[areinike]

I recently received the E11 portable amp which works great with my iPod.  Now I'm working on the PC side now that the iPod side sounds awesome, the PC side sounds like arse.  One thing in particular, when starting to play some music - especially noticeable with music that starts with bass hits, it's distorted, like fart sounding distorted.  
 
Just to make sure it wasn't my cheap HA400 headphone amp, I plugged the iPod into the HA400 and it sounded fine, no distortion.  So my questions is, and the reason why I bought the HA400 was to not have to use another sound card.  The RealTek claims 24/192 and the Xonar DG does 24/96  - that and I don't need a headphone amp - but I guess that's the question.
 
Do I buy something like the FiiO D3 DAC and bypass the onboard sound card DAC using the optical (digital) out from the motherboard to the DAC and go from there?  Or should I venture into replacing the sound card with the lower sampling, but highly regarded Xonar DG.  Mind you I might use the rig for recording in the near future.  (No, I won't be using the HA400 - that's being replaced by the Schiit Mugni when it arrives
 
Yep.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

I recently received the E11 portable amp which works great with my iPod.  Now I'm working on the PC side now that the iPod side sounds awesome, the PC side sounds like arse.  One thing in particular, when starting to play some music - especially noticeable with music that starts with bass hits, it's distorted, like fart sounding distorted.

 
That is most likely a software problem. Make sure that the E11 is plugged into a line (rather than headphone) output, if possible, disable all DSP effects (especially bass boost EQ which is probably what is causing the distortion), and, if necessary, reduce the volume to avoid the distortion.
 
The 96 vs. 192 kHz maximum sample rate is not really an issue, particularly if you do not have 192 kHz audio files anyway.

 

[weez82]

Agreed, software problem. You've already eliminated the hardware by using 2 different sound cards and still having the problem. Make sure your audio settings are correct in windows (if thats what you're using) and the music player you're using.

 

[areinike]

Thanks, guys.  Typically I use iTunes for normal playback of music files.  I've also heard that going optical out can't carry 192khz which I just found interesting. 
 
It almost sounds like an auto level is turned on.  Where the bass hits get distorted and then smooth out after a few seconds.  Maybe it's an iTunes thing.  I'll fuss around with it a little more when I get home.  

 

[areinike]

Quote:

Agreed, software problem. You've already eliminated the hardware by using 2 different sound cards and still having the problem. Make sure your audio settings are correct in windows (if thats what you're using) and the music player you're using.

 
Actually, I only have the problem using the onboard soundcard in the PC.  Just to test to ensure that it wasn't the amp, I played my iPod through the amp and it played fine.  

 

[shockdoc]

FWIW the Xonar DG is an awesome little card/headphone amp IF you use the freeware drivers that are available online. We've had some reliability probs with the cards though.

 

[areinike]

You know, I never thought of trying Media Player or FLAC Player .... maybe it's iTunes itself ... 

 

[weez82]

Quote:

 
Actually, I only have the problem using the onboard soundcard in the PC.  Just to test to ensure that it wasn't the amp, I played my iPod through the amp and it played fine.  

 
lol, i must have skipped a line when reading your post (happens). I thought you already had the Asus card, oops 

. Have you tried the E11 on the pc? Have you tried with no amp and just run the headphones direct from the line out on the pc?

 

[areinike]

It seems to be iTunes itself and only when EQ is on set to Electronic (Bass +4db).  EQ off it seems fine, Media Player is fine with EQ off or on, even mimicing the iTunes EQ settings, no distortion.  I would say it seems to be something in iTunes.  When the song kicks off, it's distorted and then dies down like it adjusts itself.  Yay, iTunes ... if I didn't have an iPod, i wouldn't have iTunes, that's for sure.

 

[areinike]

Yeah, just zero'd out 32 and 64Hz on the EQ and all seems well.  I think it may also be the fact that the amp has a 100 ohm output impedance and I'm using 48 ohm headphones.  The JVC DX-3's @ 90 may match better.  When those come in, I'll try them.

 

[weez82]

sucks that you cant use the EQ you want with itunes but at least you now know what the problem was. At least it wasnt the hardware