[DanielMiracle]

Long story short, I'm looking to buy a new DAC, (Possibly a DAC & amp) and I was wondering if there is any noticeable difference between an optical and USB DAC? (Primarily between the Optical/USB Schiit Modi) 

 

[souhikyaku9]

PurpleAngel would say, "Personally I like the idea of S/PDIF optical, as it can work with sound cards and I like headphone surround sound for movies and games.
USB is more plug & play, but bypass the sound card, which does not matter for music."

 

[DanielMiracle]

PurpleAngel would say, "Personally I like the idea of S/PDIF optical, as it can work with sound cards and I like headphone surround sound for movies and games.
USB is more plug & play, but bypass the sound card, which does not matter for music."

Honestly, I originally bought the Modi with optical for that purpose alone, but I've found that I dont even use surround sound. & using it in conjunction with a sound card has given me nothing but problems. I just wanted to make sure selling it and picking up the USB one wouldn't mean I was sacrificing audio quality.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Honestly, I originally bought the Modi with optical for that purpose alone, but I've found that I don't even use surround sound. & using it in conjunction with a sound card has given me nothing but problems. I just wanted to make sure selling it and picking up the USB one wouldn't mean I was sacrificing audio quality.

 
What sound card is it?
What kind of problems?
 
Sell off the optical and get the USB, you will not notice any loss in audio quality going with USB.

 

[DanielMiracle]

   
What sound card is it?
What kind of problems?
 
Sell off the optical and get the USB, you will not notice any loss in audio quality going with USB.

Well, I have the Xonar DG connected to my Modi, but I also have it connected to my Astro Mixamp with a 3.5mm cable. (The mixamp has a spot in the back for an extra cable if you want to listen to music or whatever while gaming on console) So sometimes I'll come home and hop on my computer and the audio won't work at all through my Schiit stack, but if I turn on my mixamp it works fine through it. Sometimes I can fix it in a matter of minutes by toggling the Schiit stack on and off, but other times it can take two to three hours to come on. 

 

[Makiah S]

Personally I think USB is a little bit "cleaner" in terms of design. I've got a few Optical outs on my entire set up. even my Mother Boards optical can be a smidge noisy, and I've got her hooked up to a Condition. My Tvs optical is terrible as well
 
my point being, Optical in is very useful, a nice feature to have if your have multiple sources. How ever if your on a some what limited budget and had to CHOOSE JUST one, I'd go with USB. As I've found it be a little cleaner out of "consumer" merch
 
that and when you throw a PC through a condition, the USB ports clean up nicely. The Spdif how ever is still noisy, not as bad as it used to be but :/ 

 

[souhikyaku9]

 
So sometimes I'll come home and hop on my computer and the audio won't work at all through my Schiit stack, but if I turn on my mixamp it works fine through it. Sometimes I can fix it in a matter of minutes by toggling the Schiit stack on and off, but other times it can take two to three hours to come on. 

 
I assume that you performed all the obvious checks regarding the xonar dg driver, cable connection, disabling unnecessary playback devices, removing all external devices from the computer and then adding them back one-by-one, and making sure the pcm box is checked when you bring up the xonar dg audio center?  Did your Modi never get along with with the xonar since day 1?  Sorry for the ridiculous questions, but I only have one dac (not a Modi) to test with the xonar dg optical and they get along well.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Well, I have the Xonar DG connected to my Modi, but I also have it connected to my Astro Mixamp with a 3.5mm cable. (The mixamp has a spot in the back for an extra cable if you want to listen to music or whatever while gaming on console) So sometimes I'll come home and hop on my computer and the audio won't work at all through my Schiit stack, but if I turn on my mixamp it works fine through it. Sometimes I can fix it in a matter of minutes by toggling the Schiit stack on and off, but other times it can take two to three hours to come on. 

 
Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio? in the BIOS, before installing the Xonar DG?

 

[DanielMiracle]

   
I assume that you performed all the obvious checks regarding the xonar dg driver, cable connection, disabling unnecessary playback devices, removing all external devices from the computer and then adding them back one-by-one, and making sure the pcm box is checked when you bring up the xonar dg audio center?  Did your Modi never get along with with the xonar since day 1?  Sorry for the ridiculous questions, but I only have one dac (not a Modi) to test with the xonar dg optical and they get along well.

Truthfully, I don't remember when it started, but I've dealt with it for quiet a while. As far as all of the "obvious checks" yeah, I've done pretty much all of that. I thought it could be where it was the sound card outputting two signals, because whenever I would use my mixamp, if the mixamp and Modi were being used simultaneously, it would cause the Modi to act up when I would turn it on again. However, if I only have one turned on at a time it doesn't seem to be a problem as often. It still happens sometimes though. 

 

[DanielMiracle]

   
Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio? in the BIOS, before installing the Xonar DG?

Yes, sir. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Truthfully, I don't remember when it started, but I've dealt with it for quiet a while. As far as all of the "obvious checks" yeah, I've done pretty much all of that. I thought it could be where it was the sound card outputting two signals, because whenever I would use my mix-amp, if the mix-amp and Modi were being used simultaneously, it would cause the Modi to act up when I would turn it on again. However, if I only have one turned on at a time it doesn't seem to be a problem as often. It still happens sometimes though. 

 
My little brain is trying to understand.
So the Modi is hooked up to the Xonar DG optical port and the mix-amp connected the Xonar DG's line-output port?

 

[cel4145]

I thought it could be where it was the sound card outputting two signals, because whenever I would use my mixamp, if the mixamp and Modi were being used simultaneously, it would cause the Modi to act up when I would turn it on again. However, if I only have one turned on at a time it doesn't seem to be a problem as often. It still happens sometimes though. 

Probably something else other resource on your system interfering with your Modi.

 

[DanielMiracle]

   
My little brain is trying to understand.
So the Modi is hooked up to the Xonar DG optical port and the mix-amp connected the Xonar DG's line-output port?

That's correct! 

 

[DanielMiracle]

Probably something else other resource on your system interfering with your Modi.

I wonder what it would be.

 

[cel4145]

I would wonder if the Xonar DG is capable of running output to both. Don't know.

When you have started your computer fresh, and use the Modi (no mixamp hooked up), how often does the problem happen?