Do I need a DAC or DDC for my PC?

[Sparky]

Hi all.

I am hoping for some advice on whether or not it is necessary to add a DAC/DDC/HP amp to my PC.
The connections I have available are below:

I currently use IEM's through a dongle but am hearing noise from the PC on occasion but would like a pair of the Fiio FT1's as I'm told they're quite good for the money.
Additionally, I carry out REW measurements from time to time and find that, as with the IEM's, I get feedback/noise through my UMIK-2 via USB which is clear to hear through the speakers when the sweep is carried out.
My desktop speakers are just simple Creative Pebble V3's.
I use ROON too which may or may not impact anything here.

I am complete NOOB when it comes to things like this so please take that into account.
I'm almost 50 and am finding that technology is moving ahead so quickly that keeping up with it all is crazy!

Would I benefit from anything at all here or do I just need to alter some settings within my PC?
Budget is up to £250 but will push a little further for something which is a known winner here.

Thanks guys.

 

[RandomEar]

What you're getting sounds like ground noise from circuits in your PC. It's quite common. There are two ways to counter this: An USB isolator between the PC and an external dongle/DAC or switching to an optical connection to your DAC. Since not all USB isolators work correctly, I usually recommend going optical.

In addition, you would then need an external DAC with an optical input. There's lots of options in your price range and most of the recent designs work very well and will sound identical. The Fosi ZH3 might be a good choice, but there's many others. You can search the Review Index for electronics.

If you want to stay with your dongle and test a USB isolator before spending much more on a new DAC, you can try it. I have seen a recommendation for the DSD Tech SH-G01L in another thread. It's a bit limited current wise, but it's cheap. If it doesn't work, you can always send it back.

 

[Sparky]

What you're getting sounds like ground noise from circuits in your PC. It's quite common. There are two ways to counter this: An USB isolator between the PC and an external dongle/DAC or switching to an optical connection to your DAC. Since not all USB isolators work correctly, I usually recommend going optical.

In addition, you would then need an external DAC with an optical input. There's lots of options in your price range and most of the recent designs work very well and will sound identical. The Fosi ZH3 might be a good choice, but there's many others. You can search the Review Index for electronics.

If you want to stay with your dongle and test a USB isolator before spending much more on a new DAC, you can try it. I have seen a recommendation for the DSD Tech SH-G01L in another thread. It's a bit limited current wise, but it's cheap. If it doesn't work, you can always send it back.

Hi bud.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I'll check out the review index to see what looks like a good bet.

 

[nerdstrike]

I've had long running noise issues with my USB dongle from my pc, and I did two things that helped. Firstly, I plugged the dongle into my monitor rather than the PC itself to increase the range, but the USB ground from computer to monitor to dongle was still carrying enough noise to be noticed. Secondly I found that changing the lay of the cables behind the PC fixed it. That was pleasingly immediate and free! You can sometimes identify grounding issues by touching the case with a hand and seeing if the noise changes.

The old digital coax/optical audio to separate independently powered DAC trick is great too, but I'm too cheap to have gone that way yet.

 

[Sparky]

I've had long running noise issues with my USB dongle from my pc, and I did two things that helped. Firstly, I plugged the dongle into my monitor rather than the PC itself to increase the range, but the USB ground from computer to monitor to dongle was still carrying enough noise to be noticed. Secondly I found that changing the lay of the cables behind the PC fixed it. That was pleasingly immediate and free! You can sometimes identify grounding issues by touching the case with a hand and seeing if the noise changes.

The old digital coax/optical audio to separate independently powered DAC trick is great too, but I'm too cheap to have gone that way yet.

I've tried everything you've also tried with no success. With or without the dongle gives me issues with UMIK-1 during measurement sweeps.
An interference of some description. Doesn't do it with my laptop though so it's not the mic.
My laptop however is really old and takes forever just to load something up which is why I've moved over to the PC.
Didn't count on having issues with it though.

I'll try again tomorrow evening to see if I can isolate what is causing the problem.

 

[Ruediger]

My recommendation would be a DAC with headphone amp and use it with USB.

Your board has spdif out, which you can also use to go to an external box.

 

[Paul7777x]

This is cheap enough to give it a shot.

Over the years I’ve had a few types. On some laptops and PCs they worked; on others not.

Hifimediy USB Isolators - Made for audio to prevent ground loops

The USB Isolator protects your device against electrical noise and surges. Full-, high- and SuperSpeed models available for all kind of devices.

hifimediy.com

For everything but the U-MIK I’d use your optical out into an inexpensive dac. Kills all noise.

 

[LTig]

[..] My laptop however is really old and takes forever just to load something up which is why I've moved over to the PC.
Didn't count on having issues with it though.

Replace the hard disk by an SSD. Works wonders. Or install Linux with a light desktop like Xubuntu. I have a 15 year old Lenovo Edge 11 with a hard disk. With Xubuntu it works fine with Audacity (recording 22 channels 48 kHz/24 Bit via USB-2) and REW (using a Umik-1).

 

[Sparky]

My recommendation would be a DAC with headphone amp and use it with USB.

Your board has spdif out, which you can also use to go to an external box.

Yeah, some really great little DAC/HP amps out there at the moment! It's exciting times for sure!
SMSL has some excellent items that I'm currently looking at.

 

[Sparky]

Replace the hard disk by an SSD. Works wonders. Or install Linux with a light desktop like Xubuntu. I have a 15 year old Lenovo Edge 11 with a hard disk. With Xubuntu it works fine with Audacity (recording 22 channels 48 kHz/24 Bit via USB-2) and REW (using a Umik-1).

Agree about the HDD. We swapped out the spinner for an SSD and the improvement was night and day.
Same with my NAS. Had an old QNAP and swapped it for a Terramaster T8 nvme NAS and the transfer speeds alone are shockingly fast....

 

[Paul7777x]

Totally agree with the swapping out of HDDs for SSDs, but I’m astonished anyone is still using an HDD.

 

[Sparky]

This is cheap enough to give it a shot.

Over the years I’ve had a few types. On some laptops and PCs they worked; on others not.

Hifimediy USB Isolators - Made for audio to prevent ground loops

The USB Isolator protects your device against electrical noise and surges. Full-, high- and SuperSpeed models available for all kind of devices.

hifimediy.com

For everything but the U-MIK I’d use your optical out into an inexpensive dac. Kills all noise.

Thanks Paul. Great advice. Just gotta find the right DAC. Only need a small thing really for IEM's

 

[Sparky]

Totally agree with the swapping out of HDDs for SSDs, but I’m astonished anyone is still using an HDD.

Agreed! The noise alone from my old Spinner NAS was like a jet fighter taking off and the heat was crazy.
My PC is an all Nvme and it's quiet as a mouse (except the fans when I'm gaming)

 

[Paul7777x]

Thanks Paul. Great advice. Just gotta find the right DAC. Only need a small thing really for IEM's

The same company make dacs too. Very inexpensive. But just about any dac these days is quite exceptional.

 

[LTig]

Totally agree with the swapping out of HDDs for SSDs, but I’m astonished anyone is still using an HDD.

My Linux PC has a 256 GB SSD and an 8 TB hard disk. My NAS has four 8 TB hard disks. My backup disks are two 6 TB and two 18 TB hard disks. Replacing all those by SSDs would be crazy expensive, even before the current memory crises.

 

[Paul7777x]

My Linux PC has a 256 GB SSD and an 8 TB hard disk. My NAS has four 8 TB hard disks. Replacing all those by SSDs would be crazy expensive, even before the current memory crises.

Ah… indeed that would be an investment of no small amount.

I suppose you could hide the NAS drives where the noise wouldn’t be an irritation.

But if they’re slow I’m not sure what can be done, though if it’s audio only I can’t see why they’d be horribly so.

However for any PC or laptop drive I’d have (and did) swap them years ago for SSDs.

Even my old MacBook, which I hadn’t thought particularly slow, become super speedy with an SSD.

 

[Sparky]

My Linux PC has a 256 GB SSD and an 8 TB hard disk. My NAS has four 8 TB hard disks. My backup disks are two 6 TB and two 18 TB hard disks. Replacing all those by SSDs would be crazy expensive, even before the current memory crises.

You're right of course. I only bought the SSD NAS because my old spinner NAS completely failed and the RAID collapsed. Luckily, I use Macrium Reflect so it wasn't a total loss. I half regret the SSD NAS purchase as, as you've said, Nvme's are ridiculously expensive. I'm using 4Tb sticks which are around £400 a pop at the moment. I suppose performance comes with a hefty price tag. I find myself deleting Mkv movie rips to free some space up so I don't have to buy another Nvme!

 

[Sparky]

Ah… indeed that would be an investment of no small amount.

I suppose you could hide the NAS drives where the noise wouldn’t be an irritation.

But if they’re slow I’m not sure what can be done, though if it’s audio only I can’t see why they’d be horribly so.

However for any PC or laptop drive I’d have (and did) swap them years ago for SSDs.

Even my old MacBook, which I hadn’t thought particularly slow, become super speedy with an SSD.

So true. Such a simple upgrade can reap massive rewards!