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Problem with my USB fed Micro DAC - Page 2

post #16 of 25
11/5/07 at 4:46am
Cyarron,

ok, I am officially out of easy answers...

The only "easy" solution that I can still think of is to try and upgrade the drivers for the soundcard and hope that newer drivers perform better...

Other then that indeed Asio4all is another route to take.
Asio is actually a driver model for recording equipment but has gained a reputation for good SQ on Windows since it bypasses the Windows mixer and disables the re-sampling that happens for standard music files.

A CD is recorded at 44.1KHz and 16bit, but Windows internally uses 48KHz, so all music going through the Windows mixer is re-sampled to 48KHz and then changed to 44.1KHz again in the DAC.

There is a nice thread here on Head-Fi that explains it better and shows you how to set it up.
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post #17 of 25
11/5/07 at 5:23pm
Thread Starter 
drivers for the soundcard? I only use the DAC straight from USB. Does the soundcard effect the usb output? Btw, I tired ASIO4All and couldn't get it to work, nor do I want to because I won't be able to use my DSPs. What I really want is a computer setup that isn't ridiculously unportable that will guarantee me perfect sound quality (no notable jitter or errors added by the k mixer). What I mean is that, until the DAC, nothing effects the sound. Is there a PCMCIA card that does this reliably (digital out) that also has a good internal DAC (for when I am away from my desk and am using my lappy and my IEM's)? If not a PCMCIA then what other options are there? I have more or less given up fixing the USB input and since I know that it is inferior anyway, I am ready to try optical or coaxial.
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post #18 of 25
11/5/07 at 5:36pm
I had better luck with USB_ASIO - you can try it before you buy it.

1) Take a look at the overall health of your laptop. Virus/Malware clear? Disk Recently Defragged? Enough RAM and open Disk Space to prevent much paging? (HD thrashing does not help sound thru put)

2) most laptops have some inboard sound circuitry. There have to be drivers for that.

3) Look at your firmware, bios and drivers chipset thru windows updates.

4) Check to be sure you don't have unneeded start up programs sucking system performance.

5) check your windows audio section. disable the windows noises.

6) I would get it working with generic windows USB audio driver using direct sound first, when thats working as it should, then start playing with kernal streaming and/or ASIO.

7) now is a great time to look at removing software on your computer you don't use any more

8) avoid USB hubs until things work well. Get some music on your local hard disk to work well before branching to USB drive run thru a hub.

That being said, I have done well with a hub running both the hard disk and the TotalBitHead off a laptop while travelling before. I know the Headroom USB dac stuff will do that without any problem. I vote for something wrong in your laptop hardware/software causing your trouble. Have you tried the DAC on a different computer yet? Easy way to decide which end of the USB cable to be looking for trouble.

Good Luck. It will be worth your trouble.
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post #19 of 25
11/5/07 at 6:46pm
Try uninstalling both the Micro DAC and your sound card (literally delete them from the Hardware Manager), then starting over.

Also, how does it sound, anyway?
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post #20 of 25
11/6/07 at 3:14pm
and one last thing to try: what happpens when you play music not from your internal harddisk or CD but instead of another USB device, be it Stick or disk?

I have to admit that otherwise I am really out od things to try since I have used USB driven music devices on quite a few machines of varying specs by now but never had such a persistent problem....

Sorry
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post #21 of 25
11/6/07 at 7:28pm
Thread Starter 
No luck. I give up. I don't want to do a full reinstall so I guess I am stuck with this. As I asked in my last post, what are the best optical and coaxial solutions for laptops (check my last post above for more)?
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post #22 of 25
11/8/07 at 6:05pm
Thread Starter 
Awwww.... No suggestions? Come on Head-Fi, I'm asking for you to help me spend more money! Isn't that what you do best?
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post #23 of 25
11/9/07 at 5:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyarron View Post
Awwww.... No suggestions? Come on Head-Fi, I'm asking for you to help me spend more money! Isn't that what you do best?
Even that MicroDAC should work perfectly fine out of USB, if properly set up, you can still improve SQ by running something like M-Audio Transit as USB-SPDIF converter between laptop and MicroDAC, turn on SRC 24/96 upsampling an it'll get even better.
Make sure to use Transit ASIO drivers though, and set it to 24/96 as well in its control panel.
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post #24 of 25
11/9/07 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Thats what I was thinking. BTW, I thought I had the problem fixed with a driver update to my internal soundcard, but no luck after all. This is really pissing me off. Does anyone know if there is a site that has windows drivers for the MicroDAC? The driver my computer is using now is just a generic usb dac driver and I cannot find a newer version. Could this be the problem?
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post #25 of 25
11/10/07 at 8:57am
your lappy pci or pci-express? (pc card/pcmcia/card bus or expresscard slot)
buy an add-on card with spdif out so you can avoid usb completely. e-mu 1616 comes to mind. audigy and x-fi both have spdif out, but I'm not sure if they do bit-perfect.
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