He’s putting that DAC with the cover off on a woolly carpeted place mat, the number two highest static electricity producer known to man… clueless.
Also there are alot of DAC with the power supply separation he’s showcasing there. It’s high end DAC best practice nowadays. The Mojo EVO line that started at $7K when it was new had the same power section design philosophy.
No doubt they’re a great DAC and it’s a good build but he’s just blowing a lot of layman smoke in a very carnival barking way IMO.
The comparison to Sonore is pointless as they’re separate product categories.
Surface noice can be a pain especially with older collections. I recommend an US cleaner. The Degritter is definitely better than the Audio Desk… too many moving parts and cost. The HumminGuru seems to be the new kid on the block and havent heard too much about it.
There is also Perfect Vinyl which is a cleaning service: https://www.perfectvinylforever.com/. The owner is very cool and will talk you through the whole process. The owner claims if handled properly, you only have to use a carbon brush after cleaning.
Just my opinion, but many people choose to believe that the big, mainstream components (amp, speaker, preamp, source) are what matters, and everything else is secondary. In my experience, EVERYTHING matters, and we are constantly surprised by big differences in unexpected changes that shouldn’t matter.
Power is critical, and impacts every component in your chain; a substantial part of every component is creating a clean and constant power rail, and that is sometimes a key part of why some esoteric gear are so good.
The impact of power conditioning varies depending on your system and house/neighborhood. Upgrading my power conditioner was a bigger immediate difference to me than even upgrading my amp or DAC.
I currently run my system via a gaming senoidal no-break, which for sure does not help. Would you mind pointing me to an entry level conditioner that would actually start making a difference here so i can maybe try without breaking the bank?
Sure. These are difficult to recommend as I don’t know your budget or the exact components in your systems, but here is one (if you’re in the United States):
They have a 60-day money back guarantee. If you feel like it makes a big difference, then it’s a solid platform for future power upgrades. The incoming C19 power cable (wall → conditioner) makes a huge difference, as do the C15 cables from this box to each of your components. Depending on your budget, I’d definitely suggest putting some aftermarket power cords to your amp and dac.
OK I need some tech support here. I believe this is the right thread to ask.
Windows 11
Matrix xspdif 3 DDC > Exogal Comet + > whatever amp and headphones/speakers
Problem:
Every streaming service I use like Tidal and Amazon and video sites like Youtube and Netflix, all of them have these random annoying 1 second crackling distorted sounds every 2 to 5 minutes. Its as loud as the music itself, impossible to ignore.
Tidal and amazon are not browser based like youtube but it still happens there.
whats the deal:
These cracklings only happen there, for all of the music I have the files and listen in foobar2000 and jriver there is no crackling at all, perfect sound even with default windows primary driver settings. Not even exclusive mode.
The same goes for videos, when I watch them on MPC/VLC that I have the files the sound reproduction is flawless.
**What ive tried (with no success)**
I tried with another DDC, and another DAC; exact same results. I think my money is on windows has a problem.
My dac is 192/24 so I use that, but ive tried 44.1khz and 48khz from windows audio settings.
I havent reinstalled windows audio drivers because they do work with the software I mentioned.
Browser audio settings and tidal audio settings tweaked to every possible configuration. Nada.
Crackle sound not ticking?
Ticking would be the hard drive of your pc/laptop being picked up.
Never had crackle out of the Exogal🤔
The only times I ever heard crackle in a system were indicative of upcoming component failure unfortunately and both times a component failed soon afterwards. Once it was a streamer and next time a built in DAC. 2 separate instances both precluded w/ crackling noises beforehand
The only other time I ever had crackle was a long time ago when using my Mac to feed my front end, once in a while I would have to go into the audio settings and reset or play around with the output, for some reason that would mess up often
Good luck, maybe my experiences give you insight or ideas.
Not really, apart from what im using I only have garbage bin cables to test.
All of the custom cables I ordered should be arriving soon, maybe, so I can test better with those.
Also I dont think its cables because music works fine when I have the files.
English is my 2nd language I dont know what ticking sounds, you mean like a clock? No its not a tick. Its clearly a very distorted random noise, even a bit comparable to hiss but more aggressive.
its more like an artifact sound. Like when sometimes my tube amps play an artifact because of interference.
Everything you wrote makes me think its a windows thing. Im starting to think formatting the computer would solve it.
Again it only happens on browser and select apps.
Didnt know it existed, gonna try it out, thanks!
Also I was thinking about using voicemeeter potato which manages all of windows sound drivers, its a digital mixer. Maybe moving those some way drivers could help.
FML, cant use the matrix software I was really hoping this one would work.
After this instalation failed I lost my matrix drivers, I cant use the DDC right now, also windows changed my audio settings to default without asking.
Yes, its a top of the line asus ROG.
I see, I first would look at the power settings at windows, then Id go to the ASUS armoury software that controls the fans and stuff, then I can check the bios and see what the power modes are there.
These days laptops have a complete mess made out of their energy settings, windows is fighting against asus software and firmware and theyre all trying to control the laptops energy.
Then I can also connect the matrix ddc to my cellphone or another lap to test. thats another good idea.
If nothing works im thinking bout formatting this shit. going back to windows 10?
I cleaned eveything, files, registry, device manager, scheduled tasks, windows audio settings, cmd analyzer, cmd image restore, some resets, admin permitions, etc…
Then I installed first the matrix audio control panel to not let windows install the wrong matrix drivers on its own and after tweaking some settings on windows audio manager it ended up perfect.
only took like 5 hours of my day, this is why im not a developer. I had a lot of plans today shit, ill do them tomorrow, today im very happy with my flawless audio playback.
The amount of problems I hear with 11 is just irritating. After all these years they can’t figure it out. Meanwhile mac is just climbing. Seems I’m staying W10 until it gets axed.
If windows 11 worked the way its supposed to, it would kick ass, a lot of frontend improvements from windows 10, more intuitive and nicer looking while still being basically the same OS.
The problem is its glitchy af, I get glitches every single day lol, they are using us to beta test their OS while they get it right. One automatic windows update might just ruin your day randomly.
So…I would like to connect my Amber 3 to my Focusrite interface.
The Amber 3’s USB, however, is apparently it’s best input. I have an idea:
What if PI2AES>Focusrite interface>Amber 3 DAC?
I can set the master clock on the Focusrite to take it from the SPDIF Input. I’ll connect the PI2AES Toslink to the interface’s Toslink.
The reason I want to do this is so I can centralize everything as well as lower the volume on Amber 3’s output, all while, hopefully cleaning up any issues with the Amber 3’s coax.
Would this work like I think it would?
Are there better alternatives?
