RichB
11-02-2012, 11:53
Hi All,
As a bit of a daft experiment i went and got one of those Dac Destroyer things on ebay from Dave at Hot Audio. Didnt expect it to compare to my other dacs but at the price £40 (delivered) I needed to satisfy my curiosity.
Took about 10 days to arrive from the Canadian seller and the item was well packaged for its long journey across the pond. At first sight the construction appears solid and was supplied with a somewhat short usb a to b lead. Couldnt wait to plug it in and go.
So first test is in my second system from desktop PC to Pioneer A400 amp, drivers are instantly recognised and the dac appears ready for use in seconds. Instantly notice loads of background noise, seems as if the DAC is picking up all of the internal noise of the PC such as hard drive clicks and a sort of static buzz when moving the mouse around the screen and scrolling internet pages. This noise comes through the speakers whether the amp is turned up or down and even when the aux input is swiched to another channel. I've tried the DAC from both front and rear USB sockets on the PC and the noise remains the same. I've used other mains powered DACs in this system and never had this problem, nor have i noticed any bad noise when using the PC onboard sound to the amp.
So last night I popped around a friends house and we used the DAC between his dektop PC to a NAD amp and Kef Codas, no noise whatsoever. In fact we enjoyed the way it gave it gave better depth to bass and more open sounding vocals. I've also tried the DAC between my laptop and Arcam - Rega setup and no noise is noticable from this set up either.
I contacted the seller who replied almost immediately:
'There are a few people with noise issues, but it is a very small number like about 2 per 1000 units.
It seems to be a ground problem within the PC or perhaps the amplifier / preamplifier.
It can be any number of things.
I have suggested in the past that the user use a "USB ISOLATOR" those apparently work wonders and isolate the PC from ground completely.
Other then then you could send it back to me.
Sometimes you can try moving plugs around and that sometimes works.
Ground loops are often difficult to track down.
They make passive isolators as well for the RCA side of the DAC but I have never tried them.
The galvanic isolators are the best solution from what I've read.'
It is clear the noise problem is obviously coming from my PC and the DAC is not defective. The only USB isolators I have seen are around the £40 mark which seems a bit daft given the value of the DAC.
In fairness to the seller he has been entirely reasonable and i believe his product to be good quality at the price point. I was therefore wondering if any AoS members had experienced similar problems with USB Dacs/Soundcards and how you got around them?
If i cant overcome the ground problem i have I'd rather keep the DAC or swap/sell on this forum than return to the seller given the cost of postage to canada.
All help and advice welcome.
Rich
As a bit of a daft experiment i went and got one of those Dac Destroyer things on ebay from Dave at Hot Audio. Didnt expect it to compare to my other dacs but at the price £40 (delivered) I needed to satisfy my curiosity.
Took about 10 days to arrive from the Canadian seller and the item was well packaged for its long journey across the pond. At first sight the construction appears solid and was supplied with a somewhat short usb a to b lead. Couldnt wait to plug it in and go.
So first test is in my second system from desktop PC to Pioneer A400 amp, drivers are instantly recognised and the dac appears ready for use in seconds. Instantly notice loads of background noise, seems as if the DAC is picking up all of the internal noise of the PC such as hard drive clicks and a sort of static buzz when moving the mouse around the screen and scrolling internet pages. This noise comes through the speakers whether the amp is turned up or down and even when the aux input is swiched to another channel. I've tried the DAC from both front and rear USB sockets on the PC and the noise remains the same. I've used other mains powered DACs in this system and never had this problem, nor have i noticed any bad noise when using the PC onboard sound to the amp.
So last night I popped around a friends house and we used the DAC between his dektop PC to a NAD amp and Kef Codas, no noise whatsoever. In fact we enjoyed the way it gave it gave better depth to bass and more open sounding vocals. I've also tried the DAC between my laptop and Arcam - Rega setup and no noise is noticable from this set up either.
I contacted the seller who replied almost immediately:
'There are a few people with noise issues, but it is a very small number like about 2 per 1000 units.
It seems to be a ground problem within the PC or perhaps the amplifier / preamplifier.
It can be any number of things.
I have suggested in the past that the user use a "USB ISOLATOR" those apparently work wonders and isolate the PC from ground completely.
Other then then you could send it back to me.
Sometimes you can try moving plugs around and that sometimes works.
Ground loops are often difficult to track down.
They make passive isolators as well for the RCA side of the DAC but I have never tried them.
The galvanic isolators are the best solution from what I've read.'
It is clear the noise problem is obviously coming from my PC and the DAC is not defective. The only USB isolators I have seen are around the £40 mark which seems a bit daft given the value of the DAC.
In fairness to the seller he has been entirely reasonable and i believe his product to be good quality at the price point. I was therefore wondering if any AoS members had experienced similar problems with USB Dacs/Soundcards and how you got around them?
If i cant overcome the ground problem i have I'd rather keep the DAC or swap/sell on this forum than return to the seller given the cost of postage to canada.
All help and advice welcome.
Rich