I recently managed to snag a pair of JBL 305 mk II’s for $125 AUD each and currently am feeding them with the 1/4’ jack to RCA. I have notice however that there is a massive amount of noise coming from the USB to the Micca. I have tested it without the USB and purely with a power supply and that seems to eliminate the noise. I am aware that this is likely due to the grounding that the Micca has and am looking to send it signal via toslink, however my computer doesn’t have SPIDIF.
My thinking is this, get a sound card that’s capable of outputting SPIDIF and send that to the Micca, something like the “ASUS Xonar AE 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card” which I can get for around $79 AUD. I am however thinking about the possibility of also upgrading from the Micca. So im also open to suggestions for a dac with headphone amp and balanced outputs. I was seriously thinking about the smsl su-8 but then id also need a headphone amp.
Have you tried plugging the speakers into a different outlet if possible? Or the micca into a different outlet. Does the micca have noise when using headphones or is it only with speakers? If it’s only with speakers, moving the speakers to a different outlet from the pc and the micca
Speakers are on a completely different wall socket to the pc / Micca and noise pursists. Removing the USB cable from the Micca removes all noise even with Micca being powered.
Unfortunately seems the same problem persists. Micca, speaker and PC on thier own socket. Would a double wall socket count as 2 seperate sockets or the same. unfortunately ive only got 2 double wall sockets in the room that this is setup in.
Interesting, well that’s pretty strange. Does the amount of noise increase with the volume increase on the micca? Or is it always consistent if it’s there.
Its seems specific to actions from the PC eg moving the mouse makes noise, opening folders pretty much anything that casues the computer to load somthing or perform a task. It should be noted that ive also tried using a DAP that I have and didn’t get this issue. It seems to be excusivly the USB connection that casues the noise hence why I thought toslink / SPIDIF was the best path forward.
Try unplugging all your other usb peripherals and test different outlets. On one of my PCs I have to have the DAC plugged in directly to the MOBO and everything else connected to a hub which is plugged into a different set of USB outlets.
Yes, sometimes if you isolate a dac to a single usb controller and use the other one (as you tend to have multiple in a desktop) for all the other peripherals it corrects the issue. Also if you have another usb device that draws alot of power or also plugs into the wall that can be the culprit
Only issue with the micca is that it doesn’t play nice with windows 10 USB drivers so prefferably not changing the USB port cus id have to go through a lengthy setup process and somehow hunt down the guide again
what I might also try first is the DAP as the DAC for the PC since it can also do that. Then yea probbibly try different USB ports, its currently connected directly to the motherboard.
Yeah using the dap as the dac would most likely prevent the issue for now. Also what dap are you using? (just curious and make sure to set it to line out)
hmmm, same problem differnt USB port and device might just be that my motherboard is just not good for this kind of aplication. I’ll try a laptop with the shanling aswell.
If you try the micca with the laptop does it work without noise? The laptop having a battery should prevent the ground loop as long as it isn’t plugged in to a charger to the same plug.
Well with the laptop plugged in it makes noise, unplugged no noise. So that makes some sence but then again the laptop was on a different wall sockit to the speaker when it was plugged in AHHH.
