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Hey! I've had some issues with my audio and never bothered fixing it until now. I was hoping to get some advice on how to proceed. MY SITUATION: 1.) My powered Edifier mr4 in general will buzz at a certtain volume whern idle (the roller on the speaker itself). I keep the roller a little down which is just fine, it's not the issue. 2.) my NZXT B550 motherboard rear 3.5mm connector is broken for no reason. They cannot replace/repair because it is no longer selling. I use the front panel 3.5mm connector instead. 3.) My audio configuration is using a 3.5mm out header on my O11D front panel connector. It connects to a Y-splitter. One side of the splitter goes to my Subwoofer (3.5mm to RCA splitter), the other side goes to my edifier MR4's. I do not move the rollers (for levels) on the subwoofer and edifier MR4's as I prefer to adjust volume on windows directly. (Adjusting the speaker would require me to adjust the subwoofer and it sounds weird otherwise) --------------------------------------------- THE SOUND ISSUE I HAVE: ISSUE: outside of the buzz in my situation #1 above, I hear high pitch noise when my mouse moves, and it's really obvious if i temporarily increase volume roller on the speaker. The buzz occurs when I scroll etc. Ther sound seems change a bit if my CPU or GPU is under load, a constant buzz when this happens. My research: My research led me to believe it is not the cables, and it is likely involving lack of EM shielding in the computer. That or it's related to ground loop issues. I've also heard this is an extremely common issue with USB. Apparently, the toshilink is handy here (optical), which I happen to have on my motherboard. --------------------------------------------- HOW DO I PROCEED?: After reading many forum pages on reddit and LTT, I was considering an external DAC or Audio interface. People have suggested DAC over budeget audio interfaces because the quality of the DAC unit inside the audio interface may be very bad (and that the device often focuses on input and ports as opposed to output). Im also told that those dongle DAC's like apple's USB-C one are pretty good. However, I've also read that toshilink's dont allow noise to travel like USB does,and so I've ultimately been looking into Budget DAC's that have toshilink input. Will this solve my issue? SUMMARY: please let me know if this works: B550 -> Toslink Cable -> Budget DAC -> (Y-splitter into powered sub and powered speakers) OR (connecting speaker and sub directly if DAC allows) SOME OTHER IDEAS: Optical to Reciever, audio interface, etc. However, none seem to be economic. Additional Quesitons: Would having a Dac with tube amplifier benefit over one without? Something like this: AIYIMA T10 JAN5654 Tube Vacuum Preamplifier Audio Decoder Do all DAC's inherently have an amplifier inside? Will this matter much for powered devices like mine (speaker and subwoofer are both powered) Will my toshilink cable->DAC idea work in reducing noise on the motherboard? (Mouse movement noise, CPU/GPU load noise, etc) Noticed all the budget DAC recommendations only have 1 output (L/R RCA), any good way to add on more without it becoming gimmicky (bad quality) or super expensive Any sub-100$ DAC recommendations for USA Amazon? If you read these, don't feel pressured to answer ALL of them. that's a ton of work but I do have a ton of questions. Any advice/info is useful

I want to buy me some beyerdynamic 990 pro but the 250 ohm variant. I know that my phone will not and cannot drive them. So is there a solution like the Sony NW-A300(who only can 32ohm if I can read the technical details) It does not need to be android but something that has my music and can also drive the 990.

Got an SMSL SU-1 for Christmas, connected it by optical to our Samsung CU7000 55 TV, into an NAD C 350 amp, then to a pair of passive bookshelf monitors. I changed the RCA inputs from the DAC to different channels on the back of the amp (CD, AUX, VIDEO, etc.) and no sound is coming out of the monitors. I plugged a pair of headphones into the amp, and only the treble frequencies transmit. I'm worried that the DAC itself might be the issue, since -- as I was showing off the presents -- the package slipped from my fingers and dropped onto the tile floor in our house. I'll be searching for a different DAC to test if that is the issue, until then I'm hoping someone on here can provide some advice to help the situation.

I am planning to use an external DAC for my PC. I am a complete newbie in audio so I've looked for entry-level ones and now I'm looking at the iFi Uno. I have a headphone for it already, but I also still want to use my old speaker, Edifier M3200, it's a 2.1 active speaker (I assume it's active). The speaker's manual says that powered signal should not be fed into it. But after some reading, my current understanding is that the iFi Uno functions as a headphone amplifier (cmiiw), but I also read that a DAC only converts signal not amplifying it. So that gives me a bit of confusion. The iFi Uno uses USB-C connection to the computer, and for output it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and RCA (red and white). My Edifier has two 3.5mm inputs at the back of its subwoofer, one for PC and one for CD. Currently I'm assuming that I could use a RCA-to-3.5mm cable to connect the DAC to my speaker. Is that a correct way to do it? For reference, here's the links to the Uno and Edifier: 2.1 Multimedia Speaker Subwoofer System | M3200 -【Edifier】 The uno by iFi audio - The new sonic supercharger from iFi (ifi-audio.com)

Hi all So I've always had some sort of annoyance with the cable. My current cable is partially coiled but I do still get annoyed by straight ones. I won't go wireless (less weight, not having to worry about charge, responsiveness etc), and use a DAC as I do appreciate good sound. With and without the DAC I've run the cable in pretty much every route under and over the desk (including drilling holes for a clean run) with it always being in the way somehow. I've been using a Keychron Q11 for a couple of months now and really like it, having a split keyboard means I can run the cable down the middle which, I feel, has improved things immensely. It wasn't a consideration when buying the board but it was a very nice surprise. It still isn't "perfect" with my hanger being to the side, but I kind of feel that it's as close as I'll get, at least for the moment. How do the rest of you run your cable in a way that is at least satisfactory for you, or have you seen other methods you're interested in but have yet to try?

I recently bought a DAC Dongle for my handset it is a CX31993 Pro, Does it really have DAC sampling rate: 32bits/384KHz. However can I use https://www.startech.com.bd/edifier-p180-plus-earphone this earphone with it ??? I have also seen https://www.startech.com.bd/ other earphones from that site.

Hi I have a moondrop dash keyboard and a scepter O35 monitor. I occasionally plug my Aorus 15pYD laptop running windows 11 into. When I do this the laptop has its screen disables and is effectively docked into the monitors. However If I plug my headphones into my moondrop dash games basically inevitably freeze and audio crackling issues begin shortly after. With plugging into the onboard audio port the audio will also occasionally crackle and games will occasionally freeze but it is an annoyance that happens once or twice an hour for a couple minutes rather than something that starts and wont stop after around 10 minuites/ I have tried using DDU to uninstall graphics drivers I have uninstalled and reinstalled audio drivers I have uninstalled my speaker audio drivers I have used the nvidiaprofile inspector to enable the second monitor thing Id be happy to answer any questions but some help getting this issue resolved so I can use my DAC and play games without issues would be much appreciated. Edit: to clarify what I mean by freeze I mean my inputs will occasionally be held for long periods of time or they wont register, and I get the occasionally actual freeze but its often more of a my inputs don't work.

Hello Please can anyone help me i just got a asustor flashstor 6 i am trying to connect the S/PDIF out of the nas to my DAC Hi-Res Player | ASUSTOR NAS (is not detecting my DAC) as in . no input signal is getting to my dac things i have tried - firmly connect the cable (many times ) - tried with 2 different S/PDIF cable (i.e not cable issue) - checked with a second asustor flashstor 6 (no optical out from nas) - connected HDMI out from NAS -> split the signal to display and S/PDIF audio -> this worked -> but not Optical out from NAS to DAC (issue with this the signal splitter down samples the audio) (i.e its not a DAC issue) please can anyone check if they have the same issue out it works out of the box possible suspect (fitment of S/PDIF cable on the NAS side ) my use case of ssd nas (has optical out ) -> tidal replacement thank you

I've recently been having audio interference/ random audio pops from front panel. I was recommended the Apple USB C to 3.5 mm jack cable, but the issue is still happening even with it. I believe I may need to use my motherboard audio outs, but obviously there's no 3.5 mm jack to use there. Is there a good DAC/ interface (that's not too expensive) to allow me use my earbuds and would also eliminate the audio pop/ crackle? The pop/ crackle seems to only happen during YouTube videos and while streaming shows/ movies. Also only at certain points of a show/movie/video. Please let me know.

my phililps x2hr is a tiny bit too quite for me and i want to invest in a more amp+dac combo, will that help my problem? i know that the dac will not affect the volume but i cant get a standalone amp+ standalone dac due to my set up. also ive been looking at the FiiO E10K, what do you think about it?

I'm very undecided when it comes to which headphones to buy but I guess I can say the DT 900 Pro X are a strong possibility. This said I also currently have the active speakers Eris Presonus 3.5. I currently use them hooked up to my motherboard via RCA (speaker) - 3.5mm (motherboard). I was wondering since I was going to update the headphones and although I've heard the DT 900 are easy to drive, would I benefit at all with a dac/amp where I would hook up my speakers too? I was looking into the Fiio e10k (please correct me if I'm wrong) and I could connect the speakers with the current cable to the e10k "Line Out" and have both headphones and speakers run through it. Right? I also looked at the Schiit Magni/Modi stack (please correct me if I'm wrong) where I could connect the speakers to the RCA OUT of the MODI+ but then I wouldn't be able to connect the MODI to the Magni... right? Any recommendations? What I'm thinking is... if I can improve both the headphones and the speakers the investment is worth it but if it's only the headphones then it's pointless as they can probably run fine connected to the motherboard. Budget: amp and DAC let's say around 250€. I'm going to be using it mostly for gaming, films and music (but MOSTLY gaming). I do use discord so if the dac/amp had a mic input it would be great otherwise I'm just gonna look for a mic that I can connect directly to the PC save me the trouble. Thanks in advance.

I've perused a few posts and been googling a few days without finding an exact solution, and wondering if someone may have some insight. Sorry to be wordy, I want to try to cover all the info so people don't have to ask a bunch of questions I should already include. I'm looking to replace using onboard audio, though I fall into the "don't necessarily need to" camp, but half of my use case is giving me grief. Current specs/items: ASUS ROG Maximus X Code mobo Beyerdynamic DT 880 Special black 600 ohm headphones Yamaha AVR HTR-5240 / Klipsch R52C center/ R51M fronts Behringer X1204USB mixer -related, also have a Soundblaster G6 and another cheap USB sound chip/card. If there's another key item that you want to know, let me know, I think that's basically the items involved. A. The basic setup -- optical out from onboard mobo into my AVR, to power my speakers and all my audio runs through this most of the time. **on a whim, I recently tried using the G6 as my "main" audio and hooked it (mini toslink to toslink) to my AVR and though I feel like it shouldn't make so much difference, it really seemed to open up a lot of sound and things seemed to be clearer and better - so option 1 could simply be, get another G6. B. The secondary setup and use -- the audio from my PC is also being used for (twitch) streaming, which leads to looking for another audio solution to replace using the onboard audio. Ignoring part A as it doesn't relate to how this is used in this purpose: 1. onboard audio on mobo from Gaming PC using 1/8th to dual 1/4 into Behringer mixer on Line In 7/8. 2. cheap USB soundchip from Gaming PC using 1/8th to dual 1/4 into Behringer mixer on Line In 5/6 3. Soundblaster G6 from Gaming PC using 1/8th to dual 1/4 into Channel 3 and Channel 4 (hard panned L and R) 4. this is where I use the DT880 headphones for monitoring/gaming/stream - into the headphone jack on the mixer Now, for both of these, I don't have to change any hardware, I just have to change Windows sound output from "amp" to "line out" when streaming, and change it back when I'm done and then I carry on using my AVR and speakers instead of the mixer. This setup isn't broken in any way, but it feels like it has some areas to improve, and one of them is that the audio from the G6 is way better than my onboard audio. Now, the G6 goes into two mic channels that are amped - so I do have some gain adjustment - and maybe I should just swap these around, because for some reason my line-out from onboard audio is just REALLY quiet, with all volumes maxed. I swear it didn't used to be that way, that I had adequate volume adjustment with the slider in the past, and I tend to blame this on Windows somehow because all my sound issues tend to be because of Windows updates. That being said, I got to looking at DACs to replace using my onboard audio, and to hopefully find a combo DAC/headphone amp sufficient to power my DT880s - AND that also has an optical out so that I can use it to run audio to my AVR as I'm currently doing. I DO NOT NEED A HEADPHONE AMP THOUGH, that part truly is secondary - it is more wishful thinking. I have a feeling that the better opinions will always be to get two separate items anyway and not something that does both, but again the DAC is the main part, and fixing/improving my sound source. So far what I've found, which sort of meets criteria but maybe not perfect: a. the Topping D10 Balanced - which actually has balanced dual 1/4 outs which would be perfect to run to a mixer, and has optical out. However, not a headphone amp/preamp. b. Soundavo HP-DAC1 - roughly the same price as the Topping, has RCA outs instead of 1/4 jacks though, has optical out, and has a headphone preamp - Headphone Output Level: 0.1% THD 1KHz 32mW (32 ohm) c. FX Audio DAC-SQ3 - which looks like a low end non-branded Topping? They are sold under the same "name" on Amazon so I'm not sure on this. It looks to be the same as the D10 but with RCA. It has volume, but no headphone jacks. I keep digging and most of the headphone amps with DAC that I find do not have optical outs. The DAC I find with optical outs don't seem to also be headphone amps. The weird Soundavo HP-DAC1 might be the best solution but I'm not seeing much mention of it anywhere, and not sure if it is a solid piece, or just a solid...piece of garbo. Does anyone have any input, opinions, or ideas on this? I often find the magical niche area where no one makes an item that fits exactly what I need, and it feels like I'm at it again with finding a moderately priced item with a strong enough headphone amp and good DAC, with proper outputs. Thoughts? Am I looking for a unicorn, and should I just focus on a DAC with proper outputs instead of both? Also, I could use a DAC with XLR outs, and I "can" use RCA which would make it more universally usable for other situations, but balanced TRS 1/4 is pretty rad.

(I have posted this on Reddit's TechSupport sub, but I thought here could be a good place too! So this is basically just copypasted from there lmao. Also sorry for phatt text) My audio setup right now consists of:- PC (Voicemeeter) --> Aorus X570 Elite (built-in soundchip, rear line out) --> 3.5mm-to-RCA --> Yamaha R-N602 --> Bookshelf speakers/headphones -- also MSI RTX 2070Super, fwiw Now, it's harder to notice when listening through speakers, but when plugging headphones into the reciever and listening to the PC's output, there is an audible whine. What I eventually noticed, is that whenever something happens on the PC screen, whenever content being displayed changes - I scroll a window, I move the cursor, I hover over a link and the displayed pixels change - there is a buzzing sound on top of the whine. This extra interference only happens whenever something happens on screen. Which leads me to believe they are linked.I have heard that sometimes, motherboard soundchips can get intereference from the video card ? Which in this case would make sense as the interference is worse when things are happening on-screen, i.e, the graphics card. So, on the rear of the Yamaha receiver, there are the RCA inputs. I have a turntable plugged into the PHONO, and my PC's 3.5mm to RCA plugged into Line 1 (I mentioned this because the sound is also audible when switching to the Phono output on the reciever, almost like all the RCA ports are linked. Other types of output are not affected). So I am wondering, what can I do about this? I am using an external receiver, so it seems like the problem is occuring before the sound is even leaving my PC. So this issue would also carry over into other DACs and Amps right? How do I prevent it? EDIT IN RESPONSE TO A COMMENT:- I've done a little more looking round, and I seem to have found a thing called 'coil whine'? Which seems to be the term for the interference from the electronic components, especially between the GPU + motherboard. Most sources say the big annoying thing about coil whine is that it's audible THROUGH the PC case from the components. I don't notice that as much due to ambient sounds etc. So it seems like this coil whine is 'leaking' into the audio signal ? Another thing with coil whine was, people said it is noticible at high FPS. My monitor is 165Hz. So I did a little test, and I dropped the refresh rate to 60Hz, and I noticed that the whine I was hearing changed. It was still there, but almost like its frequency changed. I could almost hear dicrete buzzes, where once the refresh rate was raised to 165 again, these discrete 'buzzes' merged into one sound, due to the increasing frequency(?). If that makes sense? So just another pointer that this looks like what I am dealing with. I dug out and plugged in this little USB PnP sound device. I thought this would be a step in the right direction, since the output is being moved away from the noisy components, but the whine was still audible when connecting my 3.5mm-to-RCA into the USB device, and the RCA end into Line 1 of my reciever. I tried both front and rear USB ports, with the whine in all of them. I'm just thinking of options, and which ones would work. I don't know the quality of that USB sound dongle lol, so perhaps a ~new cheapo USB sound card --> reciever~ would be okay? Or those ferrite cable clips? (I do actually have an interface for my XLR microphone! But I only ever use the microphone for things like Discord calls etc, rather than recording so I never actually get to hear if any whine is present in that lol (however never had any complaints), and I have noticed that my mic interface's USB cable has one of those built in, perhaps controlling the whine of my mic input..?) I was thinking of getting a decent desktop USB DAC, but I don't want to spend on one of those if this whine will just carry on over into that too..!!

Does anyone know what impendance the speaker of notebooks generally or in special the T530 thinkpad have? I want to do some audio mod on my T530 with instaling a DAC (Audioquest Dragonfly red) internally via an MSATA to USB converter and then solder a connctor to the internal speaker cables. I am not sure, that the speakers can work with a DAC that gives up to 2.1 watt and is made for high impendance headsets. In the specs it says that they want at least 12 ohm... So I am not sure... Reasons for this: I love my T530. I does run everything I need in a pc. It is very quiet and energy efficient. Love the display. It runs like 16 hours a day. Just the sound is very lacking. And after researching it is not just the speaker being small, but the sound solution in the post IBM area cheaping out on the Dac after the soundchip that makes the internal speaker sound worse than they must. So if it improves the sound a bid, I do not mind spending here. I just need to know if the speaker/dac combo can work without destroying the dac.

What I have is a DAC connected to a computer, an amp connected to the DAC, and headphones to the amp. For theoretical best audio quality, should I turn up the computer audio and turn down the amp, or should I turn down the computer audio and turn up the amp and why?

It needs to be able to power the 600 ohm dt880 pro's (95.56 dB/mW, 101.53 dB/V SPL)

Recently I realized my audio sounds unbalanced, its louder in one ear. Im pretty sure theres something wrong with my dac (Audiotrack Prodigy Cube Black Edition) since its unbalanced no matter which pair of headphones i use. Is there any easy way to diagnose whats broken and repair it? I dont really want to spend money to buy a new dac

im thinking about buying one of those two, im using sony mdr-1am2 and epos h6 pro mainly for my pc which do you recommend?

Hi, As the title suggests, I am interested in a dac amp combo for under or just above £200. I'm currently eyeing the Atom DAC+/AMP+. Unsure if this helps but my current motherboard is the X570 TUF GAMING-PLUS (WIFI). Any help would be heavily appreciated, thanks in advance.

Hey there! I'm kinda struggling with trying to change my audio setup. I currently have a Pioneer VSX-D510 (I know its ridiculous for this setup but I got it for free) which I have my AKG K712 Pro's plugged into. This is connected with Optical to my PC since my onboard audio is horrific. For size limitations I want to get a smaller setup for this so I have been looking at soundcards or external combo solutions (Would've loved to get my hands on Schiit but its basically impossible to buy in Europe atm). In the future I'd love to be able to hook a PS5 and maybe even my Nintendo Switch up to it aswell so I can easily just use one device for this. Are there soundcards out there that allow you to plug in something like a game console and pass the audio through your pc? Or is an external solution the only option there. Hoping I can find something for under €250 preferably and I was wondering if people had experience with a similar situation? Bramskebab

I am trying to setup a 5.1 speaker system with a receiver (Sony STRDH590) to my desktop. I tried to connect the computer and the receiver together via an optical audio cable. When I turned the receiver on it played music, however the left and right sounds where only coming out. I later found out that the optical audio on the computer only supports Left and Right speakers. The only way to use 5.1 sound from my computer are the 3.5mm ports for the speakers in a 5.1 setup. My receiver does not have individual inputs for speakers, so I want to have the input be optical audio. I have a Sound Blaster Recon 3di to process sound to the receiver. I looked for drivers the supports 5.1 optical audio, but I found nothing. If anyone has any ideas how I can move forward feel free to drop a comment. Thanks

Hi, I just bought an xbox console and so far I'm loving it except for one thing that drives me crazy. As I've found out, the xbox has no proper audio outputs, so I'm only limited to the jack on the console. I have a Logitech PRO X wired headset that comes with a basic usb DAC and there is no way to connect the DAC, which makes the audio poor at best. I've been searching the web and found suggestions to use an HDMI splitter (such as this one ebay) so that I can use the other HDMI output to get the sound using a 3rd party device. I could not found any splitter from a reputable brand that could output a 4k @120 Hz video and I'm kinda afraid to try a generic one similar to the one I linked. Can you suggest any that has worked for you? My other problem is that even if I find the right splitter, I would need to convert the hdmi plug to an usb in, so that I can attach my Logitech usb dac to it, but so far, I could not find any converter that could do this (and I think due to bandwidth or any other incompatibility issues there may be none). This brings me to my other question: could you recommend a DAC/AMP that accepts an HDMI input and has a Jack output? So far, i could only manage to find the Evolve 2 4K or this one also from essence, but those are way above the money I would spend on it. I'm a complete n00b when it comes to audio tech so any advice is appreciated.

Hiyo, I'm looking at getting a pair of hd600(s) but am unsure as to what if anything I should be getting to power and unlock the full potential of this pair. I would rather not spend more than £200 (<- reside in the UK) on a stack and thus have looked into JDSLABS atom amp+/dac+. Originally looked into a schiit stack but they seem to be out of stuck as of now. In addition, if anyone has better alternatives in the UK in terms of performance whilst being available, I would be more than happy. Thanks for any assistance in advance. EDIT: motherboard is -> AMD TUF x570 ATX GAMING (WIFI)

Hello folks! I've recently been getting a lot into the audiophile gear stuff (and by that, I mean researching, not really picking things up). I've been using my Beyerdynamic's Custom One Pro Plus for about 7 years now and am completely happy with them! However, I really want to get into higher quality headphones that are openback, and for some reason, my heart's just set on DT 1990 Pro. And since my COPs are only 16 Ohms headphones, I dont really need a separate amp obviously. But now as a newbie, getting straight into the higher bracket gear such as DT1990 Pro, I do wonder what would be the best option for me right now? (My onboard audio says they're capable of driving even 600 Ohm pairs, but idk if that's still going to do these headphones justice but here's the link: https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z370-e-gaming-model/spec ) Some suggestions I see and that are available to me are: FiiO K5 Pro, FiiO E10K (cheaper but idk how good they are compared to K5 Pro), Topping E30/L30 stack (kinda pushing the budget but if they're REALLY better compared to the cheaper options, I could try getting them if they're justified). I'm from India, so my options are kinda limited, the two major online stores i can get the equipment from are: headphonzone.in and amazon.in My budet's around 25,000 Rs. (330 USD) TL;DR - Kinda new to audiophile gear, need to figure out which Amp/DAC's worth it in the budget to drive DT 1990 Pro to their full potential. Thanks.

I’m looking for a dac to pair with sennheiser hd660s that could support dual audio imputs at the same time. I currently use a artis pro plus game dac where I use audio from my pc and my iPad at the same time so I can play game and watch videos without having to navigate through other tabs. I was wondering if there is a dac/amp that would work well for both gaming and audiophile listening which could support imput from my pc and iPad/ or other device simultaneously, preferably under $300. Thanks