Weird USB DAC behavior

[RuSmillie]

Thought I would share an issue I had with a USB audio DAC where I was hearing popping sounds when listening to Youtube, Spotify, and even downloaded music. After two days of reading through posts about popping sounds and diving into the world of DPC latency, I still hadn't solved the popping/crackling sound. Eventually, I got annoyed and decided to play some games and low and behold the popping/crackling sounds disappeared. My best guess is that my graphics card was taking priority over my usb audio and by playing a game it fixed the order, but that is a very wild guess. Does anyone have a better idea of why it happened in the first place?

[Max_Settings]

What DAC do you have. Could be noisy USB.

[RuSmillie]

Micca Origen. And the popping sound is back...  So it seems that playing a game fixes the issue until I am no longer running any games.

 

[vanished]

I would try an optical connection.  It's digital like USB but because it's just light without a wire, it will be isolated from any weird voltage stuff you have going on.

[RuSmillie]

I would give optical a shot but the older model I have does not have an optical input, only output.

[Max_Settings]

28 minutes ago, RuSmillie said:

Micca Origen. And the popping sound is back...  So it seems that playing a game fixes the issue until I am no longer running any games.

 

Which generation? The first two generations had serious USB issues. The new G2 fixed it.

[RuSmillie]

I believe it is the first generation. I've had it for awhile and never had this issue. It works perfectly when plugged into my mac and all problems stop when a game is running, even in the background. I feel like if it were a usb issue then the issue would persist in game and out game?

[Max_Settings]

3 hours ago, RuSmillie said:

I believe it is the first generation. I've had it for awhile and never had this issue. It works perfectly when plugged into my mac and all problems stop when a game is running, even in the background. I feel like if it were a usb issue then the issue would persist in game and out game?

Coil whine most likely from the GPU.