Since I use this power supply all noise is gone (instead of noise of wrong gain staging of course): Thomann NT 1215
6 Likes
I have experienced the same noise.
I have a tube amp which is grounded, and when I plug the dwarf via 1/4 jack an horrible humm sound is present in the background.
For mine It was a ground loop issue.
I just pluged the power supply of the Dwarf to a wall-socket at my home which is ungrounded and the noise disappeared.
So either you have a wall socket ungrounded available or you must buy a power supply without ground to resolve the problem…
7 Likes
I just did this mod today on a spare IEC cable I had lying around and can confirm that it worked.
5 Likes
I also tried disconnecting the earth connection from an IEC cable when I was doing my initial testing and it solved the issue OK, but I wasn’t going to recommend that anyone else try this.
3 Likes
Yeah, there are many folks who are against this technique, but given that so many of us have these lying around or in our “box of a thousand cables”, it is a relatively quick and cheap way to narrow down the problem.
If you don’t want to do this, you have to try several electrical sockets. If they are on different circuits, there is also no ground noise. I by the way bought this device to get rid of the noise and this works fine as well because it is not grounded:
8 Likes
Same here, did the trick for me for a very fair price!
4 Likes
The solution is the same: no ground wire. So, if you have an electrical problem in your equipment where the mains voltage reaches the metal case of the device, you are not protected. Can that happen? Not easily if you have your amplifier grounded.
2 Likes
I do not believe that electrical failure would damage the Dwarf. The power supply itself will of course burn out, but that the electricity is passed through to the dwarf is very unlikely from my technical understanding.
Of course, it is not possible to eliminate risks 100%; a roof tile could also fall on the dwarf or an earthquake could damage it but in my opinion the risk is bearable. 
2 Likes
Huge thanks for the electromart psu tip, £9.90 later and I too am noisless! click fuzz factory active into duox…I bet my neighbours wish they could have a noisless life eh 
6 Likes
5 Likes
perfect answer…
5 Likes
I know that the topic is solved but wanted to share my solution here: I experienced a very high noise floor at home and in the rehearsal environment. The rehearsal environment was especially unacceptable. I could not imagine going on stage with that. A clean guitar sound would have needed a gate that cut off half of the sustain…
At home, I am going straight from the Mod Dwarf into an audio interface. In the other case, Mod Dwarf goes directly into a mixer. Hence, I tried a symmetric TRS cable(s) and the noise is completely gone. No DI Box whatsoever. I would even say the overall sound is better. So if this is an option for someone, try it before buying a new PSU.
9 Likes
Hey napcode,
I also have a problem with high noise when plugged directly into my interface, Scarlett 2i2.
does that mean that I can buy a TRS to XLRm cable (such as https://www.amazon.com/Mogami-TRS-XLRM-06-Balanced-XLR-Male-Connectors/dp/B0002E2908) from the output and plug into my Scarlett 2i2, and it should remove any ground loop noise?
Could someone confirm if this is true for any of the three outputs for the Mod Duo X?
What would be a solution if the output only accepts unbalanced inputs, like an amp?
The 2i2 has combined jacks as well. You don’t need XLR. You can use TRS-TRS. The linked cable looks quite expensive to me (costs like 10-15 Euro in Germany).
Balanced TRS-TRS worked for me. I cannot give guarantees but give it a try. If you have something like an amp (unbalanced input, did not use one yet), you will need a DI Box or another solution.
1 Like
Could I get clarification from anyone from the Mod team whether the Mod Duo X has balanced TRS output? It seems like the headphone out is TRS, but can it be used for balanced mono output instead of unbalanced stereo output? Or are the other two outputs balanced TRS? It is not clear from the spec page.
@semmo the MOD Duo X main outputs are balanced. So, as @napcode suggested, using balanced cables is one of the common options that helps reducing ground noise issues.
1 Like
…and afaik the headphone output cannot be used as a (third) TRS output - only as a headphone output, mirroring the two TRS outputs.
1 Like
Okay, so I got a TRS cable and used it for outputting the signal from my Mod Duo X to my Scarlett 2i2. There still is noise, when there isn’t when I directly plug into my interface.
Here is with my Mod Duo X plugged into my Audio interface: Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
you can hear that there is this almost piercing kind of noise coming out of the Mod Duo X.
Meanwhile when I plug directly into my interface, I get: Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
which is practically noiseless, for my use case anyway.
I really tried everything - those ferrite beads (Ferrite bead - Wikipedia), USB isolators, and now TRS connectors, but I still have a lot of noise coming out my Mod Duo X. Is there possibly a fix somehow? I’ve been struggling with this the past year.
Certainly, it is, but we need to know a bit more about your full setup. Also, what are your input and output gain levels on the MOD Duo X?