Computer noise coming through DAC

Okay folks. I'm sort of stuck. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here, so maybe you can help.

My signature shows my current setup.

Now I'm not sure if this is related to my issue, but recently I reinstalled my Realtek audio drivers because I was having issues trying to get sound working in PowerDVD through S/PDIF to my DAC. All that would come out was a blast of noise. I have no issues using S/PDIF to my iBasso D10 in any other application... so far its just PowerDVD that's giving me issues.. The D10 DAC has the ability to process audio via S/PDIF or USB cable, so I decided to use the USB cable instead thinking that PowerDVD might work that way. Well, it does... but for some reason I'm getting tons of computer noise through USB that's not apparent through S/PDIF. Not only that, but I'm not able to raise or lower the speaker volume with the USB connection to the DAC. I can only raise and lower volume via the amp connected to the DAC. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong here. Anyone have any ideas? The only thing I can think of that I haven't tried yet, and will after this post is that I know my motherboard has a Cool&Quiet setting for fans in the BIOS. I'm wondering if I turn that off if that will help...

Anyways, any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

EDIT: Diabling the Cool&Quiet feature didn't help a bit.

EDIT2: Swapping USB ports doesn't seem to do anything.

     Quote:

Yep, I've selected USB Audio Codec in my playback settings. I can hear audio, I'm just hearing a lot of computer noise as well.

Yeah, I sort of rushed through my setup in my OP to keep things short. Basically I'm slowly converting my PC into a Home Theater PC. After a recent move I've mostly been listening to audio via a cheap 2.5 speaker setup with Win7 default audio drivers (I hate Realtek so have been avoiding them). Recently I got a blu-ray player and over Christmas I got a few blu-ray movies. I thought, "hey, since I don't have a 5.1 surround sound setup yet, let's see what this sounds like via PowerDVD's Dolby Headphone surround sound." So I was going optical out to my DAC, then from the DAC to a Little Dot headphone amp, then from the amp to my HD650s. I start a movie and then was hit by an ear shattering blast of white noise. I look in the PowerDVD audio settings and it looks like it recognizes the S/PDIF out, but it won't play normal audio. So I think "ah man, it must be because I don't have the Realtek drivers installed." So I install the Realtek drivers from my mobo's website, try it again, and still noise in PowerDVD. I test out a bunch of other apps (including things like foobar, youtube, MPC) and everything sounds fine with those, its just PowerDVD that's giving me issues. I uninstall the mobo Realtek drivers and install drivers from Realtek's website... same thing. So I think "okay, I'll just out smart PowerDVD and use USB out to the DAC instead of the S/PDIF out". So I set that up, and before I even start PowerDVD or any other audio program I hear a ton of computer noise in the HD650s. Granted I have the Little Dot up pretty high, but I'm thinking I shouldn't be hearing this much noise, and even turning the amp down half-way, the computer noise is still very noticeable. I test out PowerDVD anyways, and okay, this time I can hear the movie audio and can even select Dolby Headphone, but the background computer noise is driving me nuts. I go to turn down the volume via the Windows volume controller and notice that its not doing a thing. The only way I can apparently control volume via USB out to the DAC and then to the amp, is through the amp itself.

Yes, I'm aware of this, and that's okay with me. It just seems odd to me that its also disabled in Windows.

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Originally Posted by leeperry 

groundloop, you need an ADuM4160 dongle.

Oh, Okay cool. Any recommendations where to get one?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MR.X 

Quote:

Originally Posted by adrift 

 

Quote:

If you connect your amp through line out on the d10 the volume pot on the d10 will be disabled.

Yes, I'm aware of this, and that's okay with me. It just seems odd to me that its also disabled in Windows.

When using d10 as the dac the volume control in windows is automatically disabled as well. If the application has its own volume control then it will work but if it is connected to windows volume it will also not work. You will have to use your amp to control the volume while using those applications. Like the volume bar does not work for me when using windows media center but it works in other applications like VLC.

 

 

Okay, cool. Then that's not an issue. That's good to know. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MR.X 

So I installed PowerDVD myself, and yes its volume control does not work while using the d10 because like I said it uses windows volume. I have connected the same way I mentioned earlier, for the speaker environment

- (current speaker settings) (2 speaker)

- Headphone

- 2 speaker

all of them work fine and all of the three output mode as well.

 

I am not exactly sure why you are getting noise, try another player, try different files in PowerDVD because all of it seems to work perfectly in my setup.

I'm not having issues with other players with most other media types through the optical out. I only wanted to use PowerDVD to play blu-rays which I won't be able to do in other players (unless I'm using AnyDVD or something). But your experiment tells me that there is an issue somewhere. I don't know if its software related or hardware related though.

Well thank you for all your help.

Just wanted to give an update on my situation. I think that I probably need to reinstall PowerDVD or something. I downloaded a Trial copy of TotalMedia Theatre 5 and the SPDIF out works fine with it. I had to set it to use either DTS or PMC first otherwise I got the same noise I was getting in PowerDVD in any output mode.