[Geir]

As stated, the sound out from my laptop is bad.

The chain is
Laptop (hp 8510p) with foobar2000 (set to usb speakers) --> Keces 151(dac) -->LD I+ --> D7000

Files are either flac or alac.

I have located the problem to the laptop.

Will have to feed the LD I+ straight from my ipod with alac files since the background is badly irritating me.

Which steps will I have to take to remedy this situation?

 

[Armaegis]

Stop eating cereal by your rig?

In all seriousness though, try sticking a ground loop isolator between your dac and amp.

 

[etiolate]

Quote:

I have located the problem to the laptop.

how did you diagnose the laptop as the problem?

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Try using a different USB port. Some laptops have one or some of the USB ports sharing the same USB bus as the keyboard and trackpad. That can cause problems for audio. So try all the different USB ports that are available.

Then try running the DPC Latency Checker. Run the latency checker while playing audio. See if the latency checker is reporting big latency spikes (tall red bars). The web site has a PDF document that explains how to try to find out what is causing latency problems. Typically it is a driver or specific hardware device that is causing the problems. The PDF explains how to disable specific drivers to see if the latency problems go away once the device is disabled. It's a guessing game. Disable things till the latency problem goes away. The download for the latency checker is an EXE file. It has no install. You just run the EXE.

 

[Geir]

Snap cracle and pop disapperad almost completely when changing usb port.
Slight hiss in the background, but much happier.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geir /img/forum/go_quote.gif Snap cracle and pop disapperad almost completely when changing usb port. Slight hiss in the background, but much happier.

Woot!
That's not an uncommon problem with laptops. Shuttle style computers and even desktops can have the same problem. The computer companies need to take more care when designing a computer to make sure that all external USB ports are on their own bus and aren't shared with internal components like the keyboard, mouse, trackpad or webcam.

If you're still getting an occasional crackle you can try the latency checker program. Sometimes you can get a driver that causes a latency spike every so often. Tracking down a problem like that can be a pain.