@renisnceman You might try lifting the ground of the DAC to see if you are dealing with a ground loop. You do this by getting a ground cheater adapter for your its cord at the local hardware store and plugging the DAC into the wall using the adapter. This is only for testing, but if the hum/buzz is eliminated then you will know what is going on.
Passive preamp issues or?
I have a Nuforce STA 200 that I’ve been using with an Axiom Walker mod preamp for a while now. Other equipment is a Bluesound Node 2 streamer and a Jolida dsd dac. Nordost digital coax and Dueland Schroeder IC’s from dac to pre and pre to amp. Last night, I disconnected the preamp and ran the IC’s directly from the dac to amp, using the volume control on the dac. The change in detail and depth was not subtle. Soundstage extended beyond the speakers- everything just sounded better. However, with the high gain of the Nuforce there’s a hum in the speakers- it’s not not audible when I’m not playing anything. I’m willing to live with it, but I’m curious why the sound improved significantly by pulling the pre- should I look at better IC’s from pre to amp or is the Axiom subtracting from the sound quality?