GuitarBizarre
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2013
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For about a year now, the sound I've been getting from my Cambridge Audio DacMagic (not the 100, not the Plus, just the normal old version) has been doing strange things.
It started off with the DacMagic simply ceasing to produce sound - I would glance over at the DacMagic, and, invariably, the input Sampling rate light would be on 48KHz - Rather than the 44.1KHz that it was actually supposed to be being given. Sometimes, I would get a situation where this would happen, and I would get short bursts of sound about once a second. Whenever THIS happened, the light would jump back to 44.1KHz each time a burst occured, then go back to 48 and fall silent again.
Turning the unit off and on has always solved both of these problems, and the unit is quite a long way out of warranty, so to save buying a new unit I just kept using it, turning it off and on when needed.
Recently, however, I've been getting more problems - Sometimes, when doing things, PARTICULARLY when doing computer intensive things (I livestream videogames, so frequently tax my computer's power quite a lot), the sound will seem to be filled with glitches - tiny little pops and clicks, at random throughout the track. - Bear in mind, this DOES still happen when I'm not really taxing the computer at all, just less frequently.
The best comparison I can give to explain what this sounds like, is like a scratched record - it doesn't skip or jump, but at random intervals, anywhere from twice a second to once in 5 seconds, it'll sound like a little pop occured and the track will continue. There's no harsh noise or glitch sound, just a tiny break in playback accompanied by a click or pop - to me it sounds as though the click is the result of the gap in playback.
In an effort to try and fix this problem, I changed from using the USB cable to using a TOSLINK cable. Because as a side-effect, this allows me to use 24/96 output from the PC, I changed it to this, and was greeted with a new problem altogether - The sound now had a harsh, grainy "fizz" over the top of everything, and was completely unlistenable.
Convinced the DAC was faulty, I took it elsewhere and tested it with someone elses digital streamer - this was via Coax, (Ghetto coax, in fact - one half of a phono cable) rather than optical or USB, but these played fine, from both internet radio and some 24/96 FLAC files I'd put on a USB stick.
Having brought the unit home again, convinced it was my PC causing the issue, I plugged it in...and miraculously, perfect sound with TOSLINK 24/96 output! This lasted a few hours until I started, once again, getting the same tiny pops and clicks I was getting via USB. Some fiddling around, and a change of samplerate later, the grainy fizz was back as well! Restarted the computer, and sat typing this, all is well - for now. I have no confidence things will stay so idyllic however!
I'm somewhat at a loss - What is going on? Are these pops, clicks, and fizzes, and the random switching to 48KHz the fault of my PC or my DAC? How can I fix them? I can afford to buy a new DAC, but I'm loath to do so if I'm not sure it will solve the problem!
It started off with the DacMagic simply ceasing to produce sound - I would glance over at the DacMagic, and, invariably, the input Sampling rate light would be on 48KHz - Rather than the 44.1KHz that it was actually supposed to be being given. Sometimes, I would get a situation where this would happen, and I would get short bursts of sound about once a second. Whenever THIS happened, the light would jump back to 44.1KHz each time a burst occured, then go back to 48 and fall silent again.
Turning the unit off and on has always solved both of these problems, and the unit is quite a long way out of warranty, so to save buying a new unit I just kept using it, turning it off and on when needed.
Recently, however, I've been getting more problems - Sometimes, when doing things, PARTICULARLY when doing computer intensive things (I livestream videogames, so frequently tax my computer's power quite a lot), the sound will seem to be filled with glitches - tiny little pops and clicks, at random throughout the track. - Bear in mind, this DOES still happen when I'm not really taxing the computer at all, just less frequently.
The best comparison I can give to explain what this sounds like, is like a scratched record - it doesn't skip or jump, but at random intervals, anywhere from twice a second to once in 5 seconds, it'll sound like a little pop occured and the track will continue. There's no harsh noise or glitch sound, just a tiny break in playback accompanied by a click or pop - to me it sounds as though the click is the result of the gap in playback.
In an effort to try and fix this problem, I changed from using the USB cable to using a TOSLINK cable. Because as a side-effect, this allows me to use 24/96 output from the PC, I changed it to this, and was greeted with a new problem altogether - The sound now had a harsh, grainy "fizz" over the top of everything, and was completely unlistenable.
Convinced the DAC was faulty, I took it elsewhere and tested it with someone elses digital streamer - this was via Coax, (Ghetto coax, in fact - one half of a phono cable) rather than optical or USB, but these played fine, from both internet radio and some 24/96 FLAC files I'd put on a USB stick.
Having brought the unit home again, convinced it was my PC causing the issue, I plugged it in...and miraculously, perfect sound with TOSLINK 24/96 output! This lasted a few hours until I started, once again, getting the same tiny pops and clicks I was getting via USB. Some fiddling around, and a change of samplerate later, the grainy fizz was back as well! Restarted the computer, and sat typing this, all is well - for now. I have no confidence things will stay so idyllic however!
I'm somewhat at a loss - What is going on? Are these pops, clicks, and fizzes, and the random switching to 48KHz the fault of my PC or my DAC? How can I fix them? I can afford to buy a new DAC, but I'm loath to do so if I'm not sure it will solve the problem!