chromicant
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2014
- Posts
- 3
- Likes
- 10
I currently have a JDS Labs C5 and ODAC combo. The amp & a Sansa Clip+ have been serving me very well on my travels. Now that I'm back in the office (a craptacular Dell laptop docking station setup), I'm moving back to my ODAC setup on Windows + Foobar 2000.
When I was setting things up the other day, I noticed quite a bit of noise (hissy/fuzzy - not quite the static from an untuned radio, but close) from the ODAC + C5 after plugging in the ODAC. I started troubleshooting a bit - plug the amp into the Clip - no noise. Then I just tried 2 different pairs of headphones - both the same noise. On real careful listening, I think I could hear very faint clock pings. Moved the ODAC to my Nexus 5 + OTG USB cable - and more clock-y noise. Also seen on 2 different USB cables. Also, the noise is heard on my desktop (completely different internals), and even checked the ODAC PCB board. No smell of escaped magic smoke.
I don't ever remember this on the ODAC before, so my question is:
1) Have people heard this before? On searching, I've see some references here and there but no real conclusions. I remember my ODAC being really quiet. But again, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. I thought the ODAC had some internals to isolate itself from the computer.
2) I'm trying to find a powered USB hub - have people found this to work well with isolating the ODAC to prevent noise?
3) Is my ODAC giving up the ghost? Is it time to look for new options? Not that it still plays sound - just with a #@$# hiss that has a faint click when things are silent - enough to drive me batty a bit.
When I was setting things up the other day, I noticed quite a bit of noise (hissy/fuzzy - not quite the static from an untuned radio, but close) from the ODAC + C5 after plugging in the ODAC. I started troubleshooting a bit - plug the amp into the Clip - no noise. Then I just tried 2 different pairs of headphones - both the same noise. On real careful listening, I think I could hear very faint clock pings. Moved the ODAC to my Nexus 5 + OTG USB cable - and more clock-y noise. Also seen on 2 different USB cables. Also, the noise is heard on my desktop (completely different internals), and even checked the ODAC PCB board. No smell of escaped magic smoke.
I don't ever remember this on the ODAC before, so my question is:
1) Have people heard this before? On searching, I've see some references here and there but no real conclusions. I remember my ODAC being really quiet. But again, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. I thought the ODAC had some internals to isolate itself from the computer.
2) I'm trying to find a powered USB hub - have people found this to work well with isolating the ODAC to prevent noise?
3) Is my ODAC giving up the ghost? Is it time to look for new options? Not that it still plays sound - just with a #@$# hiss that has a faint click when things are silent - enough to drive me batty a bit.
