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@amirm So is it safe to say that with a 300 Ohm load this "anomaly" on the "bad" channel disappears with High Performance mode turned off?
This anomaly keeps me from buying this device, especially since my only use case is listening through headphones (via a Sennheiser HD 800 S, which happens to have these 300 Ohm).
Jimbob54, 9038D isn't my idea at all, it was asked by our discord society like that: please give us the same 9038S DAC but 3.5mm unbalanced. So I did as requested
Got Fiio fh7 and decided to test background noise at midnight when world outdide my window is frozen and silent. So... mute is on, standbuy off, volume in tweak app is -70db, digital_silence.wav is playing. I can hear noise when it plays and definitely can hear the moment when I press stop and noise disappears in a second. The noise level is slightly above my hearing margin but it is!
Tested lg G7 out. To be honest dead silence only.
Got Fiio fh7 and decided to test background noise at midnight when world outdide my window is frozen and silent. So... mute is on, standbuy off, volume in tweak app is -70db, digital_silence.wav is playing. I can hear noise when it plays and definitely can hear the moment when I press stop and noise disappears in a second. The noise level is slightly above my hearing margin but it is!
Tested lg G7 out. To be honest dead silence only.
The 9038D doesn't have a squelch function where it reduces noise when you press pause. It's noise floor is constant regardless of if you're playing music or not.
What you heard was most likely your source device adding noise whenever playing music. If you're on Android, try using UAPP or Hiby with direct USB access mode enabled in the settings.
I used neutron player with direct usb access. Noise stays regardless playing state when "mute" checkbox is off. So I believe my ears. The same behavior for lg g7 and samsung tab s7.
Yes, I believe you that there is noise. I just think that the source of this noise isn't the 9038D itself evidenced by the fact that:
A) turning Mute on/off doesn't change anything
B) the 9038D doesn't have a squelch feature
Since what you're experiencing happens on multiple devices, it points to Neutron being the source of that noise.
I'll try the same thing using my most sensitive IEM and UAPP/Hiby and will report back asap.
I'd appreciate if you could give Hiby a try, just for troubleshooting purposes, since it's free.
If you do, don't forget to enable direct USB access in the settings first.
Here's what I found:
In UAPP, when playing silence at 100% hardware volume with my most sensitive IEM, I can hear high frequency noise only when silence is playing. Pressing pause also pauses the noise.
Changing MCLK does not change the amplitude of that noise.
I'll try to make a short video showing this.
the player App could add the noise ONLY if it has some dither option, doubt if Neutron has that. Rather Android changes Fs of USB stream when Neutron is Off, that can switch MCLK and get some noise difference.
Ok so turns out the "silence" generated with Audacity and exported in 16bit is only silent down to -70dB -_-
I'll try to procure a better silence and test again.
I created a better silence and the noise I heard in UAPP is gone. I can hear the 9038D's noise floor, but there's absolutely no difference in amplitude between playing silence vs pausing.
So, it turns out my silence was defective and I believe yours might be as well, @alter4 .
