Static noise over USB on most DACs - any help?

[Baten]

get an intona USB 2.0 isolator, it's the best. I got it used and I've never not used it since. fixes all USB problems.

 

[jwcullison]

Another option is use a network bridge on shared network with your PC. USB will come out of the bridge to your DAC.

 

[sensenonno]

no usb isolator product will fix the problem if this is a ground problem from the very start of the power line, the static and noise is already in the usb data line inside the pc. Sorry for my english and I hope I can describe this with more professional words but that is why the ifi one did not work. scrap the whole system wont work either , but scrap the whole house will..

 

[c0rp1]

.

i would buy these testers to check. not expensive and very useful.

Bought that device today and checked all the plugs in the house - all are grounded properly.
No idea how to check if the PC that I built is grounded, but judging from what I've read online, it should be, cause the power supply has a 3 pin mains plug (should be grounded if the main plug is grounded) and it's connected to the motherboard with the original wiring.

 

[sensenonno]

Bought that device today and checked all the plugs in the house - all are grounded properly.
No idea how to check if the PC that I built is grounded, but judging from what I've read online, it should be, cause the power supply has a 3 pin mains plug (should be grounded if the main plug is grounded) and it's connected to the motherboard with the original wiring.

That is good news , but sorry I am not very good at building PC , so I dont have much idea too. However, you now know that it is a PC problem, so may be change the PC?

If you touch the metal part of the headphone plug when plugged in, do you hear any noise reduction?

Sorry , wish I can help more, try ask in Reddit maybe? A guy had similar problem and he found out it was due to the PC powder coated case.

https://www.reddit.com/r/audioengineering/comments/2s9m5h/audio_interface_cpu_noises/

and seems like it depends whether your motherboard tray is metal or not..


https://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=2472022&mpage=1

 

[b0bb]

Bought that device today and checked all the plugs in the house - all are grounded properly.
No idea how to check if the PC that I built is grounded, but judging from what I've read online, it should be, cause the power supply has a 3 pin mains plug (should be grounded if the main plug is grounded) and it's connected to the motherboard with the original wiring.

The quickest way to check for proper grounding is to see if the metal shell of the usb connector on your PC is connected to the gound pin of your power cord with the other end plugged into your PSU using the continuity check of a multimeter. The connection should have very low resistance for proper grounding.

If the plug was previously in the wall socket, unplug and leave it for about 5mins before trying the above.

 

[TheBrandon]

Some interesting comments in here. Probably mentioned, have you tested the device at another location? If these have been mentioned, apologies. Are you on Win 10? You most likely should be using Audio 2.0 drivers. Look up Microsofts technical papers on this with the creators content update. Since I am bringing this up, I don't mean to piggyback but anyone here know if there any DACs that have custom drivers that allow equalization? (Not Equalizer APO or PEACE or anything like that but at the driver level, i.e. freq, clipping control, loudness equalization.)

Few things I would try,
Make sure the DAC's USB port is not sharing with any other devices. Check device manager.
Disable Selective USB Suspend in your power options.
Remove all USB devices except m\kb.
Disable your wireless NIC if that exist. By disable, bios if that is an option.
Disable Bluetooth, bios if that exist.
Run MSCONFIG and start in safe mode or selective with required only.
Start your song and see where you're at.
Make sure your cellular is far away from setup.
With music playing, unplug monitors from power.
Make sure your amplifier is as far away as possible including cabling not directly passing audio (RCA or XLR).
Unplug wireless router while testing.
If you have a GPU it'd be worth removing really quick and running off integrated just to test.
If you're oc'd including memory running in XMP I'd stop it for testing.
I'd check voltage on the board to make sure they are running stock and not necessarily "auto".
Oh and unplug mouse and keyboard too once you kick the audio off.

I had some rough static line noise when using USB. Ended up switching and just going optical to DAC (for other reasons). My USB issue ended up being my damn cell phone being too close to the amplifier but there was other reasons I went toslink.