[manpowre]

  So I have an update with my issue.  This morning I woke up and I unplugged the RCA from the source and turned the Asgard gain up.  There is still an audible buzzing with the RCA plugged into the Asgard, despite not being plugged into my source.  I can hear feedback get louder when I place my fingers on the gain knob, or the ends of the RCA cables.  I unplugged the Asgard and took it into the bathroom with my headphones and the RCA cable, plugged it into a newer outlet in there and BOOM, like 90% of the noise I was hearing is now gone.  Can we assume this is a ground loop issue? What should I purchase to eliminate this problem in my office?  Moving my entire office into the bathroom is not a possibility
 
That being said, I can also definitely here a different type of noise once the RCA is plugged into my PC.  So there is some noise coming from that as well.  I will have to go ahead and ditch the sound card.  I will say I previously had a Magni hooked up to my PC, different PC, same sound card, and I didn't experience this issue in the past.  I have since built a new PC and re-used ONLY the Titanium-HD sound card and I guess it's just not liking this new setup.

Just get an electrician to check your ground and electrical outlet in your office. thats it! In many houses today ground isnt properly attached in bedrooms and living rooms, but in so called wet-rooms like Kitchen, Batrooms and washing rooms they have to be properly attached due to higher humidity and risk of water spill.

 

[520RanchBro]

It's not the A2 that is noisy in your case, but Mani.. which being a very high gain device (like any other phono preamp) has pretty high noise floor. Amplifying very weak signals to line levels makes it very sensitive, naturally.

Yes, I'm aware of this, just giving the idea of the threshold of noise with multiple sources for ryry1. When a phono preamp is quieter than a digital source (in his case) somethings not quite right.

 

[madwolfa]

  When a phono preamp is quieter than a digital source (in his case) somethings not quite right.

 
Absolutely. However, in his case the source is actually analog (RCA Line Out from the PC soundcard), which is the main culprit.

 

[landroni]

  Absolutely. However, in his case the source is actually analog (RCA Line Out from the PC soundcard), which is the main culprit.

It is possible to get "soundcards" that output digitally (e.g. SPDIF):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Musiland-digital-times-Sound-Card-PCI-S-PDIF-optical-Computer-PC-Internal-/272189434480?hash=item3f5fc12a70:g:T2cAAOSwT6pVrVRu

 
If you use optical (and a quality glass cable like Lifatec), then you rid yourself of any electric interference from the source when passing the bits to an external DAC...

 

[ryry1]

   
Absolutely. However, in his case the source is actually analog (RCA Line Out from the PC soundcard), which is the main culprit.

So I got the issue solved with the grounding, but yeah the sound card is definitely still at fault for the majority of the issues, guess ole faithful will have to be replaced.  I have the Asgard plugged into my surge now with everything else, no more interference from that.  The RCA connected to the PC is super noisy, I got a RCA to 3.5mm splitter and plugged the Asgard into my iPhone and I can turn the Asgard up to near full gain with no distortion or buzzing, so that solves my problem.
 
In my last PC I was using the same sound card with a Magni and a pair of Mad Dog Pros, didn't have this issue then.  Since, I have upgraded to all new PC components, so there's gotta be some kind of interference and I'm kinda sick of dealing with the PCI sound card anyway, it's taking up an extra slot on my motherboard that could be used for more GPU power, so on to an external DAC it is.

 

[520RanchBro]

   
Absolutely. However, in his case the source is actually analog (RCA Line Out from the PC soundcard), which is the main culprit.

 
Well it's still a digital source is it not? The line out will skip the amplifier section, no? Making it essentially like any other DAC.
 
 
An external DAC using its own power supply is a good idea. Before I had an external DAC I would get similar noise from my PC, an external DAC solved that. Though in my case, the Modi still ran on USB power from the PC but the noise was gone.

 

[hodgjy]

I'll also throw this out there:
 
Even though I'm a huge Schiit fanboy and own several of their components, it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Despite their claimed extremely low noise figures, I've found their unbalanced gear to have some of the highest noise of any components I've ever heard. Their balanced gear is ultra silent, but their unbalanced offerings leave much to be desired. Best case scenario, I have dirty power and their gear is extremely sensitive to noise. Worst case, their gear is just noisy.
 
However, since the noise is only audible at above listening volumes, and you can't hear it with music anyway, it's not a major issue for me. I like the Schiit voicing and will continue to stick with it.

 

[landroni]

 

 
 
Absolutely. However, in his case the source is actually analog (RCA Line Out from the PC soundcard), which is the main culprit.

 
Well it's still a digital source is it not? The line out will skip the amplifier section, no? Making it essentially like any other DAC.

The source would be digital if it transmitted bits. If it transmits voltages (i.e. line out), then it doesn't matter if it goes through an amplifier section or not: the output is analog and may be catching electric interference from the noisy computer.

 

[520RanchBro]

 
The source would be digital if it transmitted bits. If it transmits voltages (i.e. line out), then it doesn't matter if it goes through an amplifier section or not: the output is analog and may be catching electric interference from the noisy computer.

 
DACs are commonly referred to as sources, at least on this website they are. They convert digital signals to analog, this is purely semantics but no one considers a Bifrost an analog source because it uses RCA outputs. By that standard every DAC is an analog source because it outputs an analog signal for an amp to use.

 

[madwolfa]

  Well it's still a digital source is it not? The line out will skip the amplifier section, no? Making it essentially like any other DAC.

 
Yes, line out would skip the amplifier section, but it's still a vulnerable analog signal inside an extremely noisy environment (switched power supply and bunch of high frequency components). Most good DACs are using linear/regulated power supplies and don't have gigahertz CPUs running in them, so it's not an issue.

 

[520RanchBro]

   
Yes, line out would skip the amplifier section, but it's still an analog signal inside an extremely noisy environment (switched power supply and bunch of high frequency components). Most good DACs are using linear/regulated power supplies and don't have gigahertz CPUs running in them, so it's not an issue.

 
I'm not debating that I'm just saying classifying a DAC as an analog source is incorrect. Every digital source has to output an analog signal or we would not hear anything.

 

[madwolfa]

  I'm not debating that I'm just saying classifying a DAC as an analog source is incorrect. Every digital source has to output an analog signal or we would not hear anything.

 
I guess the problem is that we don't even consider the computer sound cards as DACs. However, technically they, of course, are. 

 

[520RanchBro]

   
I guess the problem is that we don't even consider the computer sound cards as DACs. However, technically they, of course, are. 

I still think the terminology of calling a DAC a source is weird too, I always thought of the computer, media player, etc. as the source. But I guess ultimately it's where the sound comes from

 

[RickB]

  I'll also throw this out there:
 
Even though I'm a huge Schiit fanboy and own several of their components, it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Despite their claimed extremely low noise figures, I've found their unbalanced gear to have some of the highest noise of any components I've ever heard. Their balanced gear is ultra silent, but their unbalanced offerings leave much to be desired. Best case scenario, I have dirty power and their gear is extremely sensitive to noise. Worst case, their gear is just noisy.
 
However, since the noise is only audible at above listening volumes, and you can't hear it with music anyway, it's not a major issue for me. I like the Schiit voicing and will continue to stick with it.

I've found their amps with grounded plugs to be extremely sensitive to dirty power. Their amps that use wallwarts don't have this problem. I finally solved this problem with my Valhalla 2 by getting a power conditioner. 

 

[520RanchBro]

With my grounded Schiit components I've had no noise problems at all. I will say the Mani, while a bit more balanced and revealing than my Phono Box S, is a bit noisier. Really only noticeable when I'm listening at loud volumes on quieter passages though.