Baffled and Frustrated: Streaming/DAC Sound Issues


Hoping to find some guidance here regarding a significant noise issue. Running Quboz through Roon. Relevant Gear is an Auralic Aries G2.1 > Morrow USB cable >Aavik D280 DAC > Wywires Platinum RCA >Anthem STR.  

Previously had some issues with the Aries but that’s hammered out and sounding great.  Now, when running many songs through the DAC, I’m hearing terrible “crunching” distortion.  There’s very little consistency in the problem (loud Pink Floyd sounds great, loud Motley Crue sounds like garbage) except most hard rock/metal, which i started putting on per Morrow Audio’s recommendation for burning in their USB cable, is always terrible.  Volume is irrelevant, I’m getting the noise at sub-30db. The 4 DAC settings: upsampling/ non upsampling/fast/slow don’t change anything. USB cable isn’t likely the problem, it sounds great from streamer to amp without the DAC.   I’m running out of settings to change around.  Anyone have an educated guess or experience with either the output settings from the Aries or D280 setup that can provide any guidance?  Dealer wasn’t very helpful.

 

Thanks much,

Peter

128x128brewerslaw

Showing 1 response by anotherbob

audioguy85 - you also have inferior sound quality right from the start, from both lp’s and cassettes.  CD is not up to the same quality as High-Res streaming, but I can’t tell a difference when listening to both.