[myk7000]

Basically I have had an M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB powered sound card and everytime I did something on the computer, like scroll down or blow up an image, there would be crackling. I thought it was a compatibility problem from my laptop and the m-audio.

So I sold it and got the nuforce icon mobile. Same xact problem, I cant seem to fix it no matter what I do.

So i figure there is insufficient power going to the USB.

So I want an amp but NOT powered by USB or battery. Plus my soundcard sucks on my laptop.

So would dac/amps that dont utilize USB be my option? Do I plug them into my laptop via the headphone jack on my computer and suddenly I would have a good dac filtered headphone amp sound? Like the zero dac/amp or something.

Or do I have the wrong idea of what dac/amps do? Can someone explain to me my options? For example, I tried plugging the nuforce icon mobile into my headphone jack only but it didn't really give me the same quality as when I did it thru USB.
What are my options? Any help would be appreciate.

 

[Currawong]

Unless your headphone jack doubles as a mini-optical socket (as on Apple's laptops) then it wont work.

 

[Assorted]

I've never had any USB related problem like the one you described. I can even use my Pico on a single-core XP with no problems. It might help if you post some information on your laptop (make, CPU, year etc).

 

[qusp]

DAC = Digital Audio Convertor. to utilize the extra quality given by a dac/amp you need to be feeding it a digital signal either via USB, or spdif on coax or optical. otherwise you are just using the onboard sound from your computer and amping it with the amp section in the dac/AMP. so yeah any dac/amp is best used through a digital connection, so if you dont like the sound of your internal soundcard, then you really have to get another dac and try and sort this problem out. have you turned windows noises off?? this could be a shielding problem to, are you using a CRT monitor??

 

[billybob_jcv]

It sounds like it could be "blitter noise":

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/no...9632-a-110528/
Buzzing noise from sound card when mouse is moved - AT Forums
Google Answers: background noise on sound out from computer