Yulong D100 DAC - static problem

[Itchy5]

Hi all,
I recently purchased a Yulong D100 DAC from audiophilechina.com to go with my D2000 headphones and i'm enjoying the sound quite a lot 

. However, i randomly have the music cut out and be replaced with all static. I'm not sure what is causing this, only that when i power it down and power it back on it goes away. Also, i've only experienced this when using its USB input, not the TOSLINK which is connected to my PS3. Anyone ever experienced this? Have any suggestions on how to fix it? Should i return it? Thank you!
Also, this is my first real post on head-fi, but i've been lurking around for a good year now 

 

[Zida]

I actually just started experiencing that (very rarely, mind you) maybe two weeks ago. I have noticed that the Yulong has to boot up again after that (like 3 seconds) and then it can run just fine again when you start up the music again. It only ever happens to me when I slightly bump it, and I think it might be that the power cable I'm using doesn't fit it right. Are you using the cable that came with it? (I would be, but I think i got it mixed up with a bunch of other power cables when I transported it to a friend's house.

Maybe post about this in the longer D100 thread if you want more D100 owners to find it and weigh in. http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/499562/review-yulong-d100-dac-amp-reference-quality-with-a-reasonable-price

 

[cheaphifi]

Quote:

Hi all,
I recently purchased a Yulong D100 DAC from audiophilechina.com to go with my D2000 headphones and i'm enjoying the sound quite a lot 

. However, i randomly have the music cut out and be replaced with all static. I'm not sure what is causing this, only that when i power it down and power it back on it goes away. Also, i've only experienced this when using its USB input, not the TOSLINK which is connected to my PS3. Anyone ever experienced this? Have any suggestions on how to fix it? Should i return it? Thank you!
Also, this is my first real post on head-fi, but i've been lurking around for a good year now 

 
It happens only with USB... No static with TOSLINK... Could be a buffer size problem in the Windows Setting, try to increase the Buffer Length to 1000ms.
 

 

[Itchy5]

Quote:

I actually just started experiencing that (very rarely, mind you) maybe two weeks ago. I have noticed that the Yulong has to boot up again after that (like 3 seconds) and then it can run just fine again when you start up the music again. It only ever happens to me when I slightly bump it, and I think it might be that the power cable I'm using doesn't fit it right. Are you using the cable that came with it? (I would be, but I think i got it mixed up with a bunch of other power cables when I transported it to a friend's house.

Maybe post about this in the longer D100 thread if you want more D100 owners to find it and weigh in. http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/499562/review-yulong-d100-dac-amp-reference-quality-with-a-reasonable-price

I am using the supplied power cable. Maybe your cable has a loose IEC end?
thank you i didn't know that thread existed.
 
Quote:

Quote:

Hi all,
I recently purchased a Yulong D100 DAC from audiophilechina.com to go with my D2000 headphones and i'm enjoying the sound quite a lot 

. However, i randomly have the music cut out and be replaced with all static. I'm not sure what is causing this, only that when i power it down and power it back on it goes away. Also, i've only experienced this when using its USB input, not the TOSLINK which is connected to my PS3. Anyone ever experienced this? Have any suggestions on how to fix it? Should i return it? Thank you!
Also, this is my first real post on head-fi, but i've been lurking around for a good year now 

 
It happens only with USB... No static with TOSLINK... Could be a buffer size problem in the Windows Setting, try to increase the Buffer Length to 1000ms.
 

It did seem to be a windows problem. It only happened when i had that output device set to 24bit / 96 KHz. When i dropped it to 24bit / 44.1 KHz the problem stopped completely.
I have since stopped using windows sound drivers all together and am using foobar2000 with ASIO output and i've experienced increased soundstage and clarity along with no static problems.

 

[roachbro]

I've been getting this problem too. However, it happens even when I'm watching a video on youtube. I need to isolate the cause of the problem now. I've tried it with foobar2k and asio too but it gives the same problem. 
 
Itchy5, has it been problem free thus far with the switch to foobar and asio output ?

 

[todd77]

Hello everyone. A new headfier here and a new owner of the D100 as well. Unfortunately, it seems I'm experiencing this static cut off problem as well. After setting up the D100 to my laptop just this evening and running it for about half an hour, the static problem happened to me. The only way for me to counter it was to turn off the device. After turning it back on, the problem occurred again but this time within minutes! I've tried this several times and each time the static noise would return. Of course, this was before I discovered this thread and I've promptly made the adjustments. 
 
Prior to this, I had the Windows sound device (listed as "speakers YULONG audio" under the volume icon of the Windows task bar) set to 24bit @ 96000Hz and I was running Foobar using the WASAPI Yulong output device. After altering the settings as itchy5 had suggested, the situation improved immediately - no more static within minutes of turning the device on. This was about an hour ago and just now, I had the static cut off occurring again, twice. However, during these occasions, I didn't have to turn off the D100 - I simply had to stop and replay my music. I'm currently running Foobar using the Asio4All driver and the Windows sound device set to 24bit @ 44100Hz. I also had the soX resampler DSP (set to 96000Hz) enabled all this while but have since removed it after the last static occurrence just to see if it would improve things.
 
Regardless, I'm wondering if this still recurring problem is possibly attributed to the USB cable I'm using. The cable is a 10-dollar Newnex as recommended in one of the USB cable discussion threads here in Head-Fi. If not, are there any other suggestions as to how I could improve the situation? Anyway, I'll continue to observe the device and see if it works better without the Foobar resampler.
 
And uh, before anyone mentions it, I'm very sorry for my wallet already 

 

[roachbro]

So I did some trouble shooting and I found out that my USB ports were giving me problems. This was tested using foobar and asio output. I was still getting the static on 96khz with my yulong plugged into the rear of my PC so I switched it to a powered usb hub instead. It's been running smooth so far for the past few hours, usually the static comes in less than 15minutes. Fingers croosed. I haven't tried using DS output so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Syan25]

 
Yep - I bought the D100 and after using it for the first time - I got the same issue - glitching after 5 minutes of playback - it slowly gets worse and worse..

 

I am pretty sure it is a buffering/latency issue. I like to use itunes but if there is some device that can take offer a wider range of latency settings - that would be better...

 

 

Well - my set up is as follows - 

 

itunes playback at - 24bit/96khz using ALAC files recorded at 16bit/44.1 khz

 

itunes playback > Audigy x-fi sound card > altec lansing 5.1 surround sound = No problems

 

itunes playback > USB > Yulong D100 DAC > headphones = cracking - glitching after 5 minutes of playback

 

 

Is there any USB driver that I can use to offer me higher latency settings that itunes/quicktime (quick time can offer me 0 ms to 99.000ms only) I want a driver only for when I use USB audio and not when I use regular playback through my sound card speakers.

 

Or a plug in for quicktime that can offer me higher latency to solve the glitching...

 

Also - if I set itunes to higher priority in the task manager - will there be any improvement or negative side effects??

 

The thing that bothers me is that the D100 is supposed to be an acting as a soundcard BUT it says on the manual that the D100 doesn't need a driver to run on any OS. 

 
It is a shame but I do think the issue is not the Yulong D100. Just because the D100 can accept audio input of upto 24bit/96khz doesn't mean that the OS and the playback software are adequately working together to provide a smooth continuous stream of information to the D100.
 
 
 
 




 
 

 

[todd77]

Quote:

So I did some trouble shooting and I found out that my USB ports were giving me problems. This was tested using foobar and asio output. I was still getting the static on 96khz with my yulong plugged into the rear of my PC so I switched it to a powered usb hub instead. It's been running smooth so far for the past few hours, usually the static comes in less than 15minutes. Fingers croosed. I haven't tried using DS output so we'll see how that goes.

How has it been going for you so far? Does using a powered USB hub eliminate the problems completely? If so, what kind of USB hub are you using? Thanks.

 

[andyturk]

Quote:

Anyone ever experienced this? Have any suggestions on how to fix it? Should i return it?

I picked up a new D100 two weeks ago and experienced the exact same symptoms when the DAC was connected to my MacBook Pro. When it failed, most often it would just blast noise/static until the data stream was reset. One time, the DAC seemed to crash with no audible output at all. I temporarily resolve the problem by power cycling the Yulong, but not by switching to different input modes via the front panel. At the time, I was playing everything through iTunes and pausing iTunes playback didn't resolve the issue.
 
Short of power cycling the DAC or unplugging the USB cable, the only solution I found was to change settings in OS X's Audio MIDI Setup application, which jump-started normal audio again. The problem would recur though, and it didn't seem to have anything to do with sample rate.
 
The static problem was very worrying and I thought about returning the Yulong because of it. However, after hooking the DAC up to a Mac mini (using the same USB/power cables), I've yet to experience the problem. I've read elsewhere that laptop USB ports can sometimes have odd behaviors as power saving measures or because they share connections with keyboards and mice.

 

[Syan25]

I am also trying to work out if a powered USB hub would provide the stability needed to provide a smooth stream of information without stressing out my USB...
 
Did you get an answer this??
 
H
Quote:

How has it been going for you so far? Does using a powered USB hub eliminate the problems completely? If so, what kind of USB hub are you using? Thanks.

 

 

[todd77]

Quote:

I am also trying to work out if a powered USB hub would provide the stability needed to provide a smooth stream of information without stressing out my USB...
 
Did you get an answer this??
 
H


 

Nope, still waiting for his reply. I went ahead anyway and got a powered USB hub - the 7 port one from Plugable which can be purchased from Amazon. While I no longer get static cut-offs (this, I think, is more likely due to the adjustments I did to Vista and Foobar), I still get pops and clicks from it, which is the same situation as directly plugging the D100 into the dedicate USB port on my laptop. With my current settings (no DSPs or resampling, setting the output to 44.1kHz in Windows), I no longer get static cut-offs both on my laptop's USB port and my powered USB hub. Unfortunately, the pops and clicks that occur have yet to be resolved.

 

[roachbro]

I got the cables to go one on amazon. Its black, 7 ports and powered. I do think any powered usb hub should suffice though. Everything has been absolutely perfect so far.

 

[Syan25]

So the idea is that the self-powered USB port lessens the work-load of the CPU which has to power the USB port on the PC itself - thereby allowing an undisturbed flow of information without power issues??

 

[Syan25]

From what I am learning about these issues - if the glitching is coming at exactly the same times say after a specific number of minutes - then it is quite possibly the RAM that is being stressed out. I am looking into this issue - but I will buy a self powered USB when I have exhausted all other possibilities...
 
I could always add more RAM to my PC too..
 
BTW - on another link - I was informed that I could disable any graphic card powersaving tools which create latency spikes as the clocks are reset back and forth in adaptive mode...
it may solve problems...as of yet - I didn't get the time to test it out ...