[ohhgourami]

So it seems my laptop's USB ports have a high amount of jitter, so much that my DAC detect it and create crackling sounds when I listen to music.  I wonder if there are ways to lower this jitter.  Would reformatting my computer help?  My comp didn't always have this issue but it has seem to have gotten worse over time especially the past couple months.
 
Does foobar support firewire?  Maybe I can use some sort of firewire to usb adapter to connect to my DAC if foobar supports it.
 
Also I can consider a cheap alternative that will avoid be using my computer all together.
 
Please help!

 

[tomscy2000]

Try using a software resampler with foobar first, like SoX... I had a problem with crackling in fast bass passages when passing through 16/44.1 material, but once I resampled everything to 24/96, all the crackling went away. Yes, upsampling will create artifacts at 22 kHz, but it's a small price to pay; the music also sounds better after upsampling, with minimal impact on CPU usage. My DAC uses a Tenor TE7022 USB receiver, so it's a pretty common implementation.
 
Clarification: my DAC has an integrated hardware buffer, which somehow averages the clock timings, and I think it works best at 48 and 96 kHz... I don't know how your DAC works, but if it works similarly, resampling should help solve things.

 

[ohhgourami]

I will give it a try when I get the chance to. I just put an order on my DAC which is the NFB-7 which uses the Sabre ES9018 chip. My Digital Interface also uses that tenor chip. Hopefully its not a hardware issue with my computer. I might toy with the up sampling and other options with my transport. I won't be getting my DAC til March though.

More advice would be great. I want to learn more!

 

[tomscy2000]

Honestly, I don't know much more than you, if at all; I'm sure there are others on here much more knowledgeable than me. I just happened to see your post, and I had the same problem as you did.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the Sabre chip is an integrated solution, which eliminates the need for receiver chips, has its own anti-jitter circuit, and oversamples everything anyway, but I don't know the specifics. You'll probably not have these problems with the ESS chip.
 
You could also try to reformat the laptop, unplug any extraneous connections, and run minimal background software. That reduces possible interference. Mind you, I only had this problem with my old laptop. I run USB output on my new laptop through its sole USB 3.0 plug, which I'm sure runs on a separate bus from the USB 2.0 plugs, so there's naturally less interference that way.

 

[maverickronin]

You might want to check and see if its some other sort of RFI from the laptop by using it from a desktop PC and placing you laptop near the DAC while its on.  You should also try testing with laptop on battery and on AC since laptop power supplies are usually cheap and noisy.  You could also try running the DAC from a powered USB hub and see if that works.
 
If none of it does you might just need a DAC with better jitter rejection or a new laptop.

 

[ohhgourami]

Checking for any RFI might be a good idea.  I've already tried switching from AC to DC power.  My transport has a psu so that shouldn't be an issue.
 
NFB-7 should have some anti-jitter implementation.  For all I know, I might not have any problems with the new DAC.  I could always play with the upsampling on my transport too.

 

[maverickronin]

Hmm..
 
I didn't notice you had that USB to S/PDIF adapter in there too.  That's another source of problems as well.

 

[ohhgourami]

Although I haven't done much research, would something like a Squeezebox be a possible solution?

 

[maverickronin]

I don't really know how that works.  Does the data get to the squeezebox by IP over a network or am I thinking of a different device?
 
If it does work like that then all the data will get to the squeezebox perfectly and you've have one less clock to deal with.  That would bypass any problems with the USB ports or the S/PDIF converter.  It would probably have some noticeable latency though.  It probably wouldn't be a big deal for just music but it wouldn't be any good for movies or games.  Of course I don't even know if the squeezebox works like a normal audio device so it might not do that at all.

 

[ohhgourami]

I read a bit more and it does seem to work over a network.  I would be able to connect the Squeezebox to DAC via coaxial.  I suppose I will give this a try if my computer continues to cause crackling sounds.  Thanks for everyones help.

 

[glenda]

Quote:

I read a bit more and it does seem to work over a network.  I would be able to connect the Squeezebox to DAC via coaxial.  I suppose I will give this a try if my computer continues to cause crackling sounds.  Thanks for everyones help.

Are you on XP ?    Win 7 is much less prone to dropouts than xp IME.

 

[ohhgourami]

Yes I'm using win7.  I didn't have this issue before when I initially when I had the NFB-10ES which uses the same chip as the NFB-7.  The cracking noises started about 3 months after.

 

[glenda]

Its not jitter,  something you changed in your computers config.  Did you install anything in those three months?   Do you have SP1 ?  There is an important update to the win 7 usb drivers that wasn't included in the initial sp1 update,  make sure you get them both.  This is fixable but you are going to have to put some time into it.  Do you have a virus program that may be interupting things?  Have you added any usb components which may be causing your ports to be over taxed?   Without anything running what does your windows task manager say for cpu usage history and memory usage history.  Start with those then there is a usb latency program you can download and work with.

 

[ohhgourami]

Yes, I'm using SP1.  I don't remember changing any configurations.  I'm not sure which drivers you are talking about as I normally just let the windows update handle it.  I don't think I have a virus, I have removed any obvious ones such as the win7 antivirus virus.  But I was thinking about reformatting just to be safe.  At the time, I used up 2 of 3 of my usb ports - one for my mouse (has LEDs so uses a bit more power) and usb to my DI (has its own class A psu).  Is there an easy way to show you my cpu and memory usage?

 

[johangrb]

I also have the static/crackling problems on my NFB-10SE - but ONLY @ 192k sample rates. Same result with 2 win7 PCs - 1 - M2tech EVO /SPDIF and another via Optical - Wasapi.
 
Tried Foobar & J River MC17 - same. Only when playing native 192k files or upsampling to 192k.
 
No problems at lower sample rates.