ishkav
Rank: Soloist
Posts: 18 
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Post by ishkav on May 28, 2020 15:20:48 GMT
Hi, everyone.
Since I purchased a Burson Soloist SL MKII a year ago or so, I noticed one thing: with some usb dacs, the noise was impossible to ignore.
It doesn't happen with the Mydac I use the most, but any other dac with usb, affects the sound. It doesn't happen with any other headphone amp I have, not even the very cheap Bravo Audio V2.
I tried one of those cheap usb ground loop isolators, but it didn't work with high speed usb connection, so it limited my dac to 24/96 (let's face it, I may not need more, but most of this hobby is chasing things we don't need anyway).
I love the Soloist, so I'm not willing to change the amp unless I can't fix the usb noises.
I've read about the iDefender, and it seems to be compatible with usb 3.0, so I would be able to play higher bitrates... if it does what it promises, of course. But I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with it.
Thanks!
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Post by John on May 28, 2020 16:09:41 GMT
I use 3 ifi silencers on my ASCUS Tinkerboard and works for me in helping reduce noise. I have no experience of the defender. We have a few people on the site using the silencer.
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Post by MartinT on May 28, 2020 16:59:31 GMT
Have you checked your grounding arrangements carefully? You shouldn't be getting noise with one DAC but not another unless possibly the Burson is floating or there is some other issue with connections or cables.
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ishkav
Rank: Soloist
Posts: 18
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Post by ishkav on May 28, 2020 17:51:18 GMT
Have you checked your grounding arrangements carefully? You shouldn't be getting noise with one DAC but not another unless possibly the Burson is floating or there is some other issue with connections or cables. It's very weird, but it only happens with the Soloist, and I've tried changing cables, moving the stuff to keep thing away...
The moment I cut the ground from a usb cable and connected, the sound disappeared, so it's clearly a usb ground loop.
That I haven't been able to get rid of so far.
The grounding in the electrical network of old buildings like the one I live in leaves a lot to be desired. That could be contributing.
If the idefender works, I'll let you know. I'm going to try it. If it doesn't, I'm afraid I'll start looking for another head amp. Even with a usb to spdif adapter, the loop gets in the way, and the iMac I use can't go higher then 24/96 through optical.
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Post by MartinT on May 28, 2020 18:56:57 GMT
You could try a USB cable with discontinuous ground?
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Post by Pinch on May 28, 2020 20:15:42 GMT
What's the device that you're connecting to the DAC? A PC of some sort, or other streamer? If so, it might be worth playing with the grounding arrangements for this device. A couple of things to try: running an ground cable between the device and the DAC/pre, or using a cheater plug to float the device.
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ishkav
Rank: Soloist
Posts: 18
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Post by ishkav on May 28, 2020 20:25:48 GMT
You could try a USB cable with discontinuous ground? I tried disconnecting the ground of a usb cable. The noise was much lower, but there still was some left.
There was a dramatic decrease of the noise, but it was still not good enough.
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ishkav
Rank: Soloist
Posts: 18
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Post by ishkav on May 28, 2020 20:28:29 GMT
What's the device that you're connecting to the DAC? A PC of some sort, or other streamer? If so, it might be worth playing with the grounding arrangements for this device. A couple of things to try: running an ground cable between the device and the DAC/pre, or using a cheater plug to float the device. An iMac. I tried using the same outlet as the Soloist, then a different one, then connecting both to their exclusive outlets, then to the same outlet divided...
None of that worked.
The thing is the time I have available for any experiment is scarce. Like... really scarce.
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