I’m not sure if this will be the equivalent of what you’re experiencing as I haven’t heard your setup BUT my dac developed an issue after a couple of years where there was audible distortion when certain tracks were played. It wasn’t consistent other than to say it was repeatable on specific tracks. Also- it only occurred when using the balanced outputs. Single ended and USB were fine.
This occurred when very heavy low end frequencies were present and as well on certain heavily compressed recordings. It eventually drove me so crazy I sent the Dac back to Italy for repair.
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