[Valens7]

I'm going to try something else. I'm going to determine if the Xbox is itself responsible for the problem by hooking up my laptop in my room right next to the MKIII to see if it causes any interference. I'll report my findings.

 

[breakfastchef]

Contact Little Tube about this problem. It seems to me that David told a forum member that the amp can be susceptible to certain outside interferences. In particular, it was related to a wireless setup.

 

[Valens7]

Sure enough, placing my laptop in proximity to the Little Dot caused the noise! At least now I know the Xbox isn't at fault. I'll be sure to put in an e-mail to David about my problem, but in the meantime please continue to post your suggestions! I'm going to hold out hope that somebody will be able to provide me with a fix. This thread has been very informative for me thus far, so I'm feeling mildly more optimistic.

 

[Tridacnid]

Well, if you stream music through your XBox, do your really need to have you laptop near the LD? I get a little bit of noise when I have my amp near my laptop, but it seems that it only happens when I use the track-pad, for whatever reason.

 

[Valens7]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you need to read the thread again. At issue is the fact that I can't have any wireless device near my amp without incurring signal noise.

 

[Valens7]

I managed to get ahold of David from Little Dot (swift reply, excellent service) and he advised me to cap the exposed RCA jacks. I did that with a spare pair of IC's, but that didn't remove the noise. He also advised giving some EF92 tubes a shot, citing that they tend to be less susceptible to interference. Would anyone mind sharing their experiences using EF92 tubes as opposed to the stock tubes? He specifically recommended the Mullard M8161's, which also seem to come highly recommended around here as well.

 

[breakfastchef]

8161's are a good choice and at a reasonable cost. I ran those on my MKII. Remember to change the internal jumpers in the amp for E92 tube operation. There are actual RCA caps you may want to seek out instead of using ICs.

 

[Valens7]

Well, I received both my RCA caps and my Mullard M8161 tubes today.

THEY WORKED!!!

It was the Mullard tubes that resolved the issue. I booted up my 360 right next to the LD, and I was rewarded with complete silence after I installed them. The RCA caps didn't make any difference, but I left them on anyway for aesthetic purposes.

Now it's time to listen!

I'll be sure to post my impressions.

Thanks for the help everyone! Truly, Head-Fi never disappoints.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valens7 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, I received both my RCA caps and my Mullard M8161 tubes today. THEY WORKED!!! It was the Mullard tubes that resolved the issue. I booted up my 360 right next to the LD, and I was rewarded with complete silence after I installed them. The RCA caps didn't make any difference, but I left them on anyway for aesthetic purposes. Now it's time to listen! I'll be sure to post my impressions. Thanks for the help everyone! Truly, Head-Fi never disappoints.

That's fantastic......how's it sound with the Mullards in there ? I have a pair but haven't tried them yet for any length of time considered long enough to actually get to know them....Were the stock tubes the GE 5654 or some such ?

PS: That just inspired me to swap to 8161's myself, haven't tried these yet with the 6H30Pi-DRs....should be a great combo

Peete.

 

[Valens7]

I'm afraid I spoke too soon.

I did everything that the manual prescribed when I installed the Mullards. They are properly seated in their sockets, and both DIP switches are set to "EF92 ON" inside the LD. I'm not getting any sound. With the gain set to 10, the most I can get is a low volume, heavily distorted version of whatever I'm listening to.

I e-mailed David, and the only thing he could suggest was that the tubes I bought are bad. I purchased them from a very reputable dealer, so I'm surprised and disappointed.

Unless I can get a refund on the tubes, I think I'm at the end of my rope. I like this amp, but it's just not worth this kind of trouble.

***DISREGARD THE ABOVE POST***

 

[Valens7]

God, I'm an idiot. I didn't think to remove the pins from the RCA caps.

Everything is fine now. I wasn't thinking very clearly I suppose.

I'm going to go burn these in now and report my impressions!

 

[fuzydice]

Which RCA caps did you get, btw?

 

[Valens7]

Just some cheap brass ones. I removed them after I removed the pins, as they didn't seem to have a particularly firm grip on the RCA jacks without them. Removing them didn't bring back the interference, and they were only ten bucks so it was no great loss.

 

[earwicker7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lapwing /img/forum/go_quote.gif A new power cable will do nothing to solve your problem. IMO fancy power cables are a waste of money.

That's not true at all. I had a fairly bad problem with interference while playing my CD Player--as the volume started to hit about 30-40% or so, you could heard a static hiss in the background. It never happened with the analog setup. I did some research and discovered that Shunyata makes a power cord specifically designed to absorb interference on digital devices--it's filled with a compound that absorbs RFI/EMI. The problem went away. I can turn the volume to 100% and no hiss.

Downside is that it is severely expensive.

I'm not saying that this will solve any interference problem, but it's just completely false (and kind of knee-jerk) to say that it can't.