Can I get better sound quality (optical to gaming PC vs. dedicated streamer)

[ZENERGiA]

Hi Guys,

I am using a Chord Mojo 2 connected to my gaming PC with an optical cable. I used to connect the Mojo 2 to my gaming PC with a USB cable, but to my surprise, changing to optical cable made the sound much more "fluent", if I guess correctly this might be because while using optical cable I get galvanic isolation?

I am quiet satisfied with the sound now, but I am looking for more improvements. Would using a dedicated streamer help with sound quality, and help me get the most out of my Chord Mojo 2, or the sound quality out of the Mojo 2 is as good as it gets using an optical cable and a gaming PC as my source? I have also tried using UAPP with my mobile phone and a good quality USB cable, but I was not satisfied with the sound quality.

My setup: Gaming PC -> Optical cable -> Chord Mojo 2 used in desktop mode with an iFi iPowerX -> AKG K371, AKG K712 PRO, Sennheiser HD560S, Sennheiser HD600, Audio-Technica AD700X (needs pad change), Grado SR225i (needs pad change).

Thank you in advance!

Wish you all a happy new year!

 

[kyuu]

If there was any sound improvement at all going to optical, it can only be because you were getting noise (either from components in the PC or a ground loop) through the USB connection that were eliminated with the TOSLINK (or possibly there was some misconfiguration of bit/sample rates or unwanted processing affecting the USB interface). There isn't anything you could do to improve sound quality beyond what you have, which should be a bit perfect digital stream from the PC to your Chord.

 

[ZENERGiA]

If there was any sound improvement at all going to optical, it can only be because you were getting noise (either from components in the PC or a ground loop) through the USB connection that were eliminated with the TOSLINK (or possibly there was some misconfiguration of bit/sample rates or unwanted processing affecting the USB interface). There isn't anything you could do to improve sound quality beyond what you have, which should be a bit perfect digital stream from the PC to your Chord.

This is good news, thank you very much!

Is there some way to test what was (is) wrong with my USB connection? I don't remember hearing noise when maxing out the volume on the Mojo 2 while not playing music, and I also use TIDAL in exclusive mode, So I am quiet puzzled what went wrong.