[rymd]

what the monkey said
pops means you need more power
i think another solution mentioned somewhere was to use two usb ports and a splitter cable to power it

 

[Marximus]

Yeah, it's just running off USB.  A separate hub?  Eesh.  This is getting complicated.  I'm trying to simplify!

 

[thuantran]

A few things to try:
. Different USB port. Try USB view, a windows program, that let you see whether your DAC is on the same hub (motherboard has hub too) as other devices, and let it on a port that is not shared.
. DPC latency issue: Download DPC latency checker (a google should show you the site) and check whether you have any red column. If so try their recommendation by turning off each HW devices, like network controller, until you find the culprit, either try updating its driver or remove the device if you don't need it. Sometimes software can cause this issue, too. Examples are craps installed by HP, Kaspersky, Norton use Microsoft Security Essential Instead, it's free and enough to secure your system.
. Lacking power for your HRT, this is a known issue as far as I have read. In this case you have to again try different USB port, RMA your PSU. Prebuilt system is well known to have just good enough power supply that turns into not good enough in some cases. Another way is to try a powered hub.

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

Yeah, it's just running off USB.  A separate hub?  Eesh.  This is getting complicated.  I'm trying to simplify!

Some users have reported that not all individual USB ports on a PC are created equal when it comes to power, so you might want to try a different USB port on the PC.  But in all likelihood, you'll need a powered hub to get it to work right.  Have you emailed HRT?  I've read that their tech support is decent, iirc.  Maybe they've found another solution.  If none of that works, just smash it into little tiny bits. 

 

[Marximus]

I gave up.  Tried a powered hub, and it made things worse.  I bought a uDAC2, and I'm returning the MS II.

 

[MrFisherman]

No one likes a quitter.

 

[thuantran]

OK, no one cares about your opinion, too. Give the guy a break, I'm sure different ppl have different priorities, and seems like he wants things to just work so he can dedicate his time into other stuffs.

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

I gave up.  Tried a powered hub, and it made things worse.  I bought a uDAC2, and I'm returning the MS II.

Maybe it had something wrong with it?

 

[Marximus]

Maybe.  I'm not going to bother with it, though.  And I'd like to say, for the record, that I couldn't really hear a difference between the uDAC and the MS II, so it's no loss to me.  The only reason I upgraded was to try and reduce the sibilance in my D5000s, but that path was ineffective.

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

Maybe.  I'm not going to bother with it, though.  And I'd like to say, for the record, that I couldn't really hear a difference between the uDAC and the MS II, so it's no loss to me.  The only reason I upgraded was to try and reduce the sibilance in my D5000s, but that path was ineffective.

That's good to know...........

 

[Marximus]

This is just my ears.  I'm sure there are others who notice a difference.

 

[tme110]

ugh, I think I'm getting the same pops.  I've read hundreds of posts on the HRT's but I  never ran across this lack-of-power issue before.  I thought I remember a post stating not to use a hub though.  Ok, I will also try to follow all that was posted here. 
 
I love my hrt though.

 

[tme110]

coincidentally, I got my new USB cables in the mail yesterday and installed them - haven't heard a pop since.  Hopefully it keeps up.  I think it probably was a power issue - my new cables were usb 2.0 certified and have 2 separate 24 AWG power line which I'm sure helped.

 

[estreeter]

As I posted elsewhere, weeks ago, I believe the issue lies with the OS and your computer. When I pared everything back to the bare minimum (Voyage-mpd Linux running mpd from the command line), I had zero issues. Zip. Nada. And that is on an Atom powered netbook.
 
Revert back to Foobar on Win 7 and, voila, periodic popping/crackling, but not so frequent that I refuse to listen while surfing the net etc.
 
There is an extensive discussion (and I mean extensive ..) on USB bus traffic and the impact on audio performance over at Computer Audiophile, but be warned that there might be better ways to spend your weekend.

 

[lootbag]

Sorry to bring this back from the dead.
Thought I would share my experience.
I have experienced the same problem as the OP and believe I have fixed my problem.
 
I got random crackling, popping and sometimes the music would freeze altogether in foobar.
Also got random instances where music would turn into crazy loud static noise... my poor ears.
Funny thing was, it didn't happen when I use other software such as VLC, WMP, etc.
So the unit wasn't a dud, it was probably just foobar.
 
Firstly, I followed the setup PDF from the HRT website.
Tried a variety of USB cables I had lying around, didn't fix anything.
Plugged it into a power USB hub, as well as straight into the laptop, no difference.
Had a feelign none of this would help... it was one of the settings in foobar.
 
The one thing that seemed to solve it was... going to Preferences > Playback > Output in foobar.
I made the Buffer Length 50 ms, all problems disappeared.
 
Hoping I get no more random static noise while listening... (fingers crossed)