How do you know the DAC is what is causing your hissing noise? Seems unlikely. It's hard for us to really know what you mean by "hissing noise" - is it a constant hiss, or is it more of a scratchy sound? Is it worse when you wiggle the plug? Have you tried different headphones? Does it happen only in games, or also when just playing music? Does it happen all the time, or just sometimes? Does it happen both when the laptop is plugged into AC power and also when unplugged and on battery? Have you tried getting the latest drivers for your laptop sound chip?
thank you for taking the time to reply....
alright let me try to answer 1 by 1...
How do you know the DAC is what is causing your hissing noise? an educated guess, and also based on some googling.. my laptop brand is pretty famous for mediocre onboard dac...
It's hard for us to really know what you mean by "hissing noise" - is it a constant hiss... yes it's a constant hiss, when i plug my headphone into the audio jack. actually, when i plug my portable speaker into audio jack it hisses as well.
Is it worse when you wiggle the plug? no, not really. and its not scratchy sound, its just constant hiss.
Have you tried different headphones? yes, my <$100 headphone and my $300 revealing headphone...
Does it happen only in games, or also when just playing music? almost all my music is 320kbps or flac... but it doesn't matter, it's just hiss all the time. not only when playing games or music or movie, just all the time. and it's not fan noise. im surprised that the fan noise is very barely audible. i dont play games btw.
Does it happen both when the laptop is plugged into AC power and also when unplugged and on battery? yes
Have you tried getting the latest drivers for your laptop sound chip? yes
oh also... the hisses is gone when i use my colleague's fiio e17... if that helps...
ah, i also hv a PC at home with those new-ish Z87 motherboard with that audio gimmicky stuff. crystal sound purity sound audio boost... smthn like that. anyway, no hisses when i listen to music / watch some media on my pc...
it doesn't even hiss with my old laptop from, 2007. but the old laptop from 2007 is a far better model
Like I said below, it is most likely the amp you are hearing. Not that it matters anyway as in consumer solutions, there isn't any way to 'seperate' the two. Not that you would ever spend money to anyway.
IT may also be a grounding issue. Commonly noise is either the amp or a grounding issue. If you have a desktop, check your I/O shield grounding pins and screws on motherboard and bronze standoffs. However apart from that, even if it was all done right, grounding could still be an issue if stuff in the enviroment is affecting it, or if the innate ability to ground is schitty.
Some laptops have schiit grounding as well so that can't be ruled out.
And at the very end, it could be due to amp specs being poor. In the sense that the output impedance is too high. Infinately small and closest to 0 ohm output impedance is always desired, but that is pretty much never the case on consumer products. Thus, by the general rule of 8, you may be having issues with output impedance as well. Try dropping some high impedance (over 64 if you have) headphones and plug them in. No more noise? Well there is the problem. Not one you can fix anyway besides getting an external audio playback devie.
The e17's output impedance is decently good for most genereal 32 ohm headphones and won't hiss from impedance. It's amp and DAC is pretty 'quiet' as well with very low if minimal noise. However the E17 is succeptible to EMI. I've played and own pretty much every FiiO on the market and ones not on the market.
So well, I've outlined all the problems it could be, none of which you can do anything about without a device like the E17. You don't need an E17 of course.
List below:
Enviromental EMI
Piss Poor Grounding in case either innately or phsyically
Amp having lots of noise
Amp having a high output impedance.
Combined effects with mediocre/poor consumer DAC leading to that.
Like others have said, look into cheap companies like MUSE or others that have cheaper external DAC/Amp combos for computers on ebay or the likes. Or if you have a friend in the USA. It may be cheaper to buy a FiiO on sale in the USA and then send it over to yur country. The E17 is sometimes $110 USD here.
I shipped custom ear impressions and recrod stuff to HK and Singapore for $7 USD and heavier stuff like a DAC for $20.
Probably the DAC if it's a hiss or grain when nothing is playing.
No. It's most likely the amplifier.
If a DAC had a low THD and a lot of noise, it wouldn't be audible if it wasn't for the amp.
And from experience, it is almost always the amp people are hearing in crap laptops. That's not to say the DAC isn't bad, but what you can readily hear, is the amp.
However, in a laptop/desktop, it makes no difference. There isn't line outs that bypass amps in consumer laptops/desktops so whatever it is, its the laptops audio capabilities that suck balls.
