[Malanga]

Hello all!

Well, I mad by first CMOY amp and am am quite pleased with the quality of the sound. I do have one issue though, and that is static when connected to my computer. I hear a low level static, popping and what sound like whistles when plugged into my computer, yet when connected to an MP3 player it is dead silent. I am assuming this is an issue with the computer then? If so, are there any ways to reduce or eliminate this? I suppose I could just get use to it, but if there is a reasonable fix please let me know. Thanks!

 

[tangent]

It's quite possible that it's the computer making these sounds, and the higher fidelity of the new amp is allowing you to hear them. If that's the case, the easiest solution is to add a USB DAC to the computer. This gets the sound reproduction outside the RF bath inside the computer, and being an add-on device, it generally will perform better than the average cheap sound outputs on most PCs. There's a huge range of costs and capabilities in this world, anything from simple little "problem solvers" by M Audio and such, up to beasts like the Benchmark DAC-1 Pre.

 

[Malanga]

I think you are right about the noise tangent. It only occurs when plugged into the computer, not an mp3 player or battery-operated cd player. Where might I find such a USB DAC?

 

[tangent]

Almost any decent computer store will have such things, and many audiophile stores will have the better sort. There's a whole forum here at Head-Fi about computer sound reproduction, which goes into devices like this.

 

[Malanga]

Thanks!

 

[Malanga]

Now I wonder, would there be any advantage to using one of these:

NEW USB 2.0 EXTERNAL SOUND CARD 3D 5.1 AUDIO ADAPTER - eBay (item 300275787171 end time Nov-24-08 12:39:37 PST)

Or would this give me the same noise out of the USB port instead of the headphone jack? What I am trying to do is just get a clean signal out to my CMOY.

 

[gorgak]

I use a similar USB souncard ($20) and it works great. I had the same problem as you when connecting directly to my laptop. The USB souncard worked perfectly.

This is the one I use.

 

[Malanga]

I wound up buying one of these on E-bay: USB 2.0 Mic Speaker 5.1 Audio Sound Card ADAPTER #9516 - eBay (item 160296843641 end time Dec-04-08 19:38:48 PST)

and much to my surprise, it worked fine! Static is now gone and my CMOY sounds great! A cheap fix for a couple of bucks!

 

[rogerlike]

Wow, a USB DAC + headamp for $1 ? That's cheap!