UR22 Multiple Issues

Steinberg Hardware
1

Hello Steinberg community,

Been having this problem since purchasing studio monitors. I purchased a pair of Yamaha HS7s and attempted to hook them up through a PreSonus AudioBox interface. Long story short, never worked. So I purchased something I thought might work better with Yamaha: A Yamaha Steinberg UR22. It works, but it has unbearable problems:

  1. No stereo - both monitors output the same signal no matter what
  2. Low levels - with all of the levels near maximum, it’s medium-loud at best
  3. Balance issue - the left monitor must be around 1/2 the level of the right to match
  4. Strange graphics interference - any external graphics (HDMI, VGA, etc.) will cause a near muted output

Hardware:
Audio Interface - Yamaha Steinberg UR22
Computer - MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) - Intel i7, 8GB RAM, GT 650M Graphics
Powered Studio Monitors - Yamaha HS7 (Pair), Balanced XLR/TRS
External Display - Vizio 37", 1080p TV

At first glance, it may sound like my graphics problem is simply that I’m not set to the correct audio output when I’m connected to HDMI. However, this is not the case. With both audio interfaces, I double-checked that the audio output did not swap to HDMI when plugging in. Many communities believe this is a ground-loop issue with anything from my interface / speakers, to the HDMI cable itself. When I spoke to an audio specialist from Yamaha, he assured me that grounding issues were not the case. He said that ground-loops will only cause noise (hiss, static, hum, etc.), not a complete mute.


Any help is greatly appreciated,
Matthew

2

Okay, so Steinberg responded after 6 days to set up a call time. Three days after that, I finally received the call. Yes, 9 total days…

Jeff from Steinberg went over all of my issues and went through a whole diagnosis. At the point where I got rid of the stock Yamaha XLR to TRS and used some unbalanced instrument cables I had laying around, the monitors worked! Jeff and I narrowed it down to either bad cables or (more than likely) bad XLR ports. I believe the ladder because the possibility of receiving 2 bad cables is less likely than possibly a single XLR port having a faulty ground or something–which would lead to the above issues.

Thanks Steinberg!