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  3. 182058-177044

Baffled and Frustrated: Streaming/DAC Sound Issues

Hoping to find some guidance here regarding a significant noise issue. Running Quboz through Roon. Relevant Gear is an Auralic Aries G2.1 > Morrow USB cable >Aavik D280 DAC > Wywires Platinum RCA >Anthem STR.  

Previously had some issues with the Aries but that’s hammered out and sounding great.  Now, when running many songs through the DAC, I’m hearing terrible “crunching” distortion.  There’s very little consistency in the problem (loud Pink Floyd sounds great, loud Motley Crue sounds like garbage) except most hard rock/metal, which i started putting on per Morrow Audio’s recommendation for burning in their USB cable, is always terrible.  Volume is irrelevant, I’m getting the noise at sub-30db. The 4 DAC settings: upsampling/ non upsampling/fast/slow don’t change anything. USB cable isn’t likely the problem, it sounds great from streamer to amp without the DAC.   I’m running out of settings to change around.  Anyone have an educated guess or experience with either the output settings from the Aries or D280 setup that can provide any guidance?  Dealer wasn’t very helpful.

 

Thanks much,

Peter

128x128brewerslaw
tony1954's avatar
tony1954
1,098 posts
 

@brewerslaw

Just curious, but exactly what was the issue with the Aries that was "hammered out"?

Despite what you think about the USB, I would swap it for either another USB or a coaxial cable, just to eliminate it as a suspect.

Like playing Clue.

fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,634 posts
 

Try another DAC for troubleshooting.

strawj's avatar
strawj
79 posts
 

I have the exact problem I know the sound of which you speak. I use RP or Amazon with an optical cable and BluOS. That little crunch will drive you crazy and it appears out of nowhere when your set up is working fine so…nbad wire maybe…just today I tore everything down and changed power cords mostly..for now it is gone. I think it might be the wi fi service tho…this one sux my friend..

audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,018 posts
 

I don’t have any of these problems when using my lp's, cd’s, and cassette tapes....😁

phastm3's avatar
phastm3
88 posts
 
Are you running room correction with the Anthem? Maybe the anthem is converting the signal to digital again to perform it’s room correction, then using it’s inferior dac to convert it again to analog.
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