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Chirping in headphones with new AMP (Schiit Valhalla)

post #1 of 13
5/6/11 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 

I just got a pair of akg 701's and used them plugged directly to my PC for a few days. there was no issue with the sound, I love em.

 

then a couple of days later my schiit valhalla arrives. when I'm plugged in through that (x-fi prelude -> valhalla -> 701s) I get a constant chirping sound (sorry to not use a better term, I don't want to use the wrong one so I'm just describing the sound).

 

It seems to be interference of some sort, gets worse when I scroll the mousewheel and stuff.

 

so today I grabbed a friend's emu 0404 usb and set everything up through that, but I still have the sound issue.

 

any ideas how I can go about dealing with this? external solution is the most common answer on here but that hasn't worked for me.

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post #2 of 13
5/6/11 at 5:11pm

The sound is there even if you do go through the external DAC route? It must be the amp then. Are you playing the music really loud? 

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post #3 of 13
5/6/11 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 

yeah it's still there.

 

the music is set full volume pretty much everywhere but the amp itself. I tried lowering it on the dac and the problem persisted.

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post #4 of 13
5/6/11 at 11:05pm

It might be a hardware issue with the amp itself. Have you tried any other headphones plugged into the same setup, and have you tried plugging the amp into another source besides your computer? 

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post #5 of 13
5/6/11 at 11:23pm
If its increasing while scrolling perhaps wireless interference? Are you using a wireless mouse or have a wireless router near you amp? I know that if I plug my amp into my dac if I have my phone next to my amp I get interference from the phone.
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post #6 of 13
5/6/11 at 11:28pm
Thread Starter 

I tried it attached to a portable player (iaudio) and there is no issue

 

if I connect to the dac directly with the headphones there is no problem... I have no other headphones to test right now with the amp

 

edit - my wireless router is right nearby, mouse and keyboard are both wired


Edited by variable114 - 5/6/11 at 11:32pm
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post #7 of 13
5/6/11 at 11:45pm
My only suggestions would be to try moving either your router or computer/amp away from each other and see if you still get the noise.

for a quick test you could always just unplug your router and see if it goes away.
Edited by Gatepc - 5/6/11 at 11:46pm
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post #8 of 13
5/6/11 at 11:49pm
Thread Starter 

yeah I'm gonna unplug anything that could be effecting it soon, just watching something at the moment (streaming). Will update this post soon, thanks for all the help.

 

 

edit

 

 

okay. router off, cell phone and house portable phone out of the room, still a problem.

 

happens when the amp is connected to the pc at all, with or without usb dac

 

doesn't happen with amp attached to a portable music device (iaudio)

 

argh this is frustrating. I can blast some music and it covers the sounds but I really want to listen to some classical and jazz and the sound just totally ruins it all. I don't know how to check anymore individual options, and since it works fine with the portable player I am hesitant to say it's the amp. 


Edited by variable114 - 5/7/11 at 1:02am
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post #9 of 13
5/7/11 at 12:59pm
Thread Starter 

 

even though I don't get the problem through other sources I guess I'm gonna try replacing the wire schiit sent with this amp. I am not sure what else to try. the computer alone is no issue, the amp with another source is no issue, the dac itself has no issue.

 

but computer + amp creates an issue.

 

edit - new wire makes no difference. I guess I'll contact schiit. hopefully I can get a replacement I guess. complete bummer.

 

edit - I'm talking to a schiit guy, he thinks it's the computer but will replace or return the amp if we can't find a solution. 

 

I may put this in a thread more people are likely to see, but this guy responded immediately to an email on a saturday evening and has already been very very helpful. I'm impressed.


Edited by variable114 - 5/7/11 at 6:40pm
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post #10 of 13
5/7/11 at 8:01pm
May be a grounding problem. Try directly connecting both amp / computer to the same outlet. It could also be a grounding problem inside the computer which is harder to fix.
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post #11 of 13
5/7/11 at 8:04pm
Thread Starter 

they are both connected to a surge protector.

 

I am going to try an optical between the dac and the computer. I think that was mentioned in here but I didn't quite understand, I thought I was meant to connect to the amp via optical somehow (my misunderstanding as i said, I'm not really familiar with optical)

 

the schiit guy said optical to the pc should 'decouple the grounds' which may solve the problem. worth a try.

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post #12 of 13
5/7/11 at 11:57pm
Thread Starter 

after a whole lot of messing around by me, it works.

 

flac -> asio4all -> x-fi prelude -> optical cable -> emu 0404 usb -> schiit valhalla -> akg 701

 

and not a chirp! woo

 

not sure if the asio stuff is redundant or exactly how the sampling all works but I'm getting sound. can always easily tweak from here.

 

thanks for the help everyone.

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post #13 of 13
5/8/11 at 7:37pm

Glad you got everything working and it wasn't defective hardware. Hope you enjoy your new setup for awhile!

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