChanceH]

Is that not what you want? No microphone output when you play sounds (except for your voice, of course)? I'm also not aware of a "Windows Audio Session" option, you would have to enlighten me.

[Iztooi]

Yes that's what i want on TeamSpeak (and that works fine for that), but unfortunately that's not enabled on Discord or OBS option

[ChanceH]

@Iztooi So you're saying that Discord doesn't have an option to change the capture mode? Fair enough. Have any of the other suggestions that I made, such as manually adjusting Discord's voice sensitivity or using a pair of headphones that doesn't have an integrated mic not suit you?

[Iztooi]

I'm currently using the first headset as microphone only, it's awkward but it does its job. Thanks for the help