Dear Meta:
It is hard to know what is going on. It sounds like a break in signal from the transport is in someway messing up the dac. I have had the ekianthus for almost 4 years and upgraded the chip to the new model and have never had any problems whatsoever. Did you buy it new, if so you should contact your dealer. Alternatively you might consider contacting Aberdeen (look up audiomeca new here, they are the importers). Perhaps even better would be to write audiomeca. Anytime I have had questions they have been most helpful. hope this is of some help. If not drop me a note
Gary