[tunatime]

OK i tired a ear force DDS i had laying around that has optical in and usb for the power so i went form xfi to optical to the dss thing Whit the usb power coming off my pc and it was just as noise as right out the xfi so just for fun i tired powering it by usb form My labtop and it was dead quite other then teh hiss that the cheep dss thign makes but all the other noise goes away so are their any dacs that have optical in that are not powered by usb and sound good for a good price  price

 

[stv014]

It is probably not the solution you are looking for, but how about trying another amplifier that is less sensitive to grounding issues ? For example, the O2 would drive your Denons very well, and is even cheaper than the Asgard.

 

[tunatime]

Quote:

It is probably not the solution you are looking for, but how about trying another amplifier that is less sensitive to grounding issues ? For example, the O2 would drive your Denons very well, and is even cheaper than the Asgard.

so is the Asgard just vary sensitive? i still have about 20 days to send the Asgard back, so if i went that route would the o2+ a good dac work better then the Asgard and a cheep dac? or would i even need a dac whit something like the o2?

 

[NamelessPFG]

Send back the Asgard and try the Objective2 out of your X-Fi, then hear what happens.
 
You've tried switching sources, and that didn't seem to work out so well, so it's time to try switching amps.

 

[tunatime]

Quote:

Send back the Asgard and try the Objective2 out of your X-Fi, then hear what happens.
 
You've tried switching sources, and that didn't seem to work out so well, so it's time to try switching amps.

but using a cheap earforce dss hocked up to the optical fixed most of the noise as in i didn't hear any pc noise i was hearing a little noise the dds thing was making to the amp  it just sounded bad because the earforce thing is a cheap pos so would getting a good dac and keeping the Asgard work better then getting a Objective2 or is the Asgard and the Objective2 about the same as far as amps go? im still new to headphone amps and waht not so i have no cule

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

but using a cheap earforce dss hocked up to the optical fixed most of the noise as in i didn't hear any pc noise i was hearing a little noise the dds thing was making to the amp  it just sounded bad because the earforce thing is a cheap pos so would getting a good dac and keeping the Asgard work better then getting a Objective2 or is the Asgard and the Objective2 about the same as far as amps go? im still new to headphone amps and waht not so i have no cule

Oh, must have misread your post on that, then. I thought you were saying that the noise happened with both.
 
I can't say which amp is better because I've tried neither and have no plans to buy either (conventional dynamic amps don't do me any good).
 
As for the optical output, which one did you use? The one from the X-Fi front panel, or the one on the motherboard's sound codec? I'm just trying to get a better idea of where the problem lies here.

 

[tunatime]

i tired them both to the earforce dss thing and as long as i plug in the usb power to my labtop to power the dss thing i get no noise( other then a veary litle hiss that i get form the earforce thing) form the xfi or mb to the dss to the Asgard, if i plug the usb power for the earforce dss to my pc i get the same noise as if I'm using the 3.5 jack out my xfi or mb. i think i have a vary noise pc i do have 3 6950s and a 3930k cpu in it after all. i was reading up on the  Objective2 amp and they say its a very quite amp but i still think il need some way to quite my pc down and since my usb seams too noisy  the only thing i can think of is to use optical out to some thing that is not usb powered. right now im thinking of sending the Asgard back and getting a O2 amp and a dac that would have to solve the noise problem right?
 
thanks for the help in all this

 

[NamelessPFG]

Getting a DAC with optical/Toslink S/PDIF input and an AC adapter/cord for power should do the trick, hopefully. That way, it's not receiving any power or even electrical signals from your PC, just light signals.
 
As for which DAC, I don't know what to recommend. Too many offerings at ever-increasing price points.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

i tired them both to the earforce dss thing and as long as i plug in the usb power to my labtop to power the dss thing i get no noise( other then a veary litle hiss that i get form the earforce thing) form the xfi or mb to the dss to the Asgard, if i plug the usb power for the earforce dss to my pc i get the same noise as if I'm using the 3.5 jack out my xfi or mb. i think i have a vary noise pc i do have 3 6950s and a 3930k cpu in it after all. i was reading up on the  Objective2 amp and they say its a very quite amp but i still think il need some way to quite my pc down and since my usb seams too noisy  the only thing i can think of is to use optical out to some thing that is not usb powered. right now im thinking of sending the Asgard back and getting a O2 amp and a dac that would have to solve the noise problem right?

 
The reason why you hear noise with the Asgard is that the electrical noise from the PC leaks into the amplifier through the ground wire in the audio and USB cables. When there is no ground connection (e.g. with the laptop workaround you found), no such interference is possible. The O2 is a small amplifier powered by an external AC adapter, and is not grounded; it also has some RF filtering on its input. Therefore, with some luck, it could fix or significantly reduce the noise even without a DAC, or with a non-isolated DAC.
 
There are also USB isolators like this one that could solve the problem even if you use a USB DAC, although I have not tried (nor needed) one myself yet. Ground loop isolation for the analog signal from the X-Fi is possible as well (and not cost much), but would degrade the audio quality somewhat.

 

[vinylrecordust]

Make sure to look at the Musical Fidelity V-DAC Mk II.......great up sampling with asynchronous USB.
 
Regards!