Bifrost Multibit Gen 5 Static Noise problem

Mar 9, 2019 at 4:17 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 12
c0rp1

c0rp1

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Hello everyone,

I recently bought an used Schiit Bifrost Multibit, which I received 2 days ago. Unit is 2.5 years old, but had the Gen 5 USB upgrade installed October last year. Have this weird problem though - getting a static noise whenever I'm listening to music and doing something on the PC at the same time (e.g. opening apps/programs, writing, browsing, etc - basically everything connected with some processor activity). Will list some stuff that I tried, or observed during these last 2 days, in hope that someone would help me fix the issue:

1. Problem is present only when there's music playing. If I pause it, there's no static noise whatsoever.
2. It doesn't matter if I use my main player (foobar2000 with WASAPI plugin), or another one (Winamp, Winodws Media Player etc) - the problem is always there.
3. Had a Modi Multibit for a while and it had the absolute same issue, but was an old unit with Gen 2 USB, so I thought the Gen 5 on the Bimby would fix that - sadly it didn't.
4. Have already tried all USB ports on my PC (USB 3.0, USB 2.0, the ones on top of my PC case which act like a separate USB hub I suppose etc.), also tried different USB cables - problem persists.
5. Problem is NOT present when using the SPDIF optical input.
6. I'm using a desktop PC and am not able to test things out with another one, cause my old laptop broke and have no other device that I can plug the Bimby into.
7. Wrote Schiit an email - response I got was to look into the DAC troubleshooting guide (https://www.schiit.com/guides/dac-problems) and try disabling the port power management, but that didn't make a difference. Next suggestion was to just send the unit for inspection, which is not an option for me, cause I'm European, warranty is not transferable etc.
8. I'm not really willing to buy a Wyrd or a separate USB Hub, cause I think Gen 5 USB was released exactly to eliminate the need of buying such products.

Has someone experienced the same problem and is there any way I could fix it? Really wanted to use the USB input instead of the SPDIF optical one, but with this awful static noise it's definitely not possible.

Huge thanks in advance!
 
Mar 9, 2019 at 10:05 PM Post #2 of 12
You might have ground loop which can cause that. Optical SPDIF is immune to ground loops so you won't ever have problems with noise using that. Even with Wyrd, you won't cure your static noise unless you eliminate ground loops first
 
Mar 10, 2019 at 3:16 AM Post #3 of 12
theveterans said:
You might have ground loop which can cause that. Optical SPDIF is immune to ground loops so you won't ever have problems with noise using that. Even with Wyrd, you won't cure your static noise unless you eliminate ground loops first
Click to expand...

Any idea how can I fix the ground loop, if that's really causing the noise?
 
Mar 10, 2019 at 12:25 PM Post #4 of 12
Attach all your plugs to the common ground so they have the same voltage potential at the ground. That should eliminate the PC noise you hear.
 
Mar 11, 2019 at 12:18 PM Post #10 of 12
Okey a bit of an update - I got my hands on a Laptop running on Windows 10 (same as my PC). Plugged the power plug directly to the same socket as where my desktop PC is always plugged, Installed the same player (foobar2000) with same plugin (WASAPI) in order to eliminate any possibility of other sources actually being the problem and connected the same setup (Magni 3>Loki Mini>Bimby). The laptop automatically installed the same drivers that got installed on my PC (same version) and after going through several songs there was NO noise whatsoever.

So it seems the problem is with my PC... but what could it be when I have no noise whatsoever when I test it with an O2+ODAC and a Chord Mojo? Some strange PC-Schiit incompatibility?
 
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