Speaker hiss and short

[CASUSMC0311]

something wrong with my speakers. I bought new 5v speakers and a new sound card for pi3. Im getting heavy hiss  and pops and it's shorting somewhere. no metal is touching and I checked the settings in retropie to make sure everything was good to go. the card plugs into the USB and then to the audio hookup with a male to male wire. Am I missing something? perhaps my splice jobe is sub-par? I hope someone can help. I keep posting question and no one answers.

[ballboff]

Check your power.  If you're running too many things off the pi, it may be drawing too much power to supply everything.  Mine all runs off a 5v power supply, but I did try to run everything through a USB hub that wasn't powered, and I was having similar issues.  A powered USB hub should be the way to go, that way your screen and your pi can be powered independently.  If it's actually USB sound card then it still needs to be connected to the pi, however if it's just USB powered then that can be supplied on it's own.  Mine has a USB cable, but it also has a standard 2.5mm jack to supply the audio, the USB cable is just to power the speakers.

[southpaw13]

I had to use a ground loop isolator

[pbj]

I had to use a ground loop isolator

Yep, learn it live it love it.  I don't even bother diagnosing the issue anymore.

[megatron99]

Do you also need to use an amp?

[southpaw13]

I did, there are some cheapies at Amazon