[ropeadope]

Hiya. I've got an audio problem. A couple of weeks ago I came back to my computer after watching 7 straight hours of football ('MURICA!) and I had no sound. Everything looked to be in order, i double checked all the connections and software stuff, but no sound. So I restarted, and sound came back right away...only, not the same. The right side of my headphones had this sharp buzzing whenever audio is played that is rough on the ears, and the audio was all around flat. I was hoping it wasn't my new NAD Viso HP50 headphones, so I tried out my old pair of headphones and they had the same issue, so it doesn't seem to be headphone related, whew! So I really thought it was my old amp (headsave classic v2) that i've put heavy use into for 10+ years, just thought it finally had run it's course perhaps. So I bought a Magni to go along with my Modi, finally got my Magni in today so I got it set up and....dammit! Same problem. Flat audio with the annoying buzzing in the right ear. So, it's not the amp, and it's not the headphones. I bought some new RCA cables to see if maybe that was the problem, but it wasn't the RCA cables either.  It seems to me like it's either the DAC amp (Modi, which is also new) or...well I have no idea.
 
Anyways right now my setup is Computer>USB Cable(could that possible be the issue?) to Modi>RCA to Magni>NAD Viso HP50.
 
Any help would be mucho appreciated! Thanks.

 

[billybob_jcv]

OK - it seems to me that you have enough bits and pieces to go at this systematically.

1) Does your PC have a built-in headphone port? If you plug your headphones directly to that port, what do you hear? If that sounds fine, then we know it is something in the chain that starts with your USB port. If that does NOT sound OK, and you hear the same issue with two different headphones on that jack too, then we can eliminate all the other audio gear and start looking at your PC itself, your media files or the SW.

2) Assuming it is on the USB chain, and not the built-in headphone port, then try plugging the Modi into a different USB port. If there is no problem on a second USB port, then the Modi is not the problem and the issue could be with your PC's USB port, or possibly a SW config issue.

3) If the problem carried over to a second USB port, then try a different USB cable.

4) If the different cable did not work, then remove the Modi and plug the Magni into the PC built-in headphone port, or maybe try a different source like your phone with the Magni and see if there is any problem. If there is no problem after removing the Modi, then I would think you have done all you can do - and the conclusion is that the Modi is the issue.

The only other test is to try the Modi on a different PC - perhaps a friend's computer.

 

[ropeadope]

Many thanks for taking the time to reply!
 
It appears to be the Modi for sure . When everything else is connected alone it's fine, but if the Modi is connected there's a lot of noise on the right side of my headphones even with no sound playing. I was able to find a different USB cable so I tried that, and in a different USB slot, same exact thing.
 
How odd is it that my Modi broke after only around 10-12 days of use? I hope it's not something I did, I am very careful with all this stuff. It worked excellently, for the short period of time while it worked. I've had some really bad luck with Schiit thus far! Hopefully the return process won't be another huge headache. I wonder if anyone else has had similar issues. I guess I'll check the Schiit thread.
 
Thanks again!