Speaker Buzzing Sound Issue

[xmercury]

Hi to anyone

An illustration of my current setup.

1. At first I was having a ground loop issue with my PC and Amp connected to the same power strip. High pitched noise can be heard coming from my speakers and whenever I move my mouse or open up games on my PC the noise gets louder. I solved this by getting the Ifi GND Defender.

2. After adding the GND Defender, the ground loop noise is gone. However, now there is a buzzing sound if I turn my volume up more than 30 on the SMSL DA9. I tried using RCA output from the Zen Dac into the RCA input on the SMSL DA9 and I found out that the buzzing disappeared when I connect both RCA input and XLR input.

Does anyone know why is this happening? Why is there a buzzing noise when using only 4.4 to XLR from the Zen Dac to the DA9? I am new to audio and don't understand why this is happening... is this an issue with the Ifi Zen Dac?

 

[Berwhale]

Welcome to ASR!

I think the use of a 4.4mm pentaconn connection for balanced line out is unique to iFi. The cause of the issue may be revealed by understanding how the cable is wired (i.e. how is the ground on the 4.4mm plug connected on the XLRs), for example...

 

[iFi audio]

Hello,
We're very sorry to hear about your issue. If you can answer a few questions, we should be able to figure out the best solution.
1. What happens when you connect the Zen Dac to the amplifier with only the RCA cables?
2. Have you tried connecting the PC directly to the amplifier?
3. How do you power the iFi Zen DAC? With a USB cable from the PC? Have you tried powering it with an external power supply?
4. Can you try to connect the Zen DAC to another USB audio source?