Greetings from a new member,
Glad I found this site and this forum, as i've already learned a lot. Not sure I should have posted here, or in Tech. Newbie or perhaps even in the DACs forums.
My question is in regard to everything i've read regarding the USB noise that seems to be 'inherent' to the USB interface. I've read that this USB chain noise can come from the wall, switching power supplies, EMI from the motherboard, PC fan motors and even the USB cable itself. With all this 'stuff' potentially causing noise, can it be anything in the usb chain picking up this noise, amplifying it, and/or causing its own noise? Given all this, shouldn't I be hearing some noise? A little more: If I do not hear noise with out music playing and volume up on all devices, and I do not hear noise during a silent passage on a good (no mic hiss) recording and do not hear noise during very soft piano passages, for example, could it be the DAC filtering the noise out? Could this noise simply be less prevalent than it seems to be? I mean, I see people going so far as to buy fanless PCs to have the system noiseless, not from the acoustic fan noise, rather the fan mother EMI. I mean, heck, with my noisy PC and a USB cable that probably came from an old 1999 portable DVD drive I would think the noise it's all making is probably being picked up by NASA. My source is an everyday laptop grabbing files from local, portable and network drives (WiFi and ethernet) going into one of four DACs (1 tube) into one of four amps (3 tube) into speakers with 96db sensitivity being the most efficient of them. And no, I don't have any of those wonky gadgets that claim to remove noise then magically add something like pushing the violin section further left of the sound stage. No! Some cleaner and quiet rests? Yes, okay. I get the sense that if these things worked, there wouldn't be PC based music noise problems seen so often. Oh, I only mention tube to state that even with that gear there is 0 noise.
I'm not a lucky person, could it just be luck that I do not hear USB noise? And if USB noise is as common as so many reviews say it is, then where did my noise go? Geez, I've never worried so much about a problem I don't have. I feel mad asking, but as far as this kind of technical stuff goes, I have 0 education in it. Aside from seeing people having USB noise problems (from studios to the end game home audio system) which are real problems, I feel that it may only be marketing teams who have noticed, and are now trying to convince us all that we have it and how glorious everything will be without it. So, with these questions in mind, I figured I'd ask publicly, as opposed to asking a few dealers or audio techs and this seems like the perfect place to ask such a question. If any of you guys and gals can either give some 'simple' whys and/or why nots, or perhaps point me to some 'simple' papers/articles, I would be grateful and entertained.
As fast as PC based systems have grown, from music servers to upsampling music players, and USB playing a big roll, I'm curious if anyone has found anything that can add some sound quality within the USB portion of their systems, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea? Like a kit that includes everything to solder my ssd drives to my motherboard then solder my mb to my DAC?
Anyway, thanks for reading, my brain hurts from all the noise, so good night
robert
Glad I found this site and this forum, as i've already learned a lot. Not sure I should have posted here, or in Tech. Newbie or perhaps even in the DACs forums.
My question is in regard to everything i've read regarding the USB noise that seems to be 'inherent' to the USB interface. I've read that this USB chain noise can come from the wall, switching power supplies, EMI from the motherboard, PC fan motors and even the USB cable itself. With all this 'stuff' potentially causing noise, can it be anything in the usb chain picking up this noise, amplifying it, and/or causing its own noise? Given all this, shouldn't I be hearing some noise? A little more: If I do not hear noise with out music playing and volume up on all devices, and I do not hear noise during a silent passage on a good (no mic hiss) recording and do not hear noise during very soft piano passages, for example, could it be the DAC filtering the noise out? Could this noise simply be less prevalent than it seems to be? I mean, I see people going so far as to buy fanless PCs to have the system noiseless, not from the acoustic fan noise, rather the fan mother EMI. I mean, heck, with my noisy PC and a USB cable that probably came from an old 1999 portable DVD drive I would think the noise it's all making is probably being picked up by NASA. My source is an everyday laptop grabbing files from local, portable and network drives (WiFi and ethernet) going into one of four DACs (1 tube) into one of four amps (3 tube) into speakers with 96db sensitivity being the most efficient of them. And no, I don't have any of those wonky gadgets that claim to remove noise then magically add something like pushing the violin section further left of the sound stage. No! Some cleaner and quiet rests? Yes, okay. I get the sense that if these things worked, there wouldn't be PC based music noise problems seen so often. Oh, I only mention tube to state that even with that gear there is 0 noise.
I'm not a lucky person, could it just be luck that I do not hear USB noise? And if USB noise is as common as so many reviews say it is, then where did my noise go? Geez, I've never worried so much about a problem I don't have. I feel mad asking, but as far as this kind of technical stuff goes, I have 0 education in it. Aside from seeing people having USB noise problems (from studios to the end game home audio system) which are real problems, I feel that it may only be marketing teams who have noticed, and are now trying to convince us all that we have it and how glorious everything will be without it. So, with these questions in mind, I figured I'd ask publicly, as opposed to asking a few dealers or audio techs and this seems like the perfect place to ask such a question. If any of you guys and gals can either give some 'simple' whys and/or why nots, or perhaps point me to some 'simple' papers/articles, I would be grateful and entertained.
As fast as PC based systems have grown, from music servers to upsampling music players, and USB playing a big roll, I'm curious if anyone has found anything that can add some sound quality within the USB portion of their systems, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea? Like a kit that includes everything to solder my ssd drives to my motherboard then solder my mb to my DAC?
Anyway, thanks for reading, my brain hurts from all the noise, so good night
robert