[Rennokas]

Hi fellows !

I have a problem with my usb headphone amp/dac (one unit).
It is the Alo Audio Island which single ended and balanced headphone outputs.

I am using Win 10 generic USB drivers as there is no win 10 drivers.
(Alo Audio does not support its products after release).

What happens is following:
After I switch the unit on it is working as supposed, but after some time when it heats up there is cracking/popping sound and the amp/dac goes almost silent. Only the single ended output has one channel working, really quiet and full of noise. At random point of time the sound usually returns to normal.

I am fairly certain it is not software issue as there are others who have no problem with the same setup.
Also not that I had one unit "replaced" with similar problem, not sure if they really replaced it or just sent the same unit back...

Any ideas what could cause such behavior ?

The components inside the unit should be following:
Cirrus Logic CS4392 dac
4x SSM2142 Balanced drivers
XMOS SK1220 Asynchronous USB to I2S Interface
SSMC USB3318 Hi-Speed USB Transceiver
TXC Crystals
Ti NE5532P as voltage gain

The list is in this page with also pics from the inside:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/alo-the-island-usb-dac.682214/page-4

R,

 

[Pars]

My first guess, barring Win10 driver issues, would be bad solder joint(s), given that it only happens once it heats up.
If you have some canned air or freeze spray, and can operate it with the cover off, you could spray that around and see if it changes things to narrow down where it might be. You might also need to heat a device up (instead of cooling it). One of my Macs had a problem like this with a BGA memory controller... heat it and it would work fine. Let it cool and no go.

 

[Rennokas]

My first guess, barring Win10 driver issues, would be bad solder joint(s), given that it only happens once it heats up.
If you have some canned air or freeze spray, and can operate it with the cover off, you could spray that around and see if it changes things to narrow down where it might be. You might also need to heat a device up (instead of cooling it). One of my Macs had a problem like this with a BGA memory controller... heat it and it would work fine. Let it cool and no go.

Pretty sure it is not driver issue, as other people reporting that it works fine in Win10. It also had problems in win8 even with the Alo custom drivers.
I did check the unit for solder problems yesturday. When fired up (and problem occuring) I touched all elements to see if it affected anything, but it did not.
Resoldered some places that seemed problematic, still nothing.

Texas Instruments NE5532P oamps seem to be cool. SSM2142 balanced drivers seem to be hot and coils are hot. I also found that one coil had the plastic somehow melted a bit.

 

[Pars]

Take a hair dryer or heatgun to it when it is occurring. Then try freeze spray or canned air. ALO? Good luck...

 

[tomb]

Take a hair dryer or heatgun to it when it is occurring. Then try freeze spray or canned air. ALO? Good luck...

Ha! I experienced this after building a DAC recently - it would seem to work if I heated up certain parts, but not if I didn't. Turned out the power supply was at issue and the parts were not receiving the voltage they required. Once the power supply was fixed, it ran perfectly. Don't ask me why heating up the DAC and synchronous chips made it work before, though. It's a real head-scratcher.