[technobarbie]

I just received a HR Desktop AMP/DAC. About every 25 seconds it skips. I get the same results in Rhapsody and J. River Media Center. I have increased the buffer size to the max setting. I have increased the priority of the App. I have disabled AMD Quit and Cool. This is a newly staged machine with just my media players on it. I don't have anti-virus installed. There is no sound card in the machine. I don't have any external USB Hard drives on. The clicks are not associated with CPU usage. I've tried Direct Sound and Wave Out. I've changed USB cables. Nothing resolves this problem or makes it better.

This is my first USB DAC, and I have to admit I'm really frustrated and have wasted much time. I'm about to save myself two grand and return it. Yes - I realize this is the technology not the DAC itself.

Can anyone think of anything else? Will a Coaxial or Toslink connection resolve this problem, or they as quirky as USB? I don't have the proper cables and I'm almost out of patience.

 

[zatara]

Are you plugging the DAC into the front USB ports or the back? If you are using the front try the back.
Are you using a USB hub? Is so plug directly into the back ports?

You could also try this with foobar 2k ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver.

 

[technobarbie]

Thanks for the response.

I did get this annoying problem fixed!!! Now I can enjoy my toys.

I had the DAC connected to the USB ports on my motherboard. This appears to have been the problem. I got rid of the problem, by connecting it to a PCI USB port.

Now I'm gonna play with ASIO with Jriver Media Center explained here.

 

[technobarbie]

Well the skipping came back. I have since re-installed my EMU and I'm currently using the AMP until my coaxial and toslink cables come in. I just got too tired of messing with the thing. I'm forever turned off my USB DACs because of this quirky problem. At least I enjoy my new AKG 701's and HR Desktop Amp now.

 

[Assorted]

I'm not sure if this helps, but using my computer, the music skips around every 10 seconds within the first minute of starting my app (foobar), and by the time I realize it, they're completely gone.

 

[technobarbie]

Thanks for the reply.

Interesting, mine tends to get worse (skips closer together) the more I used it. A reboot tended to clear things up. I did buy a nicer cable, and that make the skips about every minute, or it could have been just a coincidence.

To isolate the problem I re-installed windows on my machine. I would take an image (ghost) in increments. The problem wouldn't appear until I did a windows update. My USB wireless adapter started to freak out at the same time. I disconnected the adapter, but the skipping continued. It's probably something really easy, but after two days I still couldn't isolate it. No - I have no patience.

I guess this just surprised me, because I hear a lot about jitter and PC noise, but didn't think it was really that big of a problem. Well, I was wrong.

 

[Bones13]

I have used USB implementations of the totalbithead, desktop amp/dac and the ultra micro dac with various computers and laptops. The only time I got skipping was when I was using the trial version of USB-ASIO. Check your USB drivers, and what else you have plugged into the USB sockets. Also some of the USB sockets will work better than others.

I have had great luck with hubs myself. But I am sure that hubs, like everything else, are not created equal.

 

[TopPop]

I realize that, theoretically, there should be no difference between the two, but say you have tried Direct Out... have you tried ASIO?

I used to have this problem with Foobar on Vista. ASIO2KS seemed to do the trick.

 

[technobarbie]

Yeah I've tried the ASIOALL drivers - same thing. I haven't tried a USB hub, since I thought they weren't ideal. But I think I'm gonna can the whole USB deal. I got my coaxial and optical cable today. The optical sounds decent, but it keeps falling out. Connections are too loose. I tried the coaxial and all is well. It still skips but it's once in a blue moon.

Thanks to everyone.

 

[arcorob]

Have you guys thought of one obvious fix ? DEFRAG
 
If your hard drive is fragmented, everything takes longer as the drive has to do constant seeks. Even streaming music because as it plays, it is caching AHEAD and that cache goes to the hard drive.
 
If you are not sure how (most of you do I am sure)
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/how-to-run-defrag-with-windows-7/c174afa0-3217-4937-9e7b-a487c8c89443
 
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/improve-performance-defragmenting-hard-disk#1TC=windows-7
 
For windows 8
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/improve-performance-optimizing-hard-drive#1TC=t1
 
if you have a very active PC , defrag should be weekly
 
amazing how many people treat this as an afterthought
 
personally, I use this and never worry about it
http://www.condusiv.com/products/diskeeper/