[nicholars]

Hello,
 
I have a NAD D1050, I am happy with the sound and have it connected via USB, my PC has a Haswell 4690k CPU which I think has the USB controllers on the CPU ... so when i read guides saying "putasync DAC on seperate USB hub" I am not sure this applies...
 
My problem is that approx once every 3 hours the DAC will disconnect and reconnect for a second, and make the clicking noise of the relay as it disconnects and reconnects to the signal. This can be annoying for example when playing a game it will disconnect and then will not "lock" back onto the signal and I have to restart the game to get audio back... Also when listening on foobar approx once every 3 hours it will disconnect and reconnect and say "unrecoverable playback error" in foobar.
 
I think these are called "USB dropouts" but I cannot find any way to fix it on my PC, I have tried various USB ports and settings... Can anyone help me? I also have a high quality QED USB cable and have tried another so it is not that, thanks.

 

[nicholars]

Anyone?? Need some help plz this is irritating me... Thanks

 

[UntilThen]

This review will tell you it's a design of the NAD D1050. It has nothing to do with your USB dropouts.
http://www.goodsound.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/538-nad-d-1050-digital-to-analog-converter
 
Connected to its power supply, the D 1050 draws about 7W when active, and less than 0.5W in standby (though my Kill a Watt registered no use of power in standby). To reduce power consumption, the D 1050 automatically switches itself off after about 30 minutes of not receiving a signal, but doesn’t turn itself back on when sent a digital signal. To turn it on, you need to press a button on the top panel; this can be hard to find by touch on the smooth surface, and I found that the touch point was not quite aligned with the illuminated marking. While this won’t be a problem when the D 1050 is used on a desktop, it could be annoying if it’s placed in a rack. Better would be a low-power mode that switched to full power when it detected a signal, or at least a remote control. (According to NAD, since the D 1050 has an IR remote sensor, its automatic standby mode can be defeated by the dealer using one of NAD's IR remote controls.)

 

[UntilThen]

When changing and locking to a sample rate, the D 1050 makes a sharp click, and displays the new sample rate on the front panel. Greg Stidsen, NAD’s director of technology and product planning explained: “NAD uses a reed relay to keep the output impedance extremely low, a very desirable feature and one that costs significantly more to implement than the simple CMOS switches commonly used. The soft clicking sound from the reed relay comes from the D 1050 itself and is not heard on the signal output, which is always silent if there is no signal present.” I noticed that, when sent the less common sample rates of 88.2 or 176.4kHz, the D 1050 displayed them as, respectively, 96 and 192kHz. Stidsen explained: “The D 1050 does not do any upsampling or downsampling; all bitstreams are maintained in a bit-perfect state. Not including the 88.2/176.4 indication is because of a space limitation on the display. In fact, there are even separate clocks for the 44.1/88.2/176.4 sample rates and the 48/96/192 sample rates, to provide the lowest possible jitter by avoiding frequency transpositions.” A dump of the USB device information (cat /proc/asound/card*/stream0 > log.txt) while playing music supported this explanation.

 

[nicholars]

Thanks for the reply, but that's not the problem, I worked out what the problem is, it's when the fridge compressor turns off, it causes a power fluctuation which the dac does not like so it will disconnect and reconnect, none of my other electronics do this, just the dac, I am guessing it is more sensitive to power fluctuations than PC, TV etc.

 

[UntilThen]

hahaha interesting. getting my NA D1050 on the 12th Oct really looking forward to it.

 

[nicholars]

I am still happy with mine after 6 months, except for the problem I just said about.

 

[UntilThen]

Maybe get the electrician to come in to do something about the power point line where the fridge is located. Yes I have read good things about the NAD D1050.

 

[jim723]

I just happened to come across this old thread. I am not sure if you have solved the problem. I am wondering if it has something to do with your USB cable. Try a shorter USB cable and see if that would help.