[portalheadd]

Oh of course, I mean I'm using optical now because usb is trash. But if I buy a powered hub, I'd still need to hook up the hub to the pc via usb so the Modius can get the audio from it.

Ok I got it now. You want to have benefits of unison. But, I mean it measures better via USB, but I don’t know I personally wouldn’t have any problem to use optical. But if your PC usb port is really that noisy, I’m not sure a powered hub will solve the problem.

 

[WaveTheory]

The stack has made it painfully aware that I have really bad, noisy usb ports on my PC. Like it's always been there, but this has made it obvious. Guys what can I do? Any powered usb hubs that will absolutely get rid of the issue? Right now I'm on PC's optical out, which obviously doesn't take advantage of the unison USB of the Modius.

It also depends on what's causing the noise. I have a ground loop on my pc's usb outputs and it's annoying. The iSilencer or Audioquest Jitterbug type of filters do not help. Schiit's Unison connection reduced it but did not eliminate it. Using balanced connections between dac and amp is clean and quiet, though. For single ended the combination of using an internal PCIE USB hub card and a relatively cheap ground loop isolator between dac and amp works well too.

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

Try using a USB bus with nothing else on it, if you have one available.

After like a week of craziness, I've finally been able to sit down and solder together a balanced cable for my ZMF Atticus. I listened to a couple of albums and was very pleased with what I heard (BF2 balanced w/ Pi2AES coax source). I'm holding off on serious impressions until I've had at least a week of balanced listening, but so far, it's very clean sounding with great depth and detail.

Next up, reterminating my HD800 stock cable with XLR, and making a new SE cable for it out of some Mogami star quad.

 

[In1unison]

It also depends on what's causing the noise. I have a ground loop on my pc's usb outputs and it's annoying. The iSilencer or Audioquest Jitterbug type of filters do not help. Schiit's Unison connection reduced it but did not eliminate it. Using balanced connections between dac and amp is clean and quiet, though. For single ended the combination of using an internal PCIE USB hub card and a relatively cheap ground loop isolator between dac and amp works well too.

iFi designed iDefender+ as an entry-level ground loop problem eliminator. iGalvanic being a more capable (and more expensive) device.

 

[WaveTheory]

iFi designed iDefender+ as an entry-level ground loop problem eliminator. iGalvanic being a more capable (and more expensive) device.

Ah yes. I tried an iDefender too and could not remember the name . It didn't help me, though. The isolators I linked to in earlier post led to the biggest improvement, outside of using balanced connections between dac and amp, that is.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

My XLR interconnects arrive today, since the PYST ones came defective. I guess I can try and see if the noise is gone with them in the meanwhile.

 

[supersonic395]

My XLR interconnects arrive today, since the PYST ones came defective. I guess I can try and see if the noise is gone with them in the meanwhile.

For the XLR interconnects, did Schiit send you new PYST cables or did they refund you?

I noticed that XLR cables aren't currently available in the PYST options drop-down menu on the Schiit site

 

[yoyodunno]

Oh of course, I mean I'm using optical now because usb is trash. But if I buy a powered hub, I'd still need to hook up the hub to the pc via usb so the Modius can get the audio from it.

I tried a cheap usb hub with my modi 3+ and I don’t recommend it. The sound was horrible, for some reason it added volume, harshness, and lost dynamics. The cheap usb cable schiit provided with the modi worked the best for me. Also I didn’t like the usb 3 ports on my mobo as much as the usb 2. Not sure why since I thought unison usb is supposed to not care.
On another note, just got my Jot 2 and use it with hd6xx on balanced, it made the 6xx a bit bigger sounding and more enjoyable for me. Coming from the Magni 3+. Also using sundara which are my fave(only on se so far) and soon gl2000.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

To be complete honest, I hardly use USB for audio to begin with since I'm usually using optical from other gaming dacs to my Schiit DACs for gaming purposes, but since I've heard the noise, I can't unhear it.

For the XLR interconnects, did Schiit send you new PYST cables or did they refund you?

I noticed that XLR cables aren't currently available in the PYST options drop-down menu on the Schiit site

They offered to send new ones, I told them I'll let them know how the ones I ordered on Amazon go. I wanna make sure that the cables were indeed defective first.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Oh thank god. So, utilizing the XLR interconnects completely gets rid of the USB noise. So no need for RCA cables for the Modius. Thank goodness. I had no idea going balanced entirely would fix such a thing. I thought once noise was introduced, there wouldn't be a way to get rid of it. I know NOTHING about balanced.

Now to wait for good working XLRs to come in.

 

[AppleheadMay]

@Mad Lust Envy
You have two usb connectors at the back.
If you plug a 5V power adapter into the second one, doesn’t the USB noise go away?

With my Bifrost I have no usb noise at all , that one is also separately powered.

 

[Clemmaster]

@Mad Lust Envy : Unison with galvanic isolation gets rid of USB noise. Modius doesn’t have that (starts with Bifrost 2 and up).
To get rid of it you need an isolator like the Intona, but it’s expensive.

You seem to have found a work-around with XLR anyway...

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

@Mad Lust Envy : Unison with galvanic isolation gets rid of USB noise. Modius doesn’t have that (starts with Bifrost 2 and up).
To get rid of it you need an isolator like the Intona, but it’s expensive.

You seem to have found a work-around with XLR anyway...

Well, since XLR gets rid of the noise completely, I don't need anything else.

@Mad Lust Envy
You have two usb connectors at the back.
If you plug a 5V power adapter into the second one, doesn’t the USB noise go away?

With my Bifrost I have no usb noise at all , that one is also separately powered.

Even powered from the wall, the usb still needs to be connected to my PC for the USB DAC duties, hence the dilemma. But since I don't plan on using RCA as an interconnect between the Modius and Jotu 2 (it was temporary while the new XLRs came in), I should be fine.

 

[tincanear]

The stack has made it painfully aware that I have really bad, noisy usb ports on my PC. Like it's always been there, but this has made it obvious. Guys what can I do? Any powered usb hubs that will absolutely get rid of the issue? Right now I'm on PC's optical out, which obviously doesn't take advantage of the unison USB of the Modius.

glad that the XLR connection between modius and jot 2 fixed the problem. that's one of the primary benefits of using (strongly differential) balanced hardware and interconnects. helps reduce ground loop noise.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

PC -> optical out -> Modius -> atm RCA interconnects -> Jotunheim 2 -> Balanced KSC75 and Balanced PortaPros, SE out 6XX, SE out LCD-1

Tonight it'll be

PC -> usb -> Modius -> XLR interconnects -> Jotunheim 2 -> Balanced KSC75 and Balanced PortaPros, SE out 6XX, SE out LCD-1

I have a Creative G6 usb dac/amp and Schiit Hel as well. The G6 will send optical out to the Modius (for the SBX virtual surround when gaming), once I get the XLRs in. The Hel is essentially just for the analog mic input nowadays.

Still waiting on 6XX balanced cables arriving at some point in the future.