Dear all,
Thanks everyone very much for reading this rookie post! I would appreciate any comments.
I used to have my desktop set up as:
My PC (Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4) > WireWorld Ultraviolet 7 > iFi Audio iPurifier 2 (USB Purifier) > iFi Audio nano iDSD (first version) > Neo by Oyaide d+ RXM (Class B) RCA to XLR > Genelec 8010a
To my ears, this system serves me well, it sounds great, the sound stage compared to what I had before is amazingly wide and clear, with no strange noise or hums, just very annoyed by the fact that the volume control on Nano iDSD is very good, there is always latency in controlling. Also, Nano iDSD runs kind of on battery with specs slightly out of date.
Recently there has been an offer for Topping EX5 on Amazon, I thought maybe XLR to XLR could be nicer, and EX5 in terms of specs and perhaps all aspects is better than Nano iDSD, so I changed my system into:
My PC > WireWorld Ultraviolet 7 > iFi Audio iPurifier 2 > Topping EX5 > Neo by Oyaide d+ XLR (Class B) XLR to XLR > Genelec 8010a
But I noticed a few differences or issues:
1, if I turn on Topping EX5 first then the 8010a, then the PC, the left channel always has a short period of some noise or hum produced before EX5 accepts all the signal from Windows 11 and is fully loaded. Does it mean maybe I got a bad EX5? Is this kind of noise normal? Actually also some very short noise/hum might be produced during the system is fully loaded sometimes. (perhaps I need to take a video and upload to somewhere to let people see it)
2, point 1 made me think, could this be the problem of iFi iPurifier 2, which maybe is quite unnecessary? What is the best way to clean up USB noise?
3, when is system is fully loaded and idle, if my ear is very very close to 8010a, I can hear some background noise, is this normal?
4, there is always a ticking/clicking loud noise when I try DSD playback using foobar2000, why is that, is it something avoidable?
5, I feel from 8010a, there is less clarity from EX5 for some reason, and slightly less punchy or sharp, I am not sure whether this observation is real or psychological, this is just a comment, but I do appreciate it is actually easier to use, especially the volume control knob.
Thanks everyone very much for reading this rookie post! I would appreciate any comments.
I used to have my desktop set up as:
My PC (Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4) > WireWorld Ultraviolet 7 > iFi Audio iPurifier 2 (USB Purifier) > iFi Audio nano iDSD (first version) > Neo by Oyaide d+ RXM (Class B) RCA to XLR > Genelec 8010a
To my ears, this system serves me well, it sounds great, the sound stage compared to what I had before is amazingly wide and clear, with no strange noise or hums, just very annoyed by the fact that the volume control on Nano iDSD is very good, there is always latency in controlling. Also, Nano iDSD runs kind of on battery with specs slightly out of date.
Recently there has been an offer for Topping EX5 on Amazon, I thought maybe XLR to XLR could be nicer, and EX5 in terms of specs and perhaps all aspects is better than Nano iDSD, so I changed my system into:
My PC > WireWorld Ultraviolet 7 > iFi Audio iPurifier 2 > Topping EX5 > Neo by Oyaide d+ XLR (Class B) XLR to XLR > Genelec 8010a
But I noticed a few differences or issues:
1, if I turn on Topping EX5 first then the 8010a, then the PC, the left channel always has a short period of some noise or hum produced before EX5 accepts all the signal from Windows 11 and is fully loaded. Does it mean maybe I got a bad EX5? Is this kind of noise normal? Actually also some very short noise/hum might be produced during the system is fully loaded sometimes. (perhaps I need to take a video and upload to somewhere to let people see it)
2, point 1 made me think, could this be the problem of iFi iPurifier 2, which maybe is quite unnecessary? What is the best way to clean up USB noise?
3, when is system is fully loaded and idle, if my ear is very very close to 8010a, I can hear some background noise, is this normal?
4, there is always a ticking/clicking loud noise when I try DSD playback using foobar2000, why is that, is it something avoidable?
5, I feel from 8010a, there is less clarity from EX5 for some reason, and slightly less punchy or sharp, I am not sure whether this observation is real or psychological, this is just a comment, but I do appreciate it is actually easier to use, especially the volume control knob.
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