What Causes the Intermittent Crackling-Static Sound?

[mansr]

Do you have a different DAC you could try in place of the Peachtree? Do you have a different S/PDIF source you could try with the Peachtree? Is the problem in any way dependent on the sample rate of the music, such as taking longer to appear with some rates or sounding differently? Oh, and try the cheapest USB cable you have, probably something that came free with a printer or external hard drive.

[mansr]

2 hours ago, codyred said:

Thanks Whitigir and mansr. mansr,  I do not have any other DACs to try now. I did have the Schiit Eitr here for a trial, but returned it for various reasons; there was not static with the Eitr--- the Audiophilleo 2 produces so much better sound quality!.I owned quite a few different DACs  over the years when funds in my bank account were larger than  they are today.  I went through quite a few nice DACs- had the W4S DAC 2, Eastern Electric Minimax, Centrance Dacmini, tried the Benchmark HGC 2, - used to have the NAD M2 with its its own built in DAC.  These days on a much much tighter budget and far fewer funds in the bank, I recently tried the Topping D30 and now the Peachtree DAC ITx.  (trying to stay around the $100-$200 DAC arena) I've been forced to go for value performance.  I think I tried a cheap stock USB once before to address this static issue but if memory is correct, that did not remove the intermittent static.  But I will try that again.  I mostly listen to jazz on youtube , so nothing fancy or hi-rez.  

 

Whitigir,  I'm not a computer guy so your information is somewhat enlightening.  My cables have been interchangeable and I have tried a variety of USB cables in my collection as well as various Coax cables I own and still get the static.  I have experienced the static with 2 different integrated amps, the Yamaha AS 2000 before, and now the NAD C 375BEE.  The Audiophilleo 2 did perfectly fine when I needed it to use with the NAD M2, since the M2 required a USB converter to connect to the MacBook Pro.   

So the problem is specific to the Audiophilleo + Peachtree combination?

[mansr]

9 hours ago, codyred said:

mansr, the problem is not specific to the DAC ITx and Audiophilleo 2 with MBP - had the same static with a Topping D30 and FX Audio DAC using the AP2 with MBP.  Had the AP2 for years and used it previously with  the MPB and NAD M2 without any issue.  Thanks for the suggestions. The static can take an hour or more to show up for a few seconds and than disappear again. It's very random.  semente, I have not noticed any appliances that could be adding noise. Computer audio has so many unknowns!

Sounds like the AP2 is still a common factor here. If its signal is slightly out of spec, it could easily happen that some DACs tolerate it better than others.

[mansr]

If the DAC works without the AP2, its power supply likely isn't to fault.

[mansr]

40 minutes ago, semente said:

Is it possible that the PSU isn't properly filtering noise in the mains?

That wouldn't cause the described behaviour.

[mansr]

31 minutes ago, 4est said:

Have you tried this with a PC? Perhaps it is a driver or firmware issue. I have had this with an Amanero card when using the wrong firmware. Have you tried adjusting the bit depth or buffer size?

The AP2 apparently uses standard USB audio class drivers, but it doesn't hurt to try.