[mAurelius]

I wanted to share my experience with the HRT Music Streamer II, I thought it might be of some benefit to someone researching it, and I didn't see this issue mentioned on the forum before purchasing.

I purchased it with much excitement--it gets great reviews on this site. However, when it arrived I spent several days troubleshooting an issue I never could figure out. I came to the conclusion that the HRT device does not work well on older desktop computers.

My setup is:
PC Desktop foobar 2000 --> ASIO4ALL/WASAPI (I tried both) --> HRT Music Streamer II --> Little Dot MKIII --> HD 650

I have a desktop computer I reserve mainly for listening to music. It's older, but usually works fine for those purposes. Upon plugging in the HRT Music Streamer II and playing music, I immediately noticed various noises: mainly I would describe it as popping and skipping. The sound occurred consistently while playing any music.

I searched online and tried several things:
- tried iTunes and Winamp instead of Foobar
- In Foobar, tried several playback methods: direct from sound driver, ASIO4ALL, and WASAPI
- Tried changing the buffer size in Foobar to 50ms
- purchased a powered USB Hub and plugged HRT into that
- tried different usb cables

None of these methods made much of a difference. I had high hopes for the powered Hub, that did almost nothing.

I plugged the HRT into another newer computer and it worked flawlessly, so it isn't the HRT. I have come to the conclusion that my older system just can't handle it. I'm not sure if it is the Asynchronous USB or what.

I ended up purchasing an ODAC and all my problems have disappeared.

I'm curious, has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[149700]

I have a fairly new gaming computer and I had the skipping programs. I fixed it by changing to a different USB port. My motherboard had red ports, and those never seemed to pop except when using WASAPI. I could never get it to work with WASAPI.
 
I also tried the music streamer II with my old laptop and it worked perfectly. I think it the noise has something to do with the interference from the computer. 

 

[HamilcarBarca]

Quote:

I wanted to share my experience with the HRT Music Streamer II, I thought it might be of some benefit to someone researching it, and I didn't see this issue mentioned on the forum before purchasing.

I purchased it with much excitement--it gets great reviews on this site. However, when it arrived I spent several days troubleshooting an issue I never could figure out. I came to the conclusion that the HRT device does not work well on older desktop computers.

My setup is:
PC Desktop foobar 2000 --> ASIO4ALL/WASAPI (I tried both) --> HRT Music Streamer II --> Little Dot MKIII --> HD 650

I have a desktop computer I reserve mainly for listening to music. It's older, but usually works fine for those purposes. Upon plugging in the HRT Music Streamer II and playing music, I immediately noticed various noises: mainly I would describe it as popping and skipping. The sound occurred consistently while playing any music.

I searched online and tried several things:
- tried iTunes and Winamp instead of Foobar
- In Foobar, tried several playback methods: direct from sound driver, ASIO4ALL, and WASAPI
- Tried changing the buffer size in Foobar to 50ms
- purchased a powered USB Hub and plugged HRT into that
- tried different usb cables

None of these methods made much of a difference. I had high hopes for the powered Hub, that did almost nothing.

I plugged the HRT into another newer computer and it worked flawlessly, so it isn't the HRT. I have come to the conclusion that my older system just can't handle it. I'm not sure if it is the Asynchronous USB or what.

I ended up purchasing an ODAC and all my problems have disappeared.

I'm curious, has anyone else had a similar experience?

 
The problem isn't your DAC. Your PC must deliver audio data ('samples') to USB interface regularly and on time. That's how this kind of digital audio interface works. When it fails to do so, the DAC responds by producing 'popping' or 'crackling' noises or it may 'loop' the previous audio sample. However it responds, the result is displeasing to the ear.
 
From your description, your PC is the problem. Connecting another DAC will produce the same symptoms.
 
Look up DPC Latency for more information, ways to test for it, and possibly a fix.