[dsp0704]

Sorry for the triple post but I found a track called `Desperado` by the Eagles. In the beginning of the track where it`s more quiet, I can hear some static. Is that normal and part of the track..

 

[xxhaxx]

Does the popping/cracking noise only happen when the frequency changes? as in from 44.1 to 48

 

[koolkat]

Didn't read through all the replies, but did you check to make sure the lossless files are indeed lossless? If you convert from lossy to lossless, you might get undesired crap in your music. Use Spectro to check, it's free for download. 
 
Other than that, the only reason I can think of that's causing the noise is the amp is clipping. Try reducing the volume and listen for the crackling. If it's still there, then try running it without the amp. The AKG Q701 is fairly difficult to drive, I believe, so if you can recreate that effect by plugging in your headphones straight into your laptop instead of the nuforce first, then the Nuforce cannot drive your AKG Q701. 

 

[dsp0704]

44.1 to 48? I have no idea how to check frequency lol..
As for the files, I'm pretty sure they are lossless (FLAC) but later when I get home, I will check out Spectro. Thanks. I heard AKG Q701's are difficult to drive too, which is why I bought the HDP instead of the E7+E9 setup. If I was misinformed by the store-guy then hopefully you guys can let me know. Is HDP powerful "enough" for Q701? Is the amp clipping the problem? What is amp clipping by the way? I'll try the phones straight off laptop when I get home but I'm not really sure what "effect" I'm looking for here. Is it the noise? Or is it the amount of noise by changing the volume? I'm sorry I'm really new. Never owned an amp or a dac before.. Apparently it is a preamp too but I don't even know how to use that feature lol.

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Didn't read through all the replies, but did you check to make sure the lossless files are indeed lossless? If you convert from lossy to lossless, you might get undesired crap in your music. Use Spectro to check, it's free for download.

You only get artifacts when encoding something to lossy. Encoding anything to lossless will result in exactly the same file, just in a different container. A lossy file converted to lossless will retain all artifacts in the lossy file, it'll just be a bigger file. It won't add any more artifacts.
 
"Upgrading" to the Icon HDP wasn't necessarily a good idea if you wanted more power. The E9 outputs much more, nearly twice as much. Both are plenty powerful enough for the Q701 at realistic listening levels. I don't know which one distorts less at the Q701's impedance.
 
Amplifier clipping is where the amp is unable to output enough power into a headphone to produce the loudest peaks of the music. So instead of a clean sine wave you get a wave with a plateau at the top. Here's the result of a quick Google image search:
 

 
No, I don't know why they stuck Clippy up there.
 
From what I can tell, this doesn't necessarily cause pop noises like digital clipping does. Mostly it'll just make peaks sound quieter than they should be, like the dynamics have been compressed. It's probably not the problem unless you listen really loud or are listening to quiet recordings with lots of high peaks. Even then, there wouldn't be a difference between ALAC and FLAC unless you have an EQ or a sound compressor set up in one of the players.

 

[dsp0704]

Hmm.. I thought nuforce HDP was better than E9+E7.. that's what the guy told me.. I guess it could be that HDP was more than double the price of E9+E7. I guess I got sucker'd oh well.. I very much enjoy the sq of my new setup. So you're saying this "clipping" is happening with my set up? Hmm.. I'll listen closely for "flatting high's and lows" next time. 

 

[dsp0704]

I was wondering what this does. When I connect the dac to my laptop, I have to set it as default sound device to use it instead of laptop speakers. So how I do this is right click (on Windows 7) the speaker icon in tray bar and click playback devices. You then right click the nuforce HDP and set it as default. But I noticed "properties" there. So I looked inside it and I can change settings in there. Under "advanced" tab, I changed from 16bit 44100 hz (CD quality) to 24bit 96000 hz (studio quality). Then I listened to same song and I think I notice a difference... Or am I just tripping out..? Also, under "enhancement" tab you can do bass boost, surround, etc... Do you guys use this? If so, how?

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Hmm.. I thought nuforce HDP was better than E9+E7.. that's what the guy told me.. I guess it could be that HDP was more than double the price of E9+E7. I guess I got sucker'd oh well.. I very much enjoy the sq of my new setup. So you're saying this "clipping" is happening with my set up? Hmm.. I'll listen closely for "flatting high's and lows" next time. 

According to another thread the HDP puts out way more power than they have advertised, and they aren't changing the webpage. So it may put out more than the E7+E9. Volume isn't the only consideration, of course.
 
No, I don't think you're clipping. I think you have another problem, related to VLC, music player settings, recording or rip quality. Have you tried it with any other amps and DACs yet?

Quote:

I was wondering what this does. When I connect the dac to my laptop, I have to set it as default sound device to use it instead of laptop speakers. So how I do this is right click (on Windows 7) the speaker icon in tray bar and click playback devices. You then right click the nuforce HDP and set it as default. But I noticed "properties" there. So I looked inside it and I can change settings in there. Under "advanced" tab, I changed from 16bit 44100 hz (CD quality) to 24bit 96000 hz (studio quality). Then I listened to same song and I think I notice a difference... Or am I just tripping out..? Also, under "enhancement" tab you can do bass boost, surround, etc... Do you guys use this? If so, how?

Set the bit depth to 24 bits if your DAC supports it, and set your sampling rate to whatever your files are. So you should probably set it to 24/44.1. Don't upsample to 96kHz, it won't do anything but hurt sound quality, but you probably won't hear the difference.
 
Don't use any "enhancements". That applies to the OS settings and the player settings. So no EQ unless you know what you're doing, no Sound Check in iTunes. Use a bit-perfect plugin if you have one, iTunes might have the option but VLC probably doesn't.

 

[dsp0704]

I don't have other amps/dac to compare but I did try it straight from laptop and then iphone. It didn't sound that bad I thought but it was not comparable to when used with HDP. So, I left it at 24bits (not sure if my dac was supporting it but I was able to select it). For the frequencies, I used 44.1 after looking at the files' detail info and it was 44.1. I have no idea what unsampling is so I just better not touch that. I haven't done any EQ settings, it is actually disabled (enabled unchecked).
 
I have looked into the "bit-perfect plugin" for iTunes and found this post that said iTunes 9 with Windows Vista+ supports bit-perfect plugin with WASAPI. I did what I was supposed to do which was go into QuickTimes, Preferences, Audio tab and there is 3 choices under "Play Audio Using: Safe mode, Direct Sound, and Windows Audio Session." It was defaulted at Direct Sound and choosing Windows Audio Session was supposed to be using "bit-perfect" iTunes. It could just be me but wow sq is sooo clear(er) amazing. Or is it just in my head? Why do I think it sounds better... hmm

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

I don't have other amps/dac to compare but I did try it straight from laptop and then iphone. It didn't sound that bad I thought but it was not comparable to when used with HDP. So, I left it at 24bits (not sure if my dac was supporting it but I was able to select it). For the frequencies, I used 44.1 after looking at the files' detail info and it was 44.1. I have no idea what unsampling is so I just better not touch that. I haven't done any EQ settings, it is actually disabled (enabled unchecked).
 
I have looked into the "bit-perfect plugin" for iTunes and found this post that said iTunes 9 with Windows Vista+ supports bit-perfect plugin with WASAPI. I did what I was supposed to do which was go into QuickTimes, Preferences, Audio tab and there is 3 choices under "Play Audio Using: Safe mode, Direct Sound, and Windows Audio Session." It was defaulted at Direct Sound and choosing Windows Audio Session was supposed to be using "bit-perfect" iTunes. It could just be me but wow sq is sooo clear(er) amazing. Or is it just in my head? Why do I think it sounds better... hmm

If it's that much clearer, you probably had something enabled that was screwing with your sound.
 
If you're on Vista, try foobar2000 and see if it has the same FLAC problem as VLC. It has a WASAPI plugin too, but you have to download and install it.

 

[dsp0704]

Wow foobar2000 w/ WASAPI is great! I checked the same song playing on VLC and on Foobar2000. On VLC the static sound is there but same file on Foobar2000 it is not there. It isn't there!! This is great! Also, when playing songs on Foobar2000, any other sound like computer sounds, youtube, etc.. comes from laptop speaker which is I think great also. Thanks Head Injury, you've been so helpful! And everybody else for all your help! I can now relax and enjoy some music^^