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Will DACs remove Electrical Interference?

Yuniks
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Hello LTT community.

 

I have Turtle Beach headphones and whenever I plug them in my desktop PC, I hear a lot of distortion and crackling noises even when I'm just idling on the desktop. I looked up ways to get rid of it, and a video I watched said DACs are great at removing Electrical Interference(the distortion/crackling noise). 

 

So do DACs remove this electrical interference? If so, can you recommend good DACs that are not too expensive? Average cost I saw for a DAC was ~$70  :mellow:

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yes.

you will need an amp too.

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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yes, assuming you're buying an external DAC.  

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are you plugging it into the front panel audio? or rear ports?

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Absolutely not.

 

Moving to an external DAC can remove interference by getting the audio electronics away from sources of EMI inside your case. However, the DAC itself is not responsible for cleaning the signal in any way. Same goes for an external amp - moving away from the interference source is what matters.

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are you plugging it into the front panel audio? or rear ports?

I tried plugging it in both and I got the same interference with both.

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yes.

you will need an amp too.

Don't amps just give you the ability to change the volume with the device instead of changing the volume on the PC?

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Also I forgot to mention, my headset is USB powered so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

.

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Don't amps just give you the ability to change the volume with the device instead of changing the volume on the PC?

No

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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Also I forgot to mention, my headset is USB powered so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

.

 

Well, that means that you're not using your onboard audio anyway. The interference could be coming over the USB connection or it could be the headset that is having problems.

 

Either way, an external DAC and amp won't help you unless you have an analog headphone or headset.

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Don't amps just give you the ability to change the volume with the device instead of changing the volume on the PC?

 

Kind of - a DAC alone is not designed to drive a headphone. You need an amplifier after a DAC to raise the voltage and provide enough current.

 

The really confusing part is this - most products called a "DAC" you'll be looking at actually also have an amplifier. If it has any sort of physical volume control, it has an amp. :)

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