White Noise in earphones


Hi, 

I have a DAC / Preamp / headphone amp (Yulong Sabre DA8II), which I am currently using as an DAC + headphone amp, connected to my laptop using USB. 

When I turn it on, there is some white noise (like wind) coming in the earphones. The noise is there when the Yulong is connected to the PC using USB as well as when the Yulong is not connected to any sources.

Changing the volume or the source on the Yulong does not change the white noise (like wind). As soon as it turns on, these noise starts. The noise is also there when I play music, and I can hear it in quiet parts of songs.

The Yulong is connected to a wall socket for power directly (no multiplug)

If I plug the same earphones into the 3.5mm jack of my laptop the noise is NOT there. So it is definitely something to do with the Yulong.

The impedance of the earphones is 36 Ohms. The Yulong headphone amp is rated 1W. Not sure if this matters. 

Any advise? 

Thanks, 

Serge

sergedc

Showing 2 responses by yage

Is this a new piece of equipment or have you had it for a while and it just started to exhibit the noise?

 

Is it possible to test with other headphones?

Most likely, the Yulong DA8 II headphone amp section has some self noise. Since the sensitivity of the SRH 840 headphone is much lower than the Aonic 5, it pushes the noise below the threshold of hearing.

This means that the measurements and specs on the Yulong website are probably referenced to the DA8 II in DAC mode and not taken from the headphone out.

For the HRT HeadStreamer, it's a bit strange that the noise is related to the Windows system volume. Are you sure that Windows / foobar is giving you the correct sample rate / bit depth for the music you're listening to?

My suggestion is to find an amp that offers a very high signal to noise ratio even at very low power. A JDS Atom seems to fit the bill and it's fairly inexpensive. Try hooking it up to the Yulong in DAC mode. Hopefully you'll have a noise free system with your Aonic 5.