[BigEarsMan]

Hello,

I have an issue in that i can hear interference from my pc motherboard audio out. Its like a low hum/hiss sometimes almost like beeping. It's very faint but annoying when I have nothing playing through the headphones. It strangely seems to get a bit louder when I move the mouse around. I'm serious about that last part, I know it sounds crazy.

btw its an Asrock b250 pro4 motherboard
a link to the motherboard: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B250 Pro4/index.asp

I use the audio out at the back. the green 3.5mm.

I have it hooked up to a schiit magni amp. I use it to drive my beyerdynamic dt880 and sennheiser hd598 headphones. I have the amp from back when I gamed on console. Had it hooked up to a mixamp.

I was told a DAC should eliminate this problem. I guess I'm limited to USB DACs because there's not optical out on my motherboard.

Would a USB DAC fix this? Which one should I get. I don't want to spend $99 on Schiit modi. Looking for something maybe in the range of $50. Really want to just hear silence when there's not audio playing on my headphones.

Also as I mentioned I don't need an amp. Seems a lot of low budget stuff are DAC/AMP and I don't know if AMP to AMP makes any sense.

Any suggestions?

 

[jacknson123]

just a small usb dac will eliminate the hiss, I had the same problem before.

 

[SoundDouble]

If you're not stuck on the usb dac idea, I installed the soundblaster ZX sound card on my desktop. It removed the interference that my mainboard was giving me. Gave me better power output, balanced headphone jacks, and to my surprise allowed me to overclock a little more. A little added bonus.

 

[BigEarsMan]

If you're not stuck on the usb dac idea, I installed the soundblaster ZX sound card on my desktop. It removed the interference that my mainboard was giving me. Gave me better power output, balanced headphone jacks, and to my surprise allowed me to overclock a little more. A little added bonus.

on seeing your suggestion about a soundcard I was wondering if it would make any difference since its internal. But thanks to your suggestion called up a friend who always has a bunch of old pc components and asked him if he had an extra sound card lying around that I can try. He gave me an old asus xonar dg card. It completely got rid of all the interference. Maybe its placebo effect but to me it also sounds better than the on board audio. I could be very wrong and there's no difference real difference since this card is on the cheaper end compared to your soundblaster.

Thanks for the suggestion. Now I just gotta convince my friend to let me have it for free

NOTE: to anyone who might be reading this don't buy an asus xonar dg. Its annoying to get it to work on windows 10. Terrible driver support. Had to disable onboard audio in bios, uninstall those realtek onboard audio drivers and disable nvidia hd audio. Only then did it show up in device manager after restarting. Then my antivirus decided it didn't like the installer half way through the driver installation even though these drivers are from asus's website.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Try the Unified Xonar Drivers.
http://uni.maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

Or just get a DAC.
Hifimediy DACs, $42-$70.
https://hifimediy.com/DACs/ready-made-dacs?sort=p.price&order=ASC

If you get a USB DAC, remove the Xonar XG, but then enable the on-board audio.
A USB DAC will bypass the sound card features (on-board and add-on). but some other audio feature on the computer might need it(?).

 

[viivo]

There are countless cheap DACs/interfaces that would work and offer the same quality as your onboard. For example, this one on Amazon is $7 and plugs straight into a USB port but also would require an RCA-3.5mm stereo plug adapter for use with your amp. Obviously it's not a piece of audiophile gear, but I bet you wouldn't notice a difference and it would let you know if a USB DAC will solve the noise problem.