Musetec (LKS) MH-DA005 DAC

Hi, thanks so much for the debugging help.

My current and most problematic issue is the intermittent audio micro stutters I keep hearing. Once they start, they don't stop until I do something to address that.

The 005 is currently plugged into a HEDT worth a bit more than the dac itself. No i do not use a laptop or a streaming device because I dumped all of my funds into this device. I use it for both work and gaming, and, as such, it does contain a fairly high end gpu that is usually the cause of such background noise. This desktop has had more than one high end motherboard and multitudes of other parts swapped out to determine the root cause of the noise, but there was no single one component to blame. It seems its just the way PCs and power supplies are built these days - which really terrible noise isolation... Also, I don't have a free hdmi port to spare, so I'm plugging this directly into the usb input of the dac, which is why i wanted one with an amanero board to begin with.

I am a software engineer and I've already flashed the device and tried the latest drivers to no avail. I do strongly believe its a software issue, as its quite intermittent and random. I think flashing the dac last week and changing some settings alleviated some problems, but some remain. I think im still in the return window, so if I fail to resolve it I'm just gonna pick up something else.

If you want to know the amp im feeing into, its the HSA1B, but for sure its not to blame here.

@turcoda OK firstly the problem needs to be isolated, so you need a different source, a laptop, to feed the 005 using the USB. If this is satisfactory then it's most likely an issue with your sound card.

Try and use either the RCA Digital or Toslink from your soundcard to the 005 and see if this works. If it doesn't it could be the DAC.

If it does your USB is receiving too much noise maybe you need a well shielded USB cable or a USB cable with the power line removed.

Amanero boards are self powered.

Or try changing your soundcard and software to an audiophile one like JCAT https://jcat.eu/ and JPLAY http://jplay.eu/

Or try the JCAT USB Isolator https://jcat.eu/product/usb-isolator/

The 005 like most DACs will have the occasional buzzing sound for one or two seconds during the break in period but it seems your noise is much more than that.

You may also try a different DAC but I doubt the DAC is the problem, but it could be.

Good Luck!

@turcoda

If you’re a software engineer you must know more about this stuff than I do.

But, the laptop I use is a small old ASUS running a Pentium and it works perfectly using JRiver. I have often thought that because it’s cheap and small (running storage much like a thumb drove) it may be quiet. Perhaps you can borrow a small laptop. Then at least you will see definitively where the problem is. Or perhaps buy one cheap second hand.

Alternatively, and very inexpensively, you can try a Raspberry Pi. If it works at all you can add an inexpensive "hat" for improved performance. That might keep you going for a while.

I guess the message is to get it away from your powerful computer if you can, and see if it was the culprit.

A smartphone with a USB adapter of some type is also an inexpensive alternative option for testing. This USB adapter can also come in handy in other scenarios as well.

You may also want to try BW02 or BW03 for PCM to see if that changes things. I generally use BW01 but when I was playing with different sources, I found BW02 and BW03 to be more robust for certain sources.

From the manual: Better sound can be reached if user set DPLL to a lower bandwidth, but this will reduce the signal receiving tolerance.

... from one SW engineer to another.

I use a Lumin U1 as source and a Singxer DDC to run I2S into the 005 and have zero DPLL problems, I can use almost any DPLL setting I want. A/B testing the USB/I2S inputs has me undecided about which I prefer, but I am leaning I2S. The 005 is a bit better than my Hermes DDC/Terminator II stack for most music I listen to, but with vocals it is a very close thing. Regardless the 005 is a fucking insane value, period. Just wish non Chinese manufacturers would produce this kind of quality product for less money than the Weiss, dCS and MSB folks apparently feel they can get away with charging.