Need Balanced DAC to break USB ground-loop

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories DACs
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PC–USB–E30–RCA–L30–RCA-- Adam T10S–RCA–T5V’s

Headphones are great but powered monitors have nasty ground loop.
PC / monitors / usb hub all share a UPS with Amp/Dac/sub/monitors. its a dedicated circuit i pulled originally just for my PC (its a big boi)

I know a high end workstation isnt an ideal audio source… I did try an IFI usb ground loop eliminator which did remove nearly all the noise but a high pitch noise remains.
volume has no effect on noise @PC or Pre-amp but gain knob at monitor does. so monitor is seeing noise as signal.

I have tried optical which does totally solve this noise but i already use the optical IN for my TV and the only decent switch could find supporting 192khz (monoprice) seems to have already failed and i liked being able to play some of my DSD via foobar without converting to PCM.

Moving forward upgrading to a fully balanced DAC with Pre-Amp functionality would allow me to leave my L30 alone for headphone use and use the XLR’s for my monitors.

Having trouble finding options under say 500 that have a volume knob… otherwise i’d probaly just get a Bifrost2

any advice is welcome! thanks for reading!

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Does Soncoz have volume knob? I know Gustard X16 does

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Thanks! I will look at these when I get home in a few. Are these fairly new? seems like every 6months I see something come out beating all before it… is the D30Pro comparable?

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About half a year. I haven’t heard the D30Pro, but they seem to be similarly priced

iFi ZEN DAC is balanced but I don’t know whether u can control volume

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Yes, you can control the volume of the outputs on the Zen DAC, you just need to make sure the switch on the back is set to Variable:

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great suggestions! I definitely prefer the Gustard features and performance over the IFI but it’s probably not fair to compare them!

does the X16 have any rivals? I may just order one tonight.

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Even in the US its getting hard to find anything in stock!

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SA-1?

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LOL while that amp might pair well with X16 I was hoping for another balanced DAC in the price range that could RIVAL the X16.

I think your wires got crossed their :wink:

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For what it’s worth I love my x16. SMSL m400 isn’t nearly as good and d90 was ok but still not nearly as good sounding. The x16 I want to say has drastically higher detail or higher tonal density (maybe wrong terminology) and just straight up has a more engaging sound. I love it. R2Rs might sound more natural or whatever but after some tube preamp magic it’s phenomenal. I would highly recommend the x16. Didn’t think I’d like it this much but holy shit it’s good.

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WOW… Yeah, sorry… My brain was obviously more scrambled than I thought after dealing with a work emergency over the past couple days…

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ended up ordering a Geshelli JNOG2 and the Erish for kicks. Hope this and all those xlr cables are worth.

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20210625_2243404032×3024 3.35 MB

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