murrayman

I will be building/buying a new pc in the next week or so. As I am starting to use this more and more as a music server- auditioning usb dacs as we speak- is there anything in particular I should look out for? Music is all stored on external drives, so storage is not an issue. Thanks murray

The computer and audio are on the same line- so ground "should" be the same. When I floated the ground to the ups driving the computer issue went away- thanks. I was just surprised as my prior dac was whisper quiet in the exact same setup. Now off to audition the new dac- thanks again! murray

I am a newbie to computer audio- but have hung around the audiophile world for 30 years- actually a vinyl guy at heart. I have an office system I was using the stereo-link usb dac, driven via a PC running mediamonkey playing flac files. System actually sounded pretty good. I wanted to try a different dac- for no reason but to see if the newer designs were audibly better- heck for fun. I just purchased a vdac. When I plug it into my system I get a pretty good ground loop hum. Stereo- link same system, whisper quiet. The hum goes away if I disconnect the usb cable. I tried floating the power supply of the vdac with one of the plug adapters- no change. Any ideas? I am surprised as the stereolink dac is quiet, while the new vdac hums away. Thanks for any ideas Murray