[Currawong]

Quote:

I had a lot of distortion that made the voices crackle at one point from the DAC. Would that qualify as jitter?

 
No.  You don't hear jitter as something that's separate to the music.  It's not a separate noise, but results in subtle distortion to the music in various ways.
 
If you have crackling, it could be because of a number of things: A problem with your software not being able to send the data to the digital output, or, if you hear it turning the volume knob on an amp, because of DC passing through to the headphones which shouldn't be there.

 

[darknessproz]

Yeah, can tell the size from your pictures. I will be primarily using the Audinst as a DAC to my powered Audioengine A2 speakers. I don't own a decent set of headphones or IEM's that would benefit from amping, my best IEM's are the UE Metrofi 170...
 
Quote:

 
The surprising thing with this amp is that it really isn't that much bigger than the uDAC. It's a lot smaller than the pictures make it out to be. Excellent DAC section though. Really brings out the goods from my Matrix m-stage
 

 

[clams]

Quote:

Yeah, can tell the size from your pictures. I will be primarily using the Audinst as a DAC to my powered Audioengine A2 speakers. I don't own a decent set of headphones or IEM's that would benefit from amping, my best IEM's are the UE Metrofi 170...
 

 

Actually that's one of the uses for my Audinst as well. Works pretty well and a definite upgrade from the uDAC sound.
 

 

[Endless]

Quote:

Do you actually keep the dac on top of the Asgard? I mean, won't it get too hot?

Ehhh.. I noticed that yesterday. I tried putting some post it notes on the four corners to elevate it so that air can ventilate through the DAC  and amp.  
 
Quote:

 

When you use the Audinst in standalone DAC mode, does it's volume knob have any effect on the output? (i.e. works like a pre-amp)  I might have imagined this, but I think I read somewhere that there's a switch inside the Audinst to allow you to defeat the volume control for a standard line-out.
 
I mention this because right now you have 3 separate volume controls:
1. Windows
2. Audinst
3. Asgard
 
This is just speculation, but I think you'd get the cleanest audio signal by maxing the volume in Windows, and setting the Audinst to pure line-out with no volume control. Then only use the Asgard's volume knob.
 
Another possible reason is that the metal enclosures of the Audinst and the Asgard are touching each other.
 
Okay. I think I'll stop now since I have neither the Audinst nor the Asgard.

 
Yes, when the Audinst is in standalone DAC mode, the volume amp does have an effect on the output. Hmm, a switch? I'll research online for some more info on that. I've tried putting the Asgard and the Audinst on separate ends of the table so that they wouldn't touch, and I still hear it. One thing I found is that if I scroll up and down excessively or if I do anything memory or cpu consuming on my computer (Starcraft II), the "electrical noises" (going to stop using the word jittery), gets way worse. I think that it may be a problem with my computer's usb output. 

 

[clams]

Quote:

Ehhh.. I noticed that yesterday. I tried putting some post it notes on the four corners to elevate it so that air can ventilate through the DAC  and amp.  
 
 
Yes, when the Audinst is in standalone DAC mode, the volume amp does have an effect on the output. Hmm, a switch? I'll research online for some more info on that. I've tried putting the Asgard and the Audinst on separate ends of the table so that they wouldn't touch, and I still hear it. One thing I found is that if I scroll up and down excessively or if I do anything memory or cpu consuming on my computer (Starcraft II), the "electrical noises" (going to stop using the word jittery), gets way worse. I think that it may be a problem with my computer's usb output. 

Did you try running it off of wall power instead of USB?
 

 

[Endless]

It is running off wall power. 

 

[Endless]

Actually, a Head-Fier recently noted that a  ground loop isolator removed this problem for him/her. Does anybody else have experience using this isolator? 

 

[Yoga Flame]

The Audinst HUD-mx1 and the Schiit Asgard are both great units that pretty much everyone who tried them agrees performs well over their price point. And you have them both. Very nice.
 
 
Quote:

Yes, when the Audinst is in standalone DAC mode, the volume amp does have an effect on the output. Hmm, a switch? I'll research online for some more info on that. 

Okay, my bad. I think the switch that I remembered reading about was just the front panel switch to toggle between headphones vs line-out. But I do know there is a jumper inside for toggling between low gain and high gain settings. I guess I got the two things confused.
 
 
Quote:

 
 One thing I found is that if I scroll up and down excessively or if I do anything memory or cpu consuming on my computer (Starcraft II), the "electrical noises" gets way worse. I think that it may be a problem with my computer's usb output. 

 
Someone had a similar problem with S/PDIF output. And to my complete surprise, this was fixed by overclocking the computer CPU. Worth a try perhaps.
noisy S/PDIF output
 
As for the USB isolator. It should stop any analog noise from the PC from passing through into the Audinst. This one looks pretty ghetto, but is the least expensive one I found.
http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?currency=USD&products_id=3769
 
 
Also, have you tried disconnecting the Audinst's wallwart? USB alone should be enough for powering it in standalone DAC mode. Just an idea to help narrow down the causes.

 

[Currawong]

That noise sounds like the Audinst USB implementation could need improvement. I used to own the Audiotrak Prodigy Cube, which is also a Korean design, and it had the noisiest USB implementation I'd ever encountered.

 

[Endless]

I tried disconnecting the Audinst's DC adapter, and heard the worst sound in the world that was characterized by tinniness, bassless, muddied vocals. I can't believe there existed something that sounded worse than airplane headphones. 
 
I just read that thread regarding overclocking just now. Wow, just wow. I guess I'll try that and see what I get out.
 
As for the isolator, I was thinking more of something like this, http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214 although I am dubious on the quality of those RCA plugs. Radioshack has an amazing return policy, so I can return it and get a better "quality" isolator online. Just wanted to test if the grounded isolator make a difference.

 
However, if I wanted to use the Audinst as a DAC (or any amp/DACs in general), what should I have the volume knob at? Max at 5'oclock or close to max at 2 / 3'oclock? I'm not confident with my DIY skills to open it and mess around inside. I'll leave the switching of OPAMPs  and the like when I have an actual stable job and funds to support my hobby. I'm still in high school unlike most head-fiers here.

 

[kite7]

The volume knob should be at the highest position possible without any audible clipping. Turn it to the max and slowly back down, that's if you hear any distortion.

 

[darknessproz]

You mean that the Audinst running of USB power sounds bad? Is that when using it as a standalone dac, or with the amp?
 
Quote:

I tried disconnecting the Audinst's DC adapter, and heard the worst sound in the world that was characterized by tinniness, bassless, muddied vocals. I can't believe there existed something that sounded worse than airplane headphones. 
 
I just read that thread regarding overclocking just now. Wow, just wow. I guess I'll try that and see what I get out.
 
As for the isolator, I was thinking more of something like this, http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214 although I am dubious on the quality of those RCA plugs. Radioshack has an amazing return policy, so I can return it and get a better "quality" isolator online. Just wanted to test if the grounded isolator make a difference.

 
However, if I wanted to use the Audinst as a DAC (or any amp/DACs in general), what should I have the volume knob at? Max at 5'oclock or close to max at 2 / 3'oclock? I'm not confident with my DIY skills to open it and mess around inside. I'll leave the switching of OPAMPs  and the like when I have an actual stable job and funds to support my hobby. I'm still in high school unlike most head-fiers here.

 

[Endless]

Quote:

You mean that the Audinst running of USB power sounds bad? Is that when using it as a standalone dac, or with the amp?
 

 

 
It sounds bad when I run the Audinst on USB power while using it as a dedicated DAC for my Schiit Asgard. However, when using the Audinst as a DAC/amp, the USB power was more than enough. 

 

[Yoga Flame]

Try running the Audinst + Schiit combination again with USB power. But plug in the USB cable last of all. I suspect that earlier on, you may have had both USB and wallwart connected and then removed the wallwart while the Audinst was still in operation.
 
My guess is that it was happily drawing power from the wallwart and leaving the USB power alone at first. But when the DC plug was removed, internally it still remained in wallwart mode. So at that point it had no power but did not "know" it. That might explain why the sound went bad.

 

[Endless]

Quote:

Try running the Audinst + Schiit combination again with USB power. But plug in the USB cable last of all. I suspect that earlier on, you may have had both USB and wallwart connected and then removed the wallwart while the Audinst was still in operation.
 
My guess is that it was happily drawing power from the wallwart and leaving the USB power alone at first. But when the DC plug was removed, internally it still remained in wallwart mode. So at that point it had no power but did not "know" it. That might explain why the sound went bad.

I turned off my computer and removed the DC adapter on the back of the Audinst. I turned my computer back on, and what you said was indeed true. When I removed the DC plug before, it probably remained in wallwart mode internally. I'm using the Audinst now as a dedicated DAC drawing power solely from the USB slot. Looks like I saved a couple dollars on my electricity bills haha. Thanks for the extra cup of coffee every month. 

 
But here's my update on my Audinst today. If you are reading this and have been keeping up with my thread, you probably seen me complaining about the "jittery" and electrical noises when I have both my DAC and amplifier at max volume. Today, I got some "premium" RCA cables and USB 2.0 A Male to B Male from monoprice, http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021803&p_id=5346&seq=1&format=2 and http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030301&p_id=5438&seq=1&format=2 . The annoying random noises were gone after replacing the stock cables with these. Now all I hear is a a hissing sound at max volume with music muted. Those reading might say, "Oh you still have a hiss. Big deal." It's quite a big deal to me. The jittery sound on top of the hiss just annoyed me ad infinitum. Now I'm left with the hiss. I'm satisfied.
 
Now, to get rid of the hiss. I'll see if the ground loop isolator would make any difference.