loud intermittent pops from DAC, possibly related to long USB cable from computer

I second the Supra USB cable. I use a 15 foot one. I’ve never had connections issues from a basic PCIE USB card direct to the DAC.

Be sure to disable/turn off any power management your computer may have on your USB ports. 

thanks for your input!

Glad you figured it out.

@carlsbad you were right: the active extender must've gotten damaged when I reconfigured the stereo. on the advice of the guy at Benchmark, I got a 25' USB cable instead of replacing the extender cable; he said spec for USB is 15', but they'd used 25' at trade shows without issues. it's only been a few hours, but I haven't heard a single pop. I'd used duct tape to hold the extender cable down at one spot, pulled it up when I did the changes - that might've been the culprit.

You could try upgrading your USB cable to something that works good with longer runs.  I use this one:

Supra USB

You could also try increasing the length of your buffer if you use computer audio.

I had the same problem! I was using an old computer feeding a Lampizator Dac. I tried a newer computer (2 years old) and problem solved! In my case the popping noises were due to an old USB architecture, so perhaps you should try another computer and see if your problem goes away. Cheers!

@carlsbad: thanks - that's about the only thing that makes sense. I'll wait a bit, but if the problem persists, I can get another active extender cable for ~ $20 from amazon; if that doesn't help I can just return it.

15ft is a long run.....

So I don't know much about the active extender but I am good at solving problems.  It sounds like the active extender isn't working, probably associated with the recent work you did.  What powers it? check the power supply.  Check all connections.  Look at the manual for troubleshooting.   If this was obvious to you and you were looking for something else, I apologize.

best of luck.

Jerry