Serious popping, clicking with USB DAC

[knubbe]

While this didn't work for the OP, I found switching to a different media player worked. With Foobar even light browsing would result in the occasional pop or click, and I could definitely make it stutter by opening up a bunch of tabs at once, but with MusicBee this doesn't happen at all.

 

[cheuh]

Are you guys running any types of Anti-Malware programs? I had the static popping noise issue and I noticed that whenever I browse to different websites, I would randomly get that annoying popping noise. Using the DPC Latency Check mentioned in the first post, it showed my latency spiking up to high red bar levels. So then I went to disable every program that was running and I found out that by completely exiting and closing my anti-malware program called "Malwarebytes", the static popping noises went away and I'm consistently getting low latency green bars now. Looks like I won't be using that program anymore

. 

 

[beaver316]

Quote:

Unfortunately for me the problem has returned. Could it be something related to BIOS? I reverted that to default.

 
Hmm not sure. Have you tried playing with the foobar WASAPI buffer? I think it was mentioned earlier in this thread to use the hardware buffer, not the one in Playback > Output, but rather the one in Advanced > Playback > WASAPI > Hardware buffer.

 

[beaver316]

Quote:

Are you guys running any types of Anti-Malware programs? I had the static popping noise issue and I noticed that whenever I browse to different websites, I would randomly get that annoying popping noise. Using the DPC Latency Check mentioned in the first post, it showed my latency spiking up to high red bar levels. So then I went to disable every program that was running and I found out that by completely exiting and closing my anti-malware program called "Malwarebytes", the static popping noises went away and I'm consistently getting low latency green bars now. Looks like I won't be using that program anymore

. 

 
Yes someone earlier in the thread mentioned disabling Antivirus programs as a solution for them, it didn't work for me though. I was using Avast.

 

[romster]

Changing stuff around in Foobar isn't working. Itunes has the same problem.
I'm thinking it might be a power issue...
 
Laptop isn't popping or cracking either. No issues there. Same Antivirus so that can't be it. The USB port is even shared.
 
It seems I fixed it. No idea how.

 

[tankpopper]

hey guys. 
 
sorry for bringing up an old thread but i have the same problem and im just about to pull all my hair out.. i tried everything you guys suggested but with no luck. the problem started when i updated my video card driver and now i can find the original driver to roll everything back :/
 
my setup - intel dn2800 motherboard (everything is onboard..) and a MF V-DAC II
 
the problem - POPS! lots of them.. more when using youtube, less when using foobar - but they are alway there, mainly at the beginning of tracks or when i try to do other stuff (web browsing etc)
 
i also tried to check the IRQ and it is shared but i cant disable the other element:
 
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ld6wI9c_Fmk/UePLYOyjZ7I/AAAAAAAAB6k/3ts_60cNY4g/w1117-h631-no/Untitled.jpg
 
any ideas on what to do next guys?

 

[beaver316]

Didn't your computer come with disks with the original drivers? You'll probably find the graphics driver on it.
 
If not, then try plug your usb dac into another usb port, then check what devices it's shared with. They should be different.

 

[tankpopper]

it did, but i cant find them.. but even if i did, i updated the driver for a reason - playback of video files was slow and now its fine.. when audio is played through the hdmi output directly to the tv its also ok. the problem is only with the usb DAC.

 

[beaver316]

Did you try different usb ports and check if there are differing IRQs with your dac?

 

[tankpopper]

i just did, i also made sure its the one that has no shared irq.. and the problem is still there :/
 
im gonna go for broke, format my computer and give it all a fresh start.. lets all pray to the audio gods it works.

 

[PleasantSounds]

For those struggling with the breaks in signal, here's another thing you may try:
 
The pops and cracks we hear are often resulting from the DAC buffer starvation: the DAC is running out of the stuff to play, because your computer has more important things to do than feeding data to some peripheral device. These "more important things" could be as trivial as waiting for your hard drive or network to respond...
 
The key to address this issue is to make sure that the DAC won't run out of data to process. One thing we can do to help is to increase the priority of this task. 
 
You may have heard that messing up with thread priorities can lead to instability of your computer. This is very true - if you take this too far, but elevating priority of one well behaving thread is not going to make any noticeable difference. And you do want to enjoy the music uninterrupted, don't you?
 
I'm a f2k user, so this is the domain I've been concentrating on, but the principle will be the same for other players, or even other platforms - you'll just have to find the specific solution.
 
In the f2k it is possible to change the player's thread priority, but in my experience this makes only marginal impact, if any. What you want to affect is the process of feeding the player's output to the DAC. In Windows this is one of the kernel activities and you're out of luck, if you have to rely on this mechanism. But there's also another way. This will not work in every situation, but if you've got the right toys it's worth a shot. There's one prerequisite: your DAC has to support ASIO, or better still - come with it's own ASIO driver.
 
Why is this important? ASIO bypasses the Windows sound support altogether and controls the DAC directly. Now, since the player controls the ASIO driver, it is able to set it's thread priority. And indeed - f2k allows you to use this feature by checking the "Run with high process priority" box.
 
I won't get into the intricacies of enabling and configuring ASIO - there are tutorials for that. Just wanted to point out that if switching between DS/KS/WASAPI doesn't make any difference, don't assume that ASIO won't fix it either.

 

[Zares]

I had the same problem! First with FiiO E10 Olympus. I tried everything what ppl wrote on forums - nothing helped. I found the solution by accident, when I was having problems with suddenly PC turning off.
 
I had OC i5-750@3.9GHz and it was stable. After few months it began to be unstable... so I downclocked it to 3.6GHz and raised voltages to be stable. I have a serious problem with suddenly PC turning off, so I decided to restore settings to defaults in order to see if this causes problems. And after this the problem from this topic returned. It returned, but I hadn't it before!
 
But why am I talking about OC while the topic is about popping, clicking? Well, my point is: As ppl who OC know, we have to disable these in BIOS:
Turbo, EIST (Intel Speedstep), C1E (Enhanced Halt State), C-STATE tech i Spread Spectrum
 
It seems that EIST, C1E C-STATE and Spread Spectrum enabled cause these popping, clicking! I disabled them after loading defaults BIOS settings and there is no more popping while listening to the music I have Turbo enabled. It's strange, but it works for me.
 
Edit: and I know, I will be probably get eaten because I posted in 2 years old topic, but anyway - I am helpful man so I decided to share this, maybe it will help some ppl that still didn't solve the problem
 
Edit2: Now I have FiiO E09K + FiiO E07K.

 

[beaver316]

Well no use opening a new thread on the same topic right? Interesting findings there, hopefully it's useful to someone. 

 

[SodaBoy]

Well since this got thread got necro'd;
 
A USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card should help with IRQ issues as it provides a whole new range of IRQ addresses. It should also reduce latency as it is going through the PCIe slot. The power would likely be cleaner as well as the rest of the peripherals will not be on the same bus. Just use the USB port through the expansion card. USB expansion cards are pretty cheap nowadays.
 
But most problems will be as PleasantSounds has mentioned, not enough buffer. You can usually increase the buffer latency in your audio player in the settings somewhere.

 

[H-25]

Hi everyone.
 
Im also having this horrible clipping issue and im seriously pulling my hair out since so far, none of the solutions from this thread (and also from other sources)....
I feel pretty desperate to be honnest

  I spent days on this..
 
Here's what im using 
- Desktop quite powerful, i7 4790K, 16 GB DDR3, brand new, 4 days old, 650W cordair power supply : more than enough. I had before an older pc, on which I had exactly the same issues.
- NAD DAC 1, it's an USB DAC , numeric / analogic converter, sends wirlessly the signal from one USB transmitter to wifi reciever plugged with RCA cables on Amplifier.
- No specific driver delivered by NAD for this device, recognized as "Generic USB headset" working in 48Khz/16 bits by W7 = all good so far, these are the DAC specs. No ASIO driver as well.
- Reciever and Transmitter are about 3 meters away from each other (specs say it works up to 40meters, so still good here)
- Foobar2k, installed on system SSD (also tried from another SSD dedicated to my softwares)
 
I have the exact same problem as described in the first post : random clipping / parasites in the sound, variable inensity, from nothing to completely cracking and trashy sound, seems to increase as im using the mouse, or browsing internet pages, but also can appear when I do nothing.
 
Here is all that I've tried to solve this issue, without success

 
=> Use Asio4All instead of Windows direct sound
=> increase Asio buffer
=> increase all kinds of buffer i could find in foobar
=> Use WASAPI (push/event, tried both) with SOX2 resampling to fit my hardware 48Khz/16 bits spec
     NOTE : With WASAPI, crackles and skipping are very reduced compared to ASIO, less frequent, less intense.
=> Try to locate USB IRQ conflicts with other ressources: i was able to find one of the USC bus on the same IRQ code as my Graphic card.
         -    However I was not able to locate exactly where my DAC was plugged despite the details found in this topic (i may miss a tip here).
         -    Anyway, I basically tried all USB ports of my Motherboard + front panel ones plugged on other specific motherboard controllers , and there
              are alot  (4 USB2.0 and  8 USB 3.0), and it changed nothing
=> Run foobar with Avast unistalled (did not change anything)
=> Run Foobar with highest processus priority possible from windows processus list & from foobar tick box in preferences
=> Use Asio output while disabling the DAC/USB generic headset in the Windows devices manager
=> Disabling EIST, C STATE and Spread Spectrum in BIOS, as explained in a recent post
=> Read flac file from SSD instead of storage disc
=> Plug the DAC on USB hub with external power supply to clear up any power supply issue.
=> change USB cable
=> Disable AERO in W7
==> and i'm sure im forgetting other attempts i made on other settings...
 
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post , this pc is brand new, all fresh : new motherboard, new RAM, new CPU; Windows 7 version is different.
Onlly a few things remained the same
Same Graphic card (MSI GTX 760) as in previous PC
Same Hard drives
The NAD DAC 1 itself
The fact that i'm using internal/native motherboard USB ports.
My bad luck.... lol
 
My last move : I have ordered a PCIe USB 2.0 extension card, to get a new range or IRQ addresses like SodaBoy suggested, and i will plug my DAC alone on it.
 
I would deeply appreciate any feedback, tip, advice, divine intervention.... to shoot this once for all.
 
Thanks a lot