Clicking Noise from DAC

zingo · January 2008

For my computer system, I have a digital coax out from my computer to the AMC 8 DAC, then to my stereo pre. When I listen to music or play games, I have no problem. The only time I run into problems is when I try to watch a DVD on my computer. The video plays fine, but the only audio is a loud clicking noise. I ran an RCA to 1/8 cable from the speaker out to double check that the computer can play DVDs normally, and the sound was fine. It's only when I run it out of the digital and through the AMC 8 DAC. Please help!

danger boy · January 2008

I think that clicking noise means it's trying to connect an incoming digital signal.. at least my DAC clicks like that if not digital signal is found.. so I turn on the CD player first to provide a signal, then the DAC. everything is cool that way..and the world is in balance again.

rskarvan · January 2008

That clicking noise is definitely not good for the DAC. Either turn it off or feed it a clock-signal that it can sync to.

WilliamM2 · January 2008

Is the computer DAC compatible with with the DVD sampling rate? Some are limited to 48khz.

ward91 · January 2008

is the pc sound device being clipped? try reducing the master output by 6db or go through menus and tick anything along the lines of "avoid clipping"

Systems · January 2008

WilliamM2 wrote: »

Is the computer DAC compatible with with the DVD sampling rate? Some are limited to 48khz.

Or it could the computer is outputing the Dolby Digital track therefore the DAC will not accept it.The data must be in the form of PCM for your DAC to work.

zingo · January 2008

So I tried a bunch of stuff, and can't get the clicking noise to go away. My guest is that the computer is outputing a format that the DAC can't recognize since I only have it on movies, like ya'll were saying. I changed the output of my computer to "2 speakers" on the internal settings, and nothing changed. Is there a way to modify the player to make it 2 channel, or a player that will work? Unless it is a sampling issue, but I tried two different rates yesterday and got nothing.

jakelm · January 2008

Mine clicks about 4 times when booting. I can hear it clearly over the headphones. click ...click..click..click...beeeeep..then load. But I was told it was normal for the DAC to find "itself" while loading, thus the clicking..

zingo · January 2008

Ya, this is a constant, rapid clicking whenever the movie is playing on my computer. If I close that window and open anything else, the audio picks up without missing a beat.

heiney9 · January 2008

I use an AMC Dac 8 for my computer rig and have no issues at all. It may have something to do with how your sound card is configured. I can't/don't control the volume by my computer it's configured in such a way that it's a constant output. My integrated amp controls everything. Kernel streaming is the setting you want. As soon as I power up my AMC DAC-8 it locks onto the signal at 48K sampling rate whether I am playing something or not.

H9

heiney9 · January 2008

It may also have to do with how your system resources are allocated especially when you play dual layer DVD. I used to get a lot "clicking" (cutting out) and frozen and jerky video until I added more RAM when I played a DVD, but not on Mpegs or straight audio. If this is only happening when watching a DVD or when you have multiple tasks going it sound like a processing issue with the computer.

H9

zingo · January 2008

Well I'm half-way there. I found a screen in the sound preferences that let me pick what my "receiver" can decode. The options were DTS, DD, and something else. I unchecked the boxes, and restarted the computer. Now when I put in a DVD, there is no clicking sound, but there is also no sound.

Systems · January 2008

If there is an option for PCM thats what you want.

jakelm · January 2008

heiney9 wrote: »

I use an AMC Dac 8 for my computer rig and have no issues at all. It may have something to do with how your sound card is configured. I can't/don't control the volume by my computer it's configured in such a way that it's a constant output. My integrated amp controls everything. Kernel streaming is the setting you want. As soon as I power up my AMC DAC-8 it locks onto the signal at 48K sampling rate whether I am playing something or not.

H9

Constant output is also how my digital out is. How do you set the card for Kernel streaming?

heiney9 · January 2008

zingo wrote: »

Well I'm half-way there. I found a screen in the sound preferences that let me pick what my "receiver" can decode. The options were DTS, DD, and something else. I unchecked the boxes, and restarted the computer. Now when I put in a DVD, there is no clicking sound, but there is also no sound.

I know nothing about the settings of a sound card for more than 2-channel output. Never messed with DTS, DD on a computer sound card because I'm a 2-ch guy. Use Google to search message boards that are related to your model sound card. That's how I find out a lot of info many times because the problem isn't usually unique as someone else has encountered it.

Jakelm wrote:

Constant output is also how my digital out is. How do you set the card for Kernel streaming?

You are just going to have to poke around in your sound card settings or in the audio program software that came with your sound card or do as I suggested to Zingo. Do a Google search using message boards that are related to your model sound card to get the info. I'm pretty sure that's how I discovered it a few years ago when I set mine up.

H9

heiney9 · January 2008

It's my understanding that TCP Kernel streaming allows you to output a direct digital stream of info (to the DAC) that does not go through all the windows driver processing as the info would normally when you use certain music programs, etc. It's the preferred method for the best possible sound and I'm pretty sure it's for 2-ch only.

It may be that the TCP Kernel streaming was set through FOOBAR the music program I use exclusively to play my FLAC files. I set it up about 3-4 years ago and I just don't remember. If you are using FOOBAR check there too.

H9

jakelm · January 2008

heiney9 wrote: »

It's my understanding that TCP Kernel streaming allows you to output a direct digital stream of info (to the DAC) that does not go through all the windows driver processing as the info would normally when you use certain music programs, etc. It's the preferred method for the best possible sound and I'm pretty sure it's for 2-ch only.

It may be that the TCP Kernel streaming was set through FOOBAR the music program I use exclusively to play my FLAC files. I set it up about 3-4 years ago and I just don't remember. If you are using FOOBAR check there too.

H9

Very little buttons effect the digital out. I can however adjust the volume. So I guess its not constant. Digital out, on/off is about the only option I have for it in the card driver menu. No other options are avaliable.

I have the soundMax intergrated card that came with my Asus board. I found it out-performed my older Soundblaster card.

heiney9 · January 2008

In further reading Kernel streaming: Allows bit-exact playback bypassing Windows kernel mixer. FOOBAR and WINAMP have plug-in's which allow (accept) Kernel streaming.

From Wikipedia:

Compared to the regular "wave out method" in Microsoft Windows, kernel streaming requires less CPU time. This comes at the expense of bypassing the KMixer and Windows volume control. Windows Kmixer re samples all the data and can introduce errors. Kernel streaming bypasses all that garbage.

Discussion on AVS about Kernel streaming. Very in depth!!!

http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?&threadid=247101&highlight=revo

Have fun

H9

zingo · January 2008

I think I have that same card jakelm. It doesn't give a whole lot of options, but I think it's pretty good. Did you find the screen that let you choose the output decoder?

jakelm · January 2008

zingo wrote: »

I think I have that same card jakelm. It doesn't give a whole lot of options, but I think it's pretty good. Did you find the screen that let you choose the output decoder?

Im not on the pc right now..i will check when i get home....

Clicking Noise from DAC

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