[Wolfrian]

I bought a JDS Labs Atom Amp+DAC combo recently, and I've been getting a lot of crackling whenever I use the DAC, enough for me to stop using it entirely and just rely on the amp for sound.

Issue with that, is that I've got a really poor soundcard on my motherboard and there's still some crackling that occurs whenever I'm playing certain audio. Video streamers seem to be the worst culprit.

I contacted the customer support guy two or so months ago (around when I bought it) and we tried troubleshooting some things, and I even sent the DAC back to JDS Labs so they could verify everything was alright, and they said everything worked on their end.

The guy at JDS told me to just keep going at it and let him know if I ever figure it out. I eventually gave up because I had spent like 2 weeks troubleshooting and I got tired of it, but I want to give it another shot.

Here's what I've tried so far:
Tried all USB ports
Reduced amount of USB devices to a minimum
Plugged the full set up into several other computers, all other setups worked perfectly.
Tried a JDS Element 2, crackling was still present.
Shipped it back to JDS Labs for analysis, everything held up on their end.
Used LatencyMon to detect any drops, no latency detected.
The DAC board got switched out by JDS Labs when they sent it back
Tried a powered USB hub
Tried changing the voltages a bit (heard there were some issues with AMD chipsets messing with audio quality, people recommended some voltage changes)
Reinstalled and updated drivers of all kinds
Done several resets on pieces of hardware, BIOS resets, CPU resets, factory resetting on the OS, etc.

Puzzled on what to do.

Headsets are Sennheiser HD 6XXs, motherboard is a MPG Gaming Edge X570, Amp/DAC is the JDS Labs Atom combo. Also have tried an Element 2, with the same results.

 

[dunring]

Download Autoruns which will let you see everything that's loading in your system like old sound drivers which a lot of times don't completely uninstall. Checking add/remove programs for anything like old sound drivers. Disabling on board sound in the bios would take it out of the equation if you don't need it. In autoruns, check the startup tab and look for old drivers for things you dont have anymore, just create a Windows restore point first.

 

[dankthropod]

Try booting ubuntu off of a USB drive. If it works its something wrong with windows and not any hardware.

 

[Roseval]

Video streamers seem to be the worst culprit.

Looks like the GPU is mangling the bits.
Any option to disable it?

 

[GREQ]

More troubleshooting steps
• Go into the Power Plan settings and set all USBs to never go to sleep/turn off.
• Edit power plan to maximum performance.
• Try a different USB cable.
• Disable all other audio output devices.
• Make sure the sample rate is not set above the DAC's highest.
• Turn off all OS sound enhancements.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

In addition to what @GREQ said, try optical if you have any device (CD, DVD player) that has optical out to narrow the problem down to USB.

If the noise is gone you can look into a USB decrapifier or DDC.

Make sure you're using ASIO drivers when using USB, hopefully your music app(s) support that.

 

[Wolfrian]

Download Autoruns which will let you see everything that's loading in your system like old sound drivers which a lot of times don't completely uninstall. Checking add/remove programs for anything like old sound drivers. Disabling on board sound in the bios would take it out of the equation if you don't need it. In autoruns, check the startup tab and look for old drivers for things you dont have anymore, just create a Windows restore point first.

Didn't have any old drivers installed, and disabling on board sound had no effect. Also disabled all other audio devices to no avail. Have also done a factory reset on windows prior.

Try booting ubuntu off of a USB drive. If it works its something wrong with windows and not any hardware.

Same issues occurred.

Looks like the GPU is mangling the bits.
Any option to disable it?

I'm using a GPU and don't have an onboard GPU, no way for me to disable it.

More troubleshooting steps
• Go into the Power Plan settings and set all USBs to never go to sleep/turn off.
• Edit power plan to maximum performance.
• Try a different USB cable.
• Disable all other audio output devices.
• Make sure the sample rate is not set above the DAC's highest.
• Turn off all OS sound enhancements.

Tried all of these, no changes.

In addition to what @GREQ said, try optical if you have any device (CD, DVD player) that has optical out to narrow the problem down to USB.

If the noise is gone you can look into a USB decrapifier or DDC.

Make sure you're using ASIO drivers when using USB, hopefully your music app(s) support that.

Forgot to mention that I used on optical cable before, the issue still occurred.

 

[GREQ]

Then that leaves only ONE likely source of the problem - the Motherboard.
B450 and M570 chipset motherboards have had USB and audio problems including dropouts, reconnects, crackling audio and problems with external DACs since their launch.

Manufacturers have only STARTED rolling out BIOS updates since April this year.
I have an MSI B450 motherboard and had similar issues until I updated my BIOS about a month ago.

Go here and click on the SUPPORT tab at the top.
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-X570-GAMING-EDGE-WIFI/support
Then scroll down and first try out the BIOS update from April - AMI BIOS7C37v1H2022-04-20
If that does not fix the problem, try the latest update from May - AMI BIOS7C37v1I1(Beta version)2022-05-20

The reason I say this is because when I tried the latest update on my motherboard, I COMPLETELY lost all connection to my USB DAC, but the previous April update fixed it.
Since our mobos are from the same manufacturer, this seems the more sensible course of action.

Also, it should be possible to roll back to older BIOS versions if the new ones cause more issues.

If you've already tried those two versions, then perhaps you likely can only wait for the next update.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Forgot to mention that I used on optical cable before, the issue still occurred.

Wait, what? You tried the DAC over optical, but what was the source? The problematic PC or something else?