Yeah, anything that isn’t USB will not have to have the USB converted to i2s for audio. AES, SPDIF (BNC or COAX) and i2s all will use the clock from the source. It will basically become a which of the two paths is better or you prefer.
Couple of people here have said that they liked the higher end Lampis better thgrough USB but they’ve also got a reworked USB input board, not the std. PLL clocks on the Amanero board.
This was my take on the Amber 3, USB isn’t bad, but a good AES source is better.
Ok, thanks for all the suggestions. I’ll give AES a try. I can probably ask my dealer for a cable to try one risk-free.
And just to clarify information, AES only supports up to 192 and single rate DSD?
I believe so the 192 isn’t much of an issue, and most higher resolution DSD is actually just up sampled from a DSD64 source
25 year old NOS R2R DAC technology says whaaa?
I would like to share my frustration and maybe, by some miracle, someone can help me. Or just give emotional support, that sounds good too 
I’ve been having two noise issues with the MZ3. LTA determined that one of them was typical of tubes and recommended I switch around the tubes to see which ones are at fault and they’ll send me new ones.
But! And here comes the whole issue, I can’t clearly hear nor place the results.
I started out hearing crackling in mostly the left cup.
As recommended, I first switched the two big tubes. I seemed to hear noise in both cups.
Then I switched the two small tubes. I seemed to hear noise only in the left cup.
I switched out the two small tubes again, leaving the big tubes. I seem to to hear noise in only the left cup.
I grab different headphones to try it out. On the ADX5000 and the Beyer 990 I hear almost no noise to the point I’m questioning my sanity. On the Clear and the W1000 I hear slight noise, but I’m still questioning my sanity and am utterly unsure if I even do hear noise at this point.
I deeply, deeply wish I had another set of audiophile ears here that could listen with me.
The two noises I’m hearing:
“The number 2 issue is classic tube noise. You can verify by swapping 1st ,1 pair of tubes and see if it switches channels.
If the larger pir swap does not change channels, try the smaller pair. Which ever one causes the noise to move to the other channel, is the bad tube.
We can send replacements.
The other issue could be the cable or the jack or part of the problem above.
We can send a cable…this is a very unusual problem…”
I’d start by making sure that your headphones or calbles are not the problem if you’ve got a common denominator, like an inline 4 pin balanced to 1/4 SE adapter.
What you’re describing is already too much gear swapping. You have to isolate to as few pieces as possible. Once you rule out your other gear, now you know the problem is somewhere on the LTA but it may not be the tubes. You’ve then got to be 100% sure tha the tubes you’re using to test with are fully functional.
Can you plug the suspect tubes on some other amp to test them for functionality? Lastly it could be some type of cold solder joint. Rolling tubes puts strain on the connectors and if it’s an amp you bought used, you won’t know how many times it’s been probed and poked.
If your tubes check out, your cables check out then you could be having a problem with contacts, either on the HP out or the tube sockets. Shouldn’t be difficult to diagnose but you need to have a plan and a process.
(To defend my honor a little: I did the tube swapping only using the W1000. Only when I couldn’t place the results I switched headphones around without swapping the tubes.)
What a saint you are for helping me though, I appreciate it so much.
Things I’ve learned with further testing:
Start with a sanity check:
Use the headphones with which you hear noise in the left cup. Turn the headphones 180 degrees (backwards). Do you still hear it? If so on which side? If it’s on the left again, it means the noise is not channel dependent - it’s on both. Your right ear is just not picking it up.
If you hear it on the right side then you know something in the left channel is the culprit.
That is actually how I figured out I hear worse on my right ear! Thank you very much for the advice and keeping my sanity in check 
I did have some tubes lying around from trying to tuberoll the BHC - so I plugged those into the MZ3 after trying out the MZ3 tubes in the BHC. I’m hearing various little noises now, among them a small clicking noise - but none of them consistently so far and I have to test more to really make any statements on this.
At least there’s a good chance it’s due to the tubes I already had and the tubes LTA will send me will fix all noises from the amp.
//
If you ever see me posting about buying tubes or the like again know I am not okay.
I hope the new tubes fix the issue. I had a similar crackling issue with my new MZ3 and after replacing the 12sn7’s with a new pair that LTA sent me, I now have an inky black background, completely silent,
Ahh, you give me hope 
The fantastic news is, the tube issues are resolved. The jack issue is only mitigated with the new power cable.
But! LTA is being very kind and offering to pay me the repair costs if a local shop could take a look at it. Now, I have no clue as to how to even pick someone like that. Does anyone have experience with that? Just ask at a nearby audio shop?
I thought this was an interesting one, it’s one I’ve suggested to people previously, and it still took me 24 hours to think to try it.
I finally plugged the Utopias into the Viva (great pairing by the way), and was presented with a faint intermittent crackle, regardless of volume setting.
I swapper headphones to the MySphere and it was still present.
Since the Viva ate 2 LinLai Elite 6SN7’s, first thought is it’s the the PSVane CV181T failing, so we go through the check connections, swap tubes, re-seat the other tubes, swap the other tubes dance.
Crackle still present, turn the amp off in disgust, and walk away.
24 hours later with time to think about it, it occurred to me there was something i didn’t try.
Turn the amp on, wait for it to warm up, confirm crackle present.
Take nearby Wifi router, rotate 90 degrees onto it’s side
Crackle gone.
Now the routers been there since before the Viva, and I didn’t hear the crackle previously, I actually don’t think it was the sensitivity of the Utopia or MySphere, I think the odds are that the router decided to swap channels, and picked one that happens to be a close multiple of one of the filament wires in one of the tubes, causing the noise. Rotating the router, just changes the dispersal pattern, enough to attenuate the noise.
Got to love tube amps.
Ethernet equipment, routers and cell phones. All can do that to you… and have done it to me. At least you figured it out relatively quick. 
I should have recognized the sound, but it’s been a couple of years, since I last heard it.
::makes cheap 00s PC speaker noise when someone was getting a call on their cell phone::
I know this bastard of a noise and we are NOT on friendly terms…
Rotated your router which was located nearby 
Magnificent information and something i would have never thought of as a possible source of noise. I Will absolutely remember this next time i am troubleshooting a crackle…
I had a similar experience with my ampsandsound Nautilus. Had no noise until I installed a wifi6 Mesh, at which point, I got irritating noise when I wasn’t listening to music. I switched out all the tubes, interconnects, power cable, moved the amp to a different shelf, nothing worked.
An irritating year later, I was looking at the Herbies tube damper on the 12au7 and thought, “no, it can’t be that, because the damper reduces noise”. But I took it off anyway, and the noise went away.
Maybe I’ll try putting the damper back and rotating my router 90 degrees.
If it fixes it I’d leave it.
But anything metal can act as an antenna, it’s a somewhat common problem with smaller tubes and smaller meta elements, haven’t had issues for a long time.
The sounds usually just a clicking/crinkling sound with vague repetition, if it’s really loud you can hear intermittent buzzing aswell. Cell phones close to a tube amp can do the same thing, and short of a cage around the tubes there really isn’t anything the Amp Designer can do about it. Though some amps seem more prone to it if only because of tube choices.
It’s my intent to move the amp into my office anyway, otherwise I’d permanently relocate the router.