This audiophile-sprout needs a reality check and DAC and AMP recommendations

[Robhimself]

Do you have the USB plugged into your motherboard rear panel? Have you tried using a USB port from your front panel (usually located at the front of the computer near the on/off switch)?

Edit. Just read your previous post. Try optical if you have it. It should not hum if your computer is the cause.

Edit 2. Oops, just checked and Asgard doesn't have opti out.

hehe yes, I have tried all 12 ports on my computer. 8 in the back - 2.0 and 3.0, and 4 in the front.
Even with a powered USB hub that was also connected to every port I have.

It's all windows driver compatibility... Since every port works out of the box when I boot into Linux.

And I've followed all guides that try to fix usb issues. About 80% of them tells you to update windows and update/reinstall usb drivers.
I've gotten to the point where I don't want to try jumping all the hoops anymore, out of spite towards windows.

And also why I want more than 1 option for digital input

 

[Robhimself]

Some people spend their many years and tens of thousands of dollars before they figure this out... some never do. The same people that have never had a penny go missing in online banking, or a single letter in their emails, are convinced their WAV file needs extra-special comfy cozy padded cables to make it to their DAC.

Consider it a win that they only got you once.

Indeed!

I've leveled up to the next step: chip brands!

 

[Chrispy]

Indeed!

I've leveled up to the next step: chip brands!

LOL

 

[Robhimself]

In this tier of DACs you really only need to worry about features, inputs/outputs, and whether the headphone output meets your needs.

If the DX5 does what you want it to do, don't spend more. You will not achieve any better sound by going higher.

Nobody on earth that can hear the difference in noise/distortion between the DX5, DX7 and DX9 in a normal listening test. The DX5 is already at 122dB SINAD.

This is exactly why I felt I needed to stop and reassess after reading comments here on ASR.
EQ have a much bigger impact, and at the moment I don't have a huge lineup of headphones, and especially ones that are hard to drive.

A 122dB difference is the same as the size difference between a full-size olympic swimming pool and a 2L bottle of soda. (2.5M L vs. 2) In other words, once you reach the level of DX5, perfection is achieved for all normal use cases. Unless you think you could taste the difference between pool water with one bottle of cola in it, and without.

But, but, Mr. kemmler3D, isn't the decible scale logarithmic?
And the bottle of cola would be considered 'homeopathy' ??

I am not afraid to admit that my newbie ears would most likely not hear the difference like you say

 

[kemmler3D]

But, but, Mr. kemmler3D, isn't the decible scale logarithmic?

It is, that's why it's useful for comparing quantities with very large differences between them. But once we get beyond 30dB I think the differences are so large as to be unintuitive. So sometimes I like to pull out real-world comparisons to illustrate how big a difference we are talking about.

Another fun decibel analogy:

If your signal stretched from here to the moon, at -122dB the noise and distortion wouldn't even be the tallest building in NYC. Just 1000 feet. At that point I think the noise and distortion are thoroughly defeated.

 

[JIW]

I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to electricity, power and all that. So when I say I want something less noisy, I mean that I have a clear hum coming from the Asgard 3 when not listening to anything. Even on low gain. And then Im not really cranking the volume knob. I usually have 100% volum on PC, and the amp stays on 50% on low gain, and 25-30% on high gain.

For all I know, all my USB and connectivity issues might stem from some weird voltage/current stuff in my PC. Or even grounding related stuff.

Is the hum still present if you disconnect the USB cable? If it is gone, you likely have a grounding issue. If it is still present, it is likely the Asgard's power supply that is the issue.

 

[dtaylo1066]

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[JIW]

Unless the Asgard is the issue, you can also just get a DAC and connect it to the Asgard via RCA cables. The Topping D10s (reviewed here) can be used as an USB DAC or used to provide an optical signal up to 24 bit 192 kHz to another DAC to break a ground loop.

 

[Robhimself]

Is the hum still present if you disconnect the USB cable? If it is gone, you likely have a grounding issue. If it is still present, it is likely the Asgard's power supply that is the issue.

I was about to say that it's been a while since I willingly pulled the plug when it was working.
But since it's NOT working right now, I might as well connect my headphones and take a listen.

... ...

When powered on and not connected via USB, it's silent.
When connected via USB HUB I hear a low hum, that get really noisy when using high gain and volume knob maxed. And I can clearly hear the hum, with added "static/whitenoise"-ish sound.
When connected via USB directly to PC using USB 2.0, I suddently have an additional sound now, that I've never heard previously. I can only describe it as some sort of rhytmic data-flickering. With a pace that can sound like when a car drives on a seam in the road...: tap,tap, silence, tap,tap, silence. Which takes roughly one second to complete.. over and over. This is with the additional hum and static/whitenoise.

When USB connected, but the switch is flipped to RCA output its totally silent again. So definitely something is wrong with the output from my PC.

 

[Chrispy]

I was about to say that it's been a while since I willingly pulled the plug when it was working.
But since it's NOT working right now, I might as well connect my headphones and take a listen.

... ...

When powered on and not connected via USB, it's silent.
When connected via USB HUB I hear a low hum, that get really noisy when using high gain and volume knob maxed. And I can clearly hear the hum, with added "static/whitenoise"-ish sound.
When connected via USB directly to PC using USB 2.0, I suddently have an additional sound now, that I've never heard previously. I can only describe it as some sort of rhytmic data-flickering. With a pace that can sound like when a car drives on a seam in the road...: tap,tap, silence, tap,tap, silence. Which takes roughly one second to complete.. over and over. This is with the additional hum and static/whitenoise.

When USB connected, but the switch is flipped to RCA output its totally silent again. So definitely something is wrong with the output from my PC.

Any way of just going wireless from your computer?

 

[Robhimself]

Any way of just going wireless from your computer?

Sadly, no. Not without purchasing devices etc.

My PC is outdated, and closing in on retirement for a new one. And I plan to spend more on a motherboard with decent features and output. The Asus Z270-P that I have now only have USB and line out.

But until then I might as well get a dac that fits my minimum requirements, now that I have more insight to what I feel is lacking with the Schiit I have now.

 

[b7676]

Dx5 lacks the resistor ladder analog volume control and so loses out as a preamp against an L70.
Aune S17 presently seems the most feature rich combo for the price.
With the good Topping preamps l70, a90d, a70, you never touch the dac again so it might as well not be on the desk. D6s and e70 for sabre. E70v, su9 ultra, old d90 for akm. Recent balanced cs43131 and 43198 dongles with lineout firmware for cirrus.
Pinkfaun has a pci card with i2s.

 

[JaMaSt]

But until then I might as well get a dac that fits my minimum requirements, now that I have more insight to what I feel is lacking with the Schiit I have now.

Maybe you need one of these?

 

[Chrispy]

Maybe you need one of these?

View attachment 339994

LOL! What kind of idiot buys this crap?

 

[JustJones]

 

[JaMaSt]

LOL! What kind of idiot buys this crap?

People with $150 motherboards with VRM problems, obviously.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

View attachment 339995

I have to think the department of the company that makes one of those looks at it like a lottery ticket. If ever they sell one, everyone goes out to the Pub and gets stinkin', the Ceo pays, and they lie on the floor and pour Aquavit down each other's throats till they puke and pass out.

 

[JustJones]

Well you need 2 cables one from computer to USB reclocker and second to the DAC.

Innuos Phoenix USB Re-clocker​

$4,349.00

 

[kemmler3D]

View attachment 339995

 

[formdissolve]

You say you're eyeing the HD880s, but may I suggest these: Dan Clark Audio Aeon Open X

Slightly hard to drive, but they sound amazing!

As for Windows 10 issues, what exactly is going on? It won't show up as an output device ever? Not in volume control under control panel, settings, various apps, etc? That Asgard 3 multibit should be plug and play without drivers since it's apparently class compliant... I'd probably just sell that thing and get something that works out of the box..

I use Fedora as my daily driver and appreciate the "plug n play" nature of class compliant devices. I did have to modify a pipewire config to allow software to automatically switch sample rate per file

default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 88200 96000 176000 192000 352800 384000 ]

Under /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf