My Topping D30 is shocking me and causing my PC to malfunction when its turning off.

[john5220]

Since this morning I noticed my PC was not turning off when I shut it down and causing a host of issues, rebooting. I pulled out the hard drive and left the SSD alone but same thing when it was shutting off and when it would turn off it would say the asus motherboard detected a surge last time the pc was shut down.

I unplugged the USB from the D30 and the PC shut off correctly, when touched it as it was attached to the liquid spark I noticed I would keep getting shock so without the USB attached to the PC it would shock me and when connected to the PC the shock would go away but my PC would malfunction, when the liquid spark amp was turned off the shock would go away.

Yeah time to package up every thing and return to Amazon, will have to pay for international shipping but atleast it isn't too late. Once its disconnected my PC works fine the D30 was used very good from Amazon warehouse and liquid spark was brand new from AMazon

 

[john5220]

I notice where the RCA jacks go into the D30 the female inputs especially the red is rather playful and moves quite easily, I think this may be damaged. But other than that it plays perfectly so I can't explain this

 

[Ron Texas]

Sorry, it might be time to retire it. Fortunately, it did not cost that much.

 

[john5220]

Sorry, it might be time to retire it. Fortunately, it did not cost that much.

oddly enough I unplugged the RCA cables and USB cable and plugged them back in and the issue appears to have been sorted out. But at this point it has me questioning if to return this thing for a full refund while I am still legible. The deadline is Feb 1st 2020 to return this, it should take approx 2 to 3 weeks to arrive at Amazon if I ship it now hmmmm

Weird thing after spending a lot of time with this D30 and Spark and listening to a lot of Bartender - Lana Del Rey, I can now actually easily tell the difference of the D30 and Spark over my old asus xonar DG sound card, where as first listen it wasn't very noticeable at all.

What do you think I should do? and what u think was probably causing this? when I held the spdif port and I shake it I heard something pop as if something was jamming on something and then it let go, now everything is working fine and my PC is working fine and no shocking.

hmmmmm what to do now then?

The RCA jacks on the D30 is a little wobbly slightly wobbly you can see the play in them if you move it with your finger, maybe someone here can advise if to return this.

 

[amirm]

The "shock" is normal. Certainly amount of mains leakage is allowed to the chassis/ground causing a mild shock, buzzing sensation. This kind of effect can come and go. Hard to say if your situation is worse than this though.

I think the issue is the combination of the three devices you have. Very hard to nail it down without experimentation/instrumentation. Do you have toslink optical out of your PC? If so, using that should sort out the problem with the PC.

 

[PaulD]

It sounds like an earthing issue, check that everything is earthed properly to the mains, that everything that should have an earth connection actually has one etc. The only time I've seen this is when someone used an unearthed power-board to power some equipment, lifting the earth for that equipment - it's very unsafe.

 

[Ron Texas]

What do you think I should do? and what u think was probably causing this? when I held the spdif port and I shake it I heard something pop as if something was jamming on something and then it let go, now everything is working fine and my PC is working fine and no shocking.

hmmmmm what to do now then?

Return it. Get some other cheap DAC which measures well. I have a DX3 Pro and love it.

 

[john5220]

The "shock" is normal. Certainly amount of mains leakage is allowed to the chassis/ground causing a mild shock, buzzing sensation. This kind of effect can come and go. Hard to say if your situation is worse than this though.

I think the issue is the combination of the three devices you have. Very hard to nail it down without experimentation/instrumentation. Do you have toslink optical out of your PC? If so, using that should sort out the problem with the PC.

Hi yes I have a asus xonar DG sound card in my PC with Optical Out, maybe I could buy a Optical cable and use that...

Any disadvantage of using the Toslink optical? also is it normal for there to be a slight play in the RCA connectors on the outside of the D30 when you move it with your fingers?

But yes I shall get a Toslink and solve this issue, without a doubt the USB is causing my PC to malfunction sometimes.

At first I couldn't tell much of a difference between the xonar DG with my HD 58x but now after spending days I can tell a very noticeable upgrade audible going to this new setup. So don't wanna give it up again, I guess I get the toslink

 

[john5220]

I should note the issue is rather minor, but am glad Amir pointed out this is normal, whew what a relief. Gonna just use a toslink so the USB in the DAC doesn't malfunction my PC, I will monitor this some more and see how it is working out. But so far it is exactly as Amir described it should behave.

 

[john5220]

Can someone tell me if this shocking thing will affect my audio quality? In an objective test?

I narrowed down the issue it happens only when the the liquid spark is connected to the d30 and goes away if I unplug the wall socket from either the d30 or spark. Or the shock goes away if I connect the USB cable.to the d30

Now my PC is back to working normal even with the d30 connected via usb so I dunno what that crap was about before.

 

[Zek]

so I dunno what that crap was about before.

Gremlins ....

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

The "shock" is normal. Certainly amount of mains leakage is allowed to the chassis/ground causing a mild shock, buzzing sensation. This kind of effect can come and go. Hard to say if your situation is worse than this though.

I think the issue is the combination of the three devices you have. Very hard to nail it down without experimentation/instrumentation. Do you have toslink optical out of your PC? If so, using that should sort out the problem with the PC.

“Mild shocks” are “normal.” LOL. Imagine if a Schiit product was causing this.

 

[amirm]

Any disadvantage of using the Toslink optical?

There was some talk way back about extra jitter on Toslink. But DACs have gotten very good at that and at any rate, the isolation they provide is well worth it. You can always connect both and switch between them if you are worried about sound difference.

 

[amirm]

also is it normal for there to be a slight play in the RCA connectors on the outside of the D30 when you move it with your fingers?

If you put a lot of pressure on them, yes, they can be pushed back some but should not be loose.

 

[LuckyLuke575]

Return it. Get some other cheap DAC which measures well. I have a DX3 Pro and love it.

The DX3 Pro is all the guy needs at this point.

 

[john5220]

Ok thanks Amir

 

[solderdude]

Can someone tell me if this shocking thing will affect my audio quality? In an objective test?

I narrowed down the issue it happens only when the the liquid spark is connected to the d30 and goes away if I unplug the wall socket from either the d30 or spark. Or the shock goes away if I connect the USB cable.to the d30

Now my PC is back to working normal even with the d30 connected via usb so I dunno what that crap was about before.

The shocks you are getting are caused by mains leakage from the supplied SMPS.
It disappears when you disconnect them from mains because you break the ground loop.
Loop = mains coupled through small capacitances IN the wallwarts goes through your body to the actual ground you walk on.
Those currents are low enough so that your earth leakage doesn't trip and high enough to feel it.
It also disappears when you connect it to the PC as, most likely, your PC is grounded via the mains plug which SHOULD be connected to a 3 prong mains socket.
Now the leakage current takes the easiest and lowest impedance path which is the ground pin of the PC and thus there is no voltage that can cause a shock or tingling feeling. Sometimes when one is 'rubbing' metal surfaces of gear with some mains leakage you can feel a 'bouncing' effect on your finger. Once you felt this one may know what I mean.

Connecting the lot to a not properly grounded PC or laptop can make it worse or less worse depending on factors such as types of SMPS, how they are in the wall socket, how many devices are connected and how, how well you are grounded (rubber shoes, socks or barefoot) to name but a few.

With regards to audibility: As long as you don't hear weird noises or hum there will be no degradation. Groundloops CAN (but don't have to) result in noises depending on the used wiring, mains wallwarts, PCB layout (between digital ground and audio ground) for instance and thus is highly dependent on the used gear and local circumstances.
What works problem free for person A may be very problematic for another.

I would not say it is normal for this to happen but it is common for this kind of thing to happen.

 

[john5220]

^ Ok yes you are right, I no longer get any issues with PC hanging when shutting off, maybe it was a bug or something with my PC but I don't think I may bother with toslink cause I still have to buy one and ship it international.

I prefer the USB connection since it is grounded, hopefully it stays like this and not cause any issues with my PC

Only thing is Peters EQ sucks ass, any upping of the frequency especially 30hz causes bad distortion and clipping, where as my Asus Xonar Media Center EQ causes no clipping or distortion no matter how high you raise the bass etc. So that may be one reason I would like to use Toslink from my Xonar Card.

 

[solderdude]

With some digital EQ you have to lower the volume BEFORE it is sent to the DAC.
Often these programs have a 'pre-amp' slider.
Set this lower than the gain you apply with the frequency sliders.
Some programs take this into account and lower the signal by default when the equalizer is switched 'on'

 

[john5220]

With some digital EQ you have to lower the volume BEFORE it is sent to the DAC.
Often these programs have a 'pre-amp' slider.
Set this lower than the gain you apply with the frequency sliders.
Some programs take this into account and lower the signal by default when the equalizer is switched 'on'

ooh well this explains it!!!

Is there a Universal EQ like Xonar DG that does all of this automatically? or does Peters work just as I fine and I just need to adjust the Pre Amp? I mean Peters has the Pre Amp thingy and prevent clipping thingy, but when you do the auto prevent clipping thingy I find that it reduces the volume of the mids too much, unless this is also exactly how the Xonar does it in secret?

I find the HD58x sounds way better when I raise the 30hz by +20db and the 23hz also by another 20db, but the vocals get recessed and lowered a lot for some reason what is the scientific reasoning for this?

The vocals aren't as clear anymore? is this where a quality high powered AMP comes in handy?