Loevhagen
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Posts
- 1,316
- Likes
- 84
The Bifrost may be a better match for the Lyr, as the Bifrost is reportedly a leaner sounding DAC and the Lyr has a warmish sound to somewhat offset that. The Gungnir > Mjolnir combo is reportedly somewhat the opposite, where the DAC has more body and the amp is fast and lean.
My humble opinion is that focusing on IC to significant change sound signature, is a dead end.
About USB screeches.
First, I have a Bifrost and I've never heard it do anything like that, but I can shed some light on the subject overall.
When you start and stop the data stream on a computer (which happens whenever you start or stop a track, and whenever you change the sample rate), you sometimes end up with what amounts to a little bit of bad data in the computer's buffer. When the new track starts, the computer "clears its throat" and dumps this bad data. The result is a really nasty burst of not quite white noise that sounds like a click or screech. Most DACs mute this, but sometimes a little bit manages to get by. (You have to pick a mute time: if it's too short then sometimes you hear a screech; if its too long, you bite off some of the music.) I've heard similar occasional screeches or clicks with quite a few different USB DACs. I suspect that you only hear it when the particular computer and software happens to send out a longer burst than usual, or the DAC gets "caught out" and doesn't mute like it should. Of the half dozen DACs I use often, three or four of them do it - at least occasionally......
Are you guys running lossless files through the AE? I remember reading that it streams much better with compressed music.
... it's a really hard to track-down issue as... it's completely random: it can happen on almost every track *that* day/session (but, at least here, never when a track starts) or never in days/weeks
my first hypothesis has been that buffering was triggering it (as *that day* it represented every 20-30 minutes) but I've been proven wrong the next time it happened: no "fixed" time interval between instances
so... :-/
FWIW, I switched from an "audiophile-grade" USB cable to a generic, cheap one. This was at Jason's suggestion. It's been a couple of weeks, and—knock wood—no screeching so far.
I don't believe that the cable is the root cause, since I'd been using it for months with my previous DAC without any issues. It must be in the way the Gungnir interfaces with it. One possibility is mechanical: first cable is much heavier which puts more stress on the input. Don't know. If/when screech re-appears, I'll post.