I have been enjoying high quality audio with a black background with my PC Audio gear per signature below for over a year, until the last several weeks when an annoying low level hiss has become evident during music playback. It is especially noticeable in quiet passages of classical piano music, my favorite genre, and driving me a bit batty!
I did add the Furman power conditioner in April at which time I also removed an iFi iGalvanic, but the hiss began some weeks later. I've worked through the usual troubleshooting steps, re-securing all connections, adding back the iGalvanic between PC and Singxer as it was before (no effect), assuring all components are plugged into the Furman to minimize ground loop potential, opening the PC and using compressed air on fans to remove dust etc... All of these steps produced no appreciable attenuation of the hiss. I even cleaned my ears of wax with peroxide 3 consecutive days in case there was unrecognized accumulation casing tinnitus or some "host factor" rather than gear factor. No difference. Using my go to software HQPlayer versus FooBar both produced the hiss, although it may have been a tad less with Foobar (less resolving, less DSP, or perhaps just my imagination?). Next, to determine if it might be my Singxer DDC, Matrix DAC, Elise amp or ZMF Auteur at fault, today I used my Shanling M1 DAP as PC USB DAC, output to 64 Audio or Linsoul IEM's, completely bypassing those 4 desktop listening components, and the exact same level of his was audible. Even more interesting was that the Shanling DAC has a timed function wherein it auto-stops 10-15 seconds after playback ends, and voila, once the DAC disengaged the hiss was gone!
I'm a bit stumped. I think the above results isolate the issue to PC noise origin, and admittedly it is not a dedicated audio PC. But why now after previously no issues with same gear, might there be a component going bad? I would have thought running the PC USB out to Singxer than Singxer I2S to Matrix DAC would have eliminated USB noise, but perhaps there are other PC sources of hiss even though USB is my only interface out to the audio equipment. Next step may be to remove the Furman although it's situated rather inaccessibly and would be quite a chore to reconnect all, and seems counter-intuitive to replace those power connections into lesser quality power strips.
So apologies for the long post, but I welcome any and all suggestions and of course can provide more information if it will allow one of the forum cognizanti to help me troubleshoot.
Sincere thanks!
I did add the Furman power conditioner in April at which time I also removed an iFi iGalvanic, but the hiss began some weeks later. I've worked through the usual troubleshooting steps, re-securing all connections, adding back the iGalvanic between PC and Singxer as it was before (no effect), assuring all components are plugged into the Furman to minimize ground loop potential, opening the PC and using compressed air on fans to remove dust etc... All of these steps produced no appreciable attenuation of the hiss. I even cleaned my ears of wax with peroxide 3 consecutive days in case there was unrecognized accumulation casing tinnitus or some "host factor" rather than gear factor. No difference. Using my go to software HQPlayer versus FooBar both produced the hiss, although it may have been a tad less with Foobar (less resolving, less DSP, or perhaps just my imagination?). Next, to determine if it might be my Singxer DDC, Matrix DAC, Elise amp or ZMF Auteur at fault, today I used my Shanling M1 DAP as PC USB DAC, output to 64 Audio or Linsoul IEM's, completely bypassing those 4 desktop listening components, and the exact same level of his was audible. Even more interesting was that the Shanling DAC has a timed function wherein it auto-stops 10-15 seconds after playback ends, and voila, once the DAC disengaged the hiss was gone!
I'm a bit stumped. I think the above results isolate the issue to PC noise origin, and admittedly it is not a dedicated audio PC. But why now after previously no issues with same gear, might there be a component going bad? I would have thought running the PC USB out to Singxer than Singxer I2S to Matrix DAC would have eliminated USB noise, but perhaps there are other PC sources of hiss even though USB is my only interface out to the audio equipment. Next step may be to remove the Furman although it's situated rather inaccessibly and would be quite a chore to reconnect all, and seems counter-intuitive to replace those power connections into lesser quality power strips.
So apologies for the long post, but I welcome any and all suggestions and of course can provide more information if it will allow one of the forum cognizanti to help me troubleshoot.
Sincere thanks!
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) - maybe worth reinstalling the drivers.