[powerlifter450]

I purchased a really cheap usb dac, plugged it in and instantly knew something was wrong. I thought the DAC was just bad. I thought well this serves me right for purchasing something so cheaply. Its the HIfimediy sabre dac. So low cost I had to try it. well now even going back to my onboard sound or a sb external usb the sound is terrible. Its become slow, it warbles, some songs it sounds as if the music is huffing or its very far away like its coming in through a can, muffled. I've never experienced a problem like this before. I'm using windows 8 and I'm not sure how to fix this. any ideas?

 

[NA Blur]

Please describe you entire audio train from music player, tracks you listen to, and what headphones you use.
 
Be sure to include what amp,DAC, and any other equipment in the audio path.  This way we might be able to help you.
 
My initial impression is either a memory issue like your RAM is going bad or your CPU cooler is not working or you have some process that is going on bogging your PC down.

 

[powerlifter450]

This just started after I plugged in the Sabre Dac. I think some kind of audio drivers took a dump. everything is straight out of the motherboard or USB port. Theres no chain for anything to go through. music players are itunes, foobar, windows media player.
 

 

[ninjikiran]

I find that super cheap USB dacs doesn't really sound much or any better than a good PCI-E sound card unless you have a super cheap motherboard.
 
Many of them coming with built in HPA's
 
 
Sounds like your unit is broken though, no USB Dac or amp should sound like that.  I have heard that kind of "warbly slowness" on a defective piece.
 
Or a faulty audio plugin, the asio plugin sometimes would do that to me on certain audio players.

 

[powerlifter450]

It doesn't seem to matter what I use now, all USB audio sounds equally terrible. The motherboard is an Asus, it was $450.00. Is it possible the sabre tried to draw too much power and something on the board shorted out? I've used the windows 8 refresh option now and It didn't help.

 

[ninjikiran]

Instead it sounds like someone messed up in the construction of the device.  I would try and get a replacement.  I had an expensive component do that to be as well, sent it back to shop and they figured out the issue.
 
I have a high end Asus board, and have no problem with their USB 2.0 port on my Compass 2.  Can play with ASIO, and WASAPI straight to the sabre chip with lowest latency settings and no issues at all.
 
But the motherboard shouldn't cause much an issue like that.  Was saying a good mobo would work well with a good sound card.
 

 

[NA Blur]

Have you tried removing the power management for the USB Root Hub devices within Device Manager?  These are found under Universal Serial Bus Controllers.  Right clicking on them and going to the Power Management tab gains access to the on/off function.  Try turning OFF the power management and see if that helps.