Can you try and connect the DAC200 directly to your roon server via USB and see if the noise is gone then ?
The Nucleus+ is in a different room. I will move it to test in the coming week if that is of any help.
As mentioned earlier the DAC 8DSD in the exact same setup did not exhibit this.
I would also like to add that this seems to only occur when there is no program playing back but Auralic and DAC200 active and not playing any source material.
DAC8DSD had a different USB receiver and so it will behave differently.
When you have tried the direct connection to roon nucleus, I can probably give some more advice.
I have a similar issue to @Sherif_Hwaidak with mine. Static occasionally. Not always the same static. It’s hooked up via a super short USB cable to an NAA mini-PC. Streamer is a Mini Mac nearby. NAA is hooked up to a Cat 6A ethernet cable and runs on NAA software booted from a memory stick.
Can you try with another USB cable, preferably with USB HiSpeed certified one? Or the one that comes with DAC 200?
I have not experienced such, and processing/network dropouts would result in just silent gaps. So I suspect this is lost or corrupted USB packet issue.
I’ll have to buy another one as I only have the 6 inch Belkin here. It is Hi-speed (480 Mbps) as far as I can see. Strangely I can go days and hear no static then it comes and goes for an hour or so. I have not had it happen when using the HDMI connection from Mac Mini to DAC 200 that I can recall. I’d love to be able to send other sources from on my Mac Mini (web-based audio such as Nugs.net or Archive.org) through HQPlayer rather than HDMI but that’s another topic I need to search for. Thanks for all your help, Jussi.
What are your other connections to the DAC? Do you normally have HDMI connected? Optical S/PDIF doesn’t count, since it cannot carry any ground currents.
Based on the symptoms, it could be caused by ground currents flowing between devices on the cable shields. I’m using Intona USB isolators with my DAC 200 and HA 200, because I found it objectively improve performance for my cases. The Intona isolator is not very cheap device to buy though.
HDMI1 from Mac Mini. HDMI ARC from TV. Balanced out to Audio Research amp. Sometimes RCA out to subwoofer but I can’t remember if I ever heard it with it hooked up. I usually do not have it attached. NAA is MeLe mini-PC booting from memory stick with your software. Ethernet is Cat 6A U/UTP and Meanwell medical grade 12v power supply that uses a basic figure 8 (C7?) cord that I probably got with an AppleTV years ago. I hope I explained everything ok. Thanks.
When the problem appears, just for testing, you could try disconnecting the HDMI connections and any other possible extra connections from the DAC 200. In case this is related to some ground current.
I have earlier experience with very similar problems that were caused by ground current. The issue was ground potential difference between mains earth and the cable network coaxial shield/ground. The problem path was through TV. With a TV alone, or typical kind of devices connected to TV such as Apple TV is not an issue. This because TV and similar devices have two pin “safety isolated” mains connection without link to the mains ground. However, typically antenna/cable network coaxial ground is connected to the TV’s common ground which is also connected to HDMI connector body/shield. Now, when you connect HDMI cable from TV to DAC 200, this connects grounds of TV and DAC 200 to each other. In turn, DAC 200 has 3-pin mains connection with “safety ground”. As result you have a ground path TV → DAC 200 → mains ground. If there’s a similar potential difference between your TV’s antenna/cable connection ground and mains ground, there’s a high frequency ground current flowing through the DAC 200 that can disturb it’s operation.
Solution in my case was to add “ground breaker” to the TV’s cable network connection. These are pretty inexpensive passive things that cost something like ~10€.
I’ll try removing the HDMI ARC connection when it happens again. Besides the HDMI, the TV only has an ethernet cable going to it, no coax. Thanks and I will report back.
As far as the Intona, which one do you recommend? Would using fibre optic in the chain be a “better” solution than using ethernet from router to NAA?
Update: Heard static in right speaker. Got up to take HDMI ARC cable out. Moved cable to pull out and got more static. Cable out, static gone so far. I think you’re right, Jussi. Now how do I connect the HDMI without problems?
I assume TV’s ethernet is also U/UTP? So it shouldn’t have any other ground paths.
There are optical HDMI cable systems, but usually those are for longer distances, and I’m not sure they all provide galvanic isolation (they should).
But such could be one solution.
TV ethernet is not U/UTP. It just says “Cat 6 Network Cable” on it and is fairly long. Mac Mini ethernet is also not U/UTP. I need to get a few to replace all the old cables around. I’ll try a fiber optic HDMI. I see there are galvanic isolation devices for the medical field for HDMI but they’re quite pricey.
If those ethernet cables have plastic connector ends, they are UTP. Ones with metal around the connector are STP. Replacing those with UTP shouldn’t be expensive. Ethernet with UTP cables is galvanically isolated, since the signals go through transformer isolation by the spec.
After doing way too much research it looks like fiber HDMI cables are all hybrid, using copper to transmit audio, so no isolation. I’ll ask my T+A dealer today if he’s heard of anyone else having this problem.
Static is back. One channel or the other, not both at same time. No HDMI cables connected. I’ll have to remove the NAA and go straight from the Mac Mini and see if it has any effect.
Another update…taking NAA changed nothing. I’d say it’s one of the tubes (4 power tubes on each side) but it happens randomly in each speaker. It also just came back from a full checkup. I can also go hours without hearing it. I’ll keep troubleshooting.
I had the exact same problem as you. Have you figured out what the problem is?
My static disappeared when I changed “Volume Max” in the NAA OS settings to -3.0 dB. I had it at 0.0 dB. Someone, maybe Jussi, mentioned something in another thread that 0.0 may cause problems.
no I have not. I was asked to connect the nucleus directly to the dac200 which I have not done yet…but I will. its just that they are in different rooms and I did not get around to try yet.