johny_2000
Senior Member
DSD TECH SH-G01L USB Isolator Supports USB 2.0 480Mbps High Speed Isolation https://a.co/d/9Qxb8lqAny suggestions on which one? The ones I find are not cheap
DSD TECH SH-G01L USB Isolator Supports USB 2.0 480Mbps High Speed Isolation https://a.co/d/9Qxb8lqAny suggestions on which one? The ones I find are not cheap
Does the optical output from the motherboard go through the onboard DAC/driver chip first?A cheaper solution is to use Optical to connect your E30 to the PC.
Many PCs have Optical output built-in, but if yours doesn't, then you can add that with a $20 Cubilux SPDIF converter.
The E30 has it's own power supply that's plugged into the same powerstrip as the pcMaybe we can narrow down the problem a little.
- Is the E30's power supply connected to the PC or its own power supply?
- Have you connected the Wiim Mini to the E30 with an optical cable?
Weird thought for you:When I suggested here a couple of weeks ago that PCs should never be part of a true hi-fi system, I received a load of unsubstantiated and hostile rebuke from some here!
I agree with you - PCs are not built with solely audio in mind and therefore should be used only for control purposes. Load your control app onto PC, iPad, phone, or whatever, but ensure the audio signal remains from start to finish within equipment designed solely for audio.
I'll await more hostile reaction - presumably from those who use their PCs for streaming, DAC, etc. It's a pity as most members at other audio forums will also avoid general-purpose PCs in their systems. Lots of modern hi-fi include elements from the PC industry but these are built specifically with audio in mind. I'll stick with "proper" hi-fi!
Classical ground loop currents. The soundcard single-ended analog outputs were connected to a device (amp?) which had the the input cable shield grounded, and the large currents running through the MB ground traces from the various components to the PC's PSU 0V grounded terminal split up and some part of them took a tour through the analog cable shield -> external device -> PE wire -> house power wiring -> PC PE wire -> PC PSU grounded 0V terminal. Since the single-ended cable shield serves as a return path for the analog signal currents, these motherboard-ground currents became part of the actual analog signal.The only noise issues I've had were from an ancient Terratec 8in/8out PCI audio card that was plugged into the motherboard which, as noted in other posts, would generate noise on its output that varied with mouse movement, processor, hard drive activity.
Most likely the devices connected to the soundcard input jacks were not grounded and therefore no ground-loop currents were running in the input cables shield. It really has nothing to do with motherboard power regulation.Oddly, it didn't affect the inputs.
This is logical fallacy and you know it. You are just putting up a strawman to take down.When I suggested here a couple of weeks ago that PCs should never be part of a true hi-fi system, I received a load of unsubstantiated and hostile rebuke from some here!
I agree with you - PCs are not built with solely audio in mind and therefore should be used only for control purposes. Load your control app onto PC, iPad, phone, or whatever, but ensure the audio signal remains from start to finish within equipment designed solely for audio.
I'll await more hostile reaction - presumably from those who use their PCs for streaming, DAC, etc. It's a pity as most members at other audio forums will also avoid general-purpose PCs in their systems. Lots of modern hi-fi include elements from the PC industry but these are built specifically with audio in mind. I'll stick with "proper" hi-fi!
And the Wiim Mini is connected to the E30 with the optical cable?The E30 has it's own power supply that's plugged into the same powerstrip as the pc
The wiim uses an optical cable yes
It cannot go through the onboard DAC because optical is digital and DACs only output analog.Does the optical output from the motherboard go through the onboard DAC/driver chip first?
Standard PC onboard audio has two parts:Does the optical output from the motherboard go through the onboard DAC/driver chip first?
Please don't be mad at me, and this isn't meant to attack you, but such statements are just absolute nonsense that has no basis in fact.When I suggested here a couple of weeks ago that PCs should never be part of a true hi-fi system, I received a load of unsubstantiated and hostile rebuke from some here!
I agree with you - PCs are not built with solely audio in mind and therefore should be used only for control purposes. Load your control app onto PC, iPad, phone, or whatever, but ensure the audio signal remains from start to finish within equipment designed solely for audio.
I'll await more hostile reaction - presumably from those who use their PCs for streaming, DAC, etc. It's a pity as most members at other audio forums will also avoid general-purpose PCs in their systems. Lots of modern hi-fi include elements from the PC industry but these are built specifically with audio in mind. I'll stick with "proper" hi-fi!
And when you stream music can you imagine the audiophile horror of the data center where the music is sent from, 1000s of machines jammed together in racks sharing the same power etc.From start to finish, i.e. until the CD or LP is pressed or the final high-res file is saved, the music/data is recorded by Macs and PCs, edited, copied, goes through some analogue processes, is converted and re-recorded on Macs and PCs, etc.
Just like with pictures and videos when I download them from the other side of the world, half of the pixels are always missing...And when you stream music can you imagine the audiophile horror of the data center where the music is sent from, 1000s of machines jammed together in racks sharing the same power etc.
It's the same with opamps and the relatively recent "rolling" craze. There's people who seriously claim that a cheap NE5532 or comparable cheap models aren't good enough for listening, even though all their music has been running through dozens of them during production - these are literally everywhere in professional audio gear.Please don't be mad at me, and this isn't meant to attack you, but such statements are just absolute nonsense that has no basis in fact.
And this can easily be proven with a bit of common sense, because anyone who says something like that has absolutely no idea how music is created and produced.
From start to finish, i.e. until the CD or LP is pressed or the final high-res file is saved, the music/data is recorded by Macs and PCs, edited, copied, goes through some analogue processes, is converted and re-recorded on Macs and PCs, etc.
And that is exactly the music that so-called audiophiles then claim cannot be played back with sufficient quality within a system on the same Macs and PCs? Seriously? Does something magical happen to the music after it leaves the studio or production so that it can no longer be played back as well as it was during production?
Who comes up with such nonsense???
Of course, cheap and bad PCs can also pollute the playback, introduce interference and produce dropouts. That is why high-quality PCs, workstations or Macs are normally used in music production.
As a former hardware expert in high-availability IT, I can recommend high-quality HP business notebooks/PCs or HP notebook workstations, Supermicro-based computers or Macs for something like this, but of course there is also other high-quality hardware. And it is not a question of price, as all of the devices listed can be bought used with an operating system from €100-150/$ with more than sufficient durability.
By the way, in a large project we also did blind tests, including with audiophiles, where this topic was also discussed, with audio devices up to the high 5-digit range.
Can you imagine how that turned out? None of the audiophiles found this test funny.
Special audio PCs are also nonsense, we compared them too. Over €5000 for an audio PC, and a used Mac Mini for €150 made things better. The manufacturer was present at the comparison and was absolutely disappointed afterwards.
CorrectAnd the Wiim Mini is connected to the E30 with the optical cable?
Does that mean that the E30 has a noise/hum in the output when you play something on the PC?
But with the Wiim Mini via the E30 you don't have any noise/hum in the output?
Is that all correct?
My pc is not top spec but it has a 80plus gold PSU with a mid tier graphics carb.
The entire floor doesn't have grounded sockets and rewiring is not on my to do list.
Thanks for the good explanation!So yes, the integrated SPDIF output goes through the onboard audio driver and the HDA codec, but not through the DAC part of the codec.
I do not trust my on-board S/PDIF / TOSLINK ON MS-7D51 Motherboard https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/MEG-X570S-UNIFY-X-MAXThanks for the good explanation!
That's what I thought, and I was wondering if the digital data gets any manipulation this way, like bit depth or sample rate conversion, from the codec chip or its driver. So some tools will be needed to check the bitperfect status of the TOSLINK connection of the PC's onboard audio system.
Thanks for the good explanation!
That's what I thought, and I was wondering if the digital data gets any manipulation this way, like bit depth or sample rate conversion, from the codec chip or its driver. So some tools will be needed to check the bitperfect status of the TOSLINK connection of the PC's onboard audio system.
A $20 Cubilux SPDIF to USB converter is the only tool required to check the motherboard's SPDIF output. The Hifime UR23 can also be used.I do not trust my on-board S/PDIF / TOSLINK ON MS-7D51 Motherboard https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/MEG-X570S-UNIFY-X-MAX
First - they don't work on Linux, second, on WIndows - I have the feeling something is off.