Hello from the Netherlands, thank you Sir for some good advice! I bought myself a DAC (Cambridge Audio DacMAgic 100) and installed Audirvana. Sounds a lot better than before!

I use optical fiber to isolate my server from the network switch feeding a low powered sbc like the allo usbridge signature. This connects to my hugo2 dac via its clean USB output.

I am using ifi micro iUSB3.0 with ifi Gemini cable and it sounds FANTASTIC! The galvanic isolation is achieved in a way that the data head of the Gemini cable is connected to the PC, and the power head to the iUSB3.0

I have an industrial Intona 2.5kV galvanic isolator. Works great.

Fortunately most digital switching noise starts in MHz range and goes on up from there. It's all about careful PCB design. The ADC/DAC PCB design should have dedicated/filtered converter power supply and ground planes (that act like a giant free filter cap ) and also make sure the digital data to/from the converters have their own path back to their digital grounds.

I use HDMI from my PC using JRiver Media Center for audio through a NAD M51 DAC and it sounds incredible. I wish more DAC's included the HDMI inputs. I tried USB and I didn't like it at all

2:22 Uhm yes there is Paul - optical S/PDIF - it's an old but gold standard and still extremely useful. Wish it would get a proper revision though, with much more bandwidth for high rate DSD & PCM.

The operating system does not generate noise. Albeit, the operating system can trigger noise, if the operating system is busy with all manner of crap that is unrelated to feeding the DAC data, causing the CPU to heat up and fans to speed up, etc. Ideally, you would not want the fan to turn on -- and it should not have to, if the computer's only job is to feed data to a DAC. Noise is generated via the hardware -- not the operating system. The Innuos Statement transport uses a quad-core Pentium computer, chosen for its low noise. I am not sure which version of the Pentium CPU is used. And there are many other noise design features of the motherboard, case, power supply, etc, that makes that computer deliver an amazingly quiet and accurate data stream to your DAC. And you will mortgage your home to own that transport. And it runs a Linux kernel (not sure which one), but I am assuming that they did not want to deal with Windows' bloat, or licensing costs, when Linux is free and open source. Cheers!

Most competent DACs will use switching regulators to regenerate the voltage supplies internally to isolate themselves from the USB bus, so for digital stuff like that its usually not a problem as it will have its own private supply with generous filtering to keep the USB noise out of the DAC. But for analog stuff its a different story. I remember when I first tested an amplifier I was quite pleased that it only had a few mv of ripple on the output despite using an electronic supply. The sine and square waves were nice and clean, and then I hooked it to the PC. Even with input filtering there was something like 5-6 VOLTS P-P of just noise from the PC's soundcard. Adjusting the gain and levels brought it down to something more reasonable, but still has so much noise you can't even see the audio waveform at listening levels of around 65-70 dB. Of course the issue being that the outputs on a soundcard are quite anemic so to drive speakers means you need plenty of gain, and that means the noise gets amplified as well.

I have experience this issue recently - it seems even with a USB 3.0 connection and having an external audio interface, it still generate noise over the main outputs. My solution to this in previous instances has been to run the computer (assuming laptop) via battery. There is zero noise when we tried that in the same environment, with the same outboard setup. The only obvious gotcha there is battery life. The issue now is I've upgraded the computer to an all in one - mainly because you can get a desktop CPU and therefore more number crunching speed without (as serious) concerns as temperature bottle necks. I'm looking to make a split cable that will provide connection to an external power source and allow the data connection to and from the computer. The other option is to isolate the computer power and have a cleaner supply - such as a UPS to provide a cleaner power source

Since I do Pro Audio (play guitar and such). I Used to have a Mackie Onyx 820i hocked up to my PC over Firewire. When using usb I had ground loops like crazy, but with Firewire, no more ground loops. One sugestion would be to build a computer with optical out and use the optical since it's isolated also. For my Office I use RME Babyface Pro over USD and it works well.

Using a MacMini in my setup with Uptone ISO Regen - isolator. Works very well! Connects to a Denafrips Gaia DDC and Terminator Plus DAC:-)

Build the USB isolator in your DAC Paul...

Yes. Audio quest dragonfly is a magical solution plugger into my iMac

Schiit Eitr converts the USB to spdif and basically solves this issue. They don't make it any more and it now sells for above cost on ebay because people like it so much.

My Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus has a ground lift switch. Great feature to kill the noise.

You can try digital coax from your computer to your dac with a galvanic isolator. Have heard someone suggest it. Is your dac close to your computer, then use optical light cable. usb transmits 5v power with comtuter noise and digital coax is connected to GND in the computer and can transmit noise and you get GND loop. optical provides the cleanest signal.

I have a Synology NAS device that stores all my music in FLAC format. It’s connected to a Netgear router via Cat 5 Ethernet cable. The router is connected via Cat 5 to an ELAC Discovery music server which is connected via SPDIF to an Enlightened Audio Designs DSP 7000 DAC (still a honey after all these years). It sounds quite good. Any thoughts on how I could clean up the signal for even better sound? Would upgrading to Cat 6 or Cat 7 be worth the effort?

Best method to make PCs noise free is get one with an optical out, (to the DAC). There are cheap add-in cards that do just that, which are very reasonably priced. No need to buy a highly equipped sound card with a variety of ports just to get optical from it. (Or you buy a motherboard with optical on it.) However I ran the Audioquest Jitterbug for USB and I found it worked well. Am still flumoxed to hear any difference between optical and Jitterbug with USB.

Thank you for this video! I just started a free trial with Audirvana. Question: How can I get the volume control to work in the Audirvana panel/interface? Right now my computer (win10) volume and my Audirvana volume do not change the volume. As a result, I am forced to put a preamp in my signal chain (Denefrips Iris>Aers II>power amp) to control volume (otherwise it is extremely loud). Thanks in advance for any help and/or suggestions!

There are also the so-called asynchronous DACs which isolate the computer's clock frequency from the DAC's own clock frequency so that they run asynchronously, when a USB-cable is connected between them. It should eliminate jitter, but whether it also eliminates computer noise, I know nothing about.

I'm a coaxial user and I also use my Dap as the source which I find sounds better than when I use my PC.

I just remembered i got a galvanic isolator break out box that i haven't tried using with my computer! Thanks

I use a Mac mini as both a Roon server and an endpoint connected to my Dacmagic 200M with an Audioquest Jitterbug in between the Mac and the dac. Do you think that setup is good enough to filter out most of the noise? Also is use Roon a good enough product to bypass macOS’ resampling?

Berkeley Alpha USB to convert USB to AES using very good clocks. The sound quality is fantastic.

* Very few DACs have proper galvanic isolation - mainly those with custom USB implementation (Schiit Unison USB, Holo Audio's Titanus USB module, etc). * PCs barf power out of every single port. USB, ethernet, you name it. * If streaming from your PC, ensure you are *not* using shielded cable. This connects the ground planes of the two devices, which will transfer noise. (So no CAT7 or CAT8) * A simple Raspberry Pi running Volumio or similar is a very solid option for removing noise. If you want more options than just USB, the Pi2AES is a great, cheap option that objectively measures quite well. * Optical is generally very poor, at least for consumer products.

Well Paul!!! If you would hint when the bridge 3 would be released (streamer) we would be happy campers.

Hi, Paul. I use three AudioQuest Jitterbugs between my Windows 10 based laptop and the DAC (one to the USB port in series with the SSD that contains all the files, one in the otherwise empty USB port beside the one already mentioned and the third in series with the DAC) . I think they are excellent. I have no issues with noise, with very low level sounds easily heard either by themselves or in the presence of other, louder music. I have a second system where I have exactly the same configuration, although it isn't quite as resolving as the other system.

I wonder if the Topping D10/D10S USB DAC that converts to SPDIF helps ??

My GPU was making quite a lot of noise in my sound system, but really only when I was playing games. I put in a PCIe sound card that has optical out, and that completely solved my issue. No need to isolate USB.

I use Roon streaming with BluOs to my Main Audio system that works fine.However my desktop system needs a USB to feed my Mojo DAC I first orderd a USB cable Audio quest and see if that improves the sound or less noise next step would be a USB noisr isolater if needed .

What about using the computer as a music server, but using Roon on the computer and then using airplay to get the music to the av reciever.

The other thing here is to look at what PC is being used. High end gaming Motherboards like Aorus extreme range (Intel and AMD) have done crazy good things to help with all of this. Just like sound not all PC's are equal

I personally just use a TOSLINK cable to isolate the ground loop issues. Most Mid Range and up Motherboards will have a TOSLINK output for Audio, or there are inexpensive PC DAC's that plug in via USB that have a TOSLINK output that can go to your Amp or WHATEVER.

USB sends digital audio information, so it shouldn't be affected by noise (except in the most extreme cases), right? The problem is that through the USB connection the converted analogue signal is being affected by the digital signal and voltage from the connection itself?

A well designed USB DAC shouldn't need an external isolator, it should be built in as part of the DAC's design.

I don't have much of a dog in the Audiophile fight but my PC throws out a ton of audio garbage. I dunno if it's a limitation of my Focusrite Scarlett (I've tried three generations of this product) but I get some pretty bad coil whine sounds when my GPU is doing anything. I had to get an Ifi iDefender to break the loop. I don't think it's a great idea to have your main PC doing audio playback duties.

I am using usb just to power it and optical for the sound on my dac and it still makes a bunch of static white noise. It is just a pain considering a dac should be able to filter that itself.

For the past 12 years I have bought motherboards with an optical out and used that to my sound system. My dac is USB capable but also has an optical in that I use instead. If you believe USB is noisy why would you use it?

Just connect your DAC by optical wire! Or you can have 2 separate DACs: one receiving USB data from PC and passing to the next one by optic. I have practiced the second option.

Use a DDC (digital to digital converter) and/or an audiowise opto-USB… great product!

So is the noise from the pc radiating out and going into near by cables or is the noise internal and going out through the audio or HDMI cables (in my case cause I use the pc for movies) that are plugged into my AVR?

I use IFI usb isolator re locker

Please, what are the programs you mentioned towards the end?

I have found that well-designed desktop/laptop motherboards do not have noticeable noise on the USB ports. The only ones I can vouch for at this point are Lenovo Thinkpad business-class laptops and certain Macbook Pro models. The Dell Latitude business-class laptops are among the noisiest I have tested. My test "rig" is a cheap Behringer Audio Interface. It is so badly designed that recordings you make with it will be unacceptable on a noisy computer. There is a loud annoying buzz. With Thinkpads, it is dead silent.

Audirvana also has “system optimization” settings from low to extreme which can quiet the hell out of your computer.

I'm currently using a Surface Pro 7+ with a Chord Mojo 2 and sometimes an iFi iDSD Signature, both with Sennheiser HD650. Would you say my set up is a noisy one, even when the tablet's fan is on? Also I listen to music on foobar with asio bit perfect and KZfaq with Windows mixer, mostly KZfaq because music sounds better and clearer than on bit perfect foobar, why is this happening??

Does anyone make an isolated USB PCI card? The audio recording and mixing industry might like that.

USB or HDMI? I Have both in my DAC

The ELAC DDP-2 works fine through USB to the computer with no noise.

Please allow me this kind of related question... (looking at a very expensive Yamaha unit) - - - > Does a 6,000 usd CD player sound equal (or better) than a separate transport + dac?

My laptop have 1 usb output with 5v. And 1 without power, only for data ! Thats the best for Music ?

I find foobar with ASIO drivers gives me the same results as any other software. Feeds the usb sigal to an ifif usb to coax, then ifi i purifier. I run both from a 2 amp, 20,000 mah battery bank with a cable i wired up. Very nice

Doesn't the Tidal App on PC allow for bitperfect transfer to an external DAC via HDMI?

What about if you're running the windows computer out of HDMI into a Receiver?

USB or HDMI cables with Ferrite ?? Helps ??

what about the hdmi from the gpu to a tv and then optical to the dac ? does that compromise pure quality ? isnt the gpu the source or the motherboard ?

I can't understand when you are saying the name of that internal routing program. "Ardevarna" or something. Can't look it up unless I see or hear it spelled out. Can anyone help?

wouldn’t you be better off getting a good DDC, Digital to Digital Converter?

windows with foobar and utilizing wasapi to oush the audio the your dac works as well

USB isolators are good but not ideal. Ideally you want to completely separate your server from your transport/streamer and DAC. I think if you are going direct from a server to your DAC from USB then the M1 Mac Mini is by far the best/lowest noise option as it doesn’t have noisy components that are in most PCs like Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs etc… But ideally you want to completely separate your server from your streamer/transport. The best way to do that is by using ROON or Audirvanna and streaming over your network to your transport that is completely isolated electrically from your server. The absolute best way is use fiber optical network connections between your router to your server (as that eliminates all electrical network noise) and via fiber from your server to your transport, and then go I2S from your transport to your DAC. I use an M1 Mac Mini connected via fiber optical network to a Signature Rendu Optical Level 2 transport streamer and then via USB to an SU2 D2D converter and from the SU2 D2D converter via I2S to my KTE Holo May DAC. This gives you the absolute best isolation and lowest jitter and makes it sound ‘analogue’ in its smoothness, which is what you want. Electrical noise is also very important to isolate and eliminate from your computer/streamer and DAC as electrical noise can cause jitter as well. So you need both network electrical isolation via fiber and isolation from the noise of your house’s electrical system via power converters/regenerators. That’s the ideal way to eliminate as much noise and jitter as possible. The Greenwave EMF power converters ($30 on Amazon) do a great job of eliminating about 60% of your home electrical noise to your source components. I use both Greenwave and ISOTEK Acquarius power conditioners to reduce electrical noise.

USB can introduce lots of unwanted noise but there are some ways to mitigate it. Just ask Rick Hartley, Robert Feranec & others in the EMC world.

A dedicated streamer such as the Bluesound Node is a much more elegant, better sounding and cheaper solution.

Τhe famous equipment lab-tester Mr Amir, has done exactly this, measured the power noise before and after a usb isolator and found no difference. He did that again with some dacs connected directly via usb and usb/galvanic isolator and measured the dac noise. Again, no difference. Of course, we'd better trust our own ears: Is there anyone who can assure us that usb galvanic isolators work? Or is there an audiophile one of these with guaranteed performance?

The OS doesn't matter for noise. It's a hardware issue. Quality of the reproduced sound depends on OS, drivers and the application. Many times I've been surprised over how much better the generic open source drivers in Linux gives a better result then the manufacturers specific drivers under Windows (that said, haven't made any direct comparisons for many years). No Apple products at all here. But yeah, computer audio cards have a nasty habit of being very noisy even before the generic noise of a computer is added....

I don't understand DACs at all. Do I need a different DAC for a computer, iPad, iPhone etc.? Is there a good book explaining all of this?

Data packets have a error correction doesnt it? Its either 1 or 0, there should not be any noise in the data at all. The only noise would be from external, from the pc interfering with the analog circuit

the matrix audio element h is probably a good one for this problem :-]

Optical up in here like am I joke to you lol

I did it cheap. $15 dac connected with optical cable. 0 noise on max volume. Speakers powered studio monitors with balanced inputs I only have rca on the dac so I don't even using that and still no noise. Next step going to be a dac with balanced output. Speakers on the desk setup.

Why not just stream with wifi and eliminate the noise?

What if noise is from a graphics card?

Use a laptop where possible, as the battery is better than a switching power supply and consider a data only USB and provide 5v separately

Audirvana user here. Highly recommend.

Out of the computer you can go optical for instance. Or I2S out of a Pi which is linked (via network) as a client to a roon server... LoL on USB isolators, just connect a good external sound card in that case. One can use HDMI as well, especially on Mac's, or even firewire (with a Weiss DAC for instance). And roon is so much better than Audirvana, I guess one gets what he pays for.

How about a music server/streamer?

C"MON! While we're young gramps!

A proper DAC will filter out noise. I have the Schiit Bifrost with built in precision clocks and audio designated USB port.

i use supra usb to topping d10 and coax out to another dac and its clean topping d10 i got for 40 euro

You can sound cards with toslink.

Read Henry Low below.

Why not stream from your nas to avoid digital noise.?

I know that noise was a huge problem with older spinning media hard drives. Is noise still a real issue with newer flash/nvme? Seems like an external usb sound card/dac would fit the bill.

In my long experience with USB audio, I achieved the best results with a JCAT USB XE Card + iFi iUSB 3.0, both being sensitive to the quality of their power supplies.

I have no idea what you are referring to. I've used a laptop plugged in via the headphone jack or used an external DAC via USB. I have never heard any bothersome electronic noises.

There is no noise generated by a computer that affects the digital signal if you use the optical out found in most modern computers.

Toslink. Light flashes are very “quiet”.

Audio science review has shown that galvanic isolators don't help the signal at all. If someone has data to support it then I would like to see it. The DAC should be properly designed to avoid these problems that a band aid is supposed to fix.

Isolation transformers and Line filters; on high tech digital gear? Sounds like a road us AV guys have been down before. Whaddayou know what's old is new again!

Get a proper source. A fanless transport. Maybe something like the Silent Angel Munich M1T.

This is a non-issue in properly designed DACs. Come on electric engineers do your jobs!

As long as the noise is outsider the audio band there is no issue. AM radios are excellent at demodulating noise to the audio band.

I thought most USB input DACs have filtering for computer noise... It has been shown bu Amir from Audio Science Review quite conclusively. He specifically tested highly priced usb isolators against dac filtering. No difference.

I just avoid hooking up computers and stream from a dedicated streamer. Not an streamer with DAC or a DAC with streamer, just a streamer and a dac.

Generally with no setup whatsoever, portable devices such as phones and tablets tend to be way better sources than full-size laptops/computers.

lol Looks like Dust Off has adopted Coca-Cola's tactics of product placement.

Audirvana looks like an XBMC/Kodi clone.

A lot of Bs in these comments here. Modern computers and modern DACs do not have any noise problems. At all. PCs and MACs are used in studios, and i mean EVERY studio in the world and they do not have any problems at all. Modern computers use USB audio 2.0 and you need to use ASIO aka bit perfect output. I have kinda cheap DAC on a kinda bad and old laptop but still on my hifiman anandas and THX AAA amp it is dead silent. I can lift the volume so high that an drum kick literally makes my ears bleed and still no noise issues at all. Problem comes if your computer/electrical system has some fatal fails in the first place.

use a usb-to-somethingelse converter (x-spdif?), like many in the market, and the problem is solved....and never NEVER use +V from pc into dac, just the 0V... change how your usb interface work

I have a M1 Macbook / Audirvana with USB Audioquest Jitterblocker and test it against a dedicated streamer like Bluesound node and didn't hear any difference.