KazmanN

Sorry for the late reply, but I think I figured out the issue. I'm certain its a grounding issue with my laptop. When I use my cell phone or my other laptop with my headphones all is well. I only get the weird noise issues with my gaming laptop. The laptop has an aluminum surface around the track pad that spans the width of the machine. When I touch the surface of it with my hand most of the noise goes away. Oh well no biggie, but still annoying. Thanks though

I have a pair of noise canceling Sennheiser PXC 450 headphones. I'm using it with a CEntrance dacport on my computer. I'm extremely impressed with this headphone amp. It was much better than I had anticipated and I couldn't be happier. However I do have an issue, and its not with the dac. I get this weird high pitched/light buzzing popping sound coming from the right earphone. It doesn't matter if I'm plugged in to the dac or straight to the computer the problem is the same. This noise is most noticeble with the noise canceling on. In bypass mode it still does it, but its barely noticeble. I've been reading up on it, and its not just me who is having this problem. Although I couldn't really find a fix for it, but some people mention it could be ground issue. I will mention that there is a quick fix. If I put my finger on the 1/4" while music is playing the noise goes away. As soon as I take my finger off the noise starts again. Adjusting the headphone jack doesn't do anything either. Just to make sure its not the computer I did try using the headphones on my smart phone, and the noise goes away. Although this issue is tolerable, I would still like to get it fixed if I can. Thank you

Thank you for the recommendations. The Dacport and the E7 meet my requirements. I'll definitely look into them.

This may be a tricky thing to accomplish because convenience and quality don't necessarily go together. I'm looking for a headphone usb dac/amp. Nuforce makes some and heard they are decent. However I've never heard anything from Nuforce before. To give you an idea of what i'm looking at: http://www.amazon.com/NuForce-uDAC-2-Black-Headphone-24bit/dp/B003Y5FRNS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314826923&sr=8-1 Its compact, portable, and just the kind of thing I need since I travel a lot. I will be using a device like the Nuforce in conjunction to my gaming laptop. Does something like this have any sort fidelity. I haven't quite narrowed down a set of headphones yet, but I am considering the Sennheiser HD650's. My use for such an amp would be for everything such as music, games, and movies. I would really prefer a device that's power over usb, but a external psu I think I can tolerate if its a good enough dac/amp, and still compact. I'm trying to keep my options open. Thanks

I'm new to these forums and I've been very very impressed with the amount of information and knowledge here. So heres my situation. I'm a pc gamer and an audiophile. I have my computer hooked up to my Arcam avr600 receiver via hdmi for both audio and video. Is it possible to have bit perfect audio transfer with this method? My motherboard does have a toslink connection which I haven't really experiemented with yet. For now i would really like to get my current setup optimized for both games and music. To give you an overview of what my sound manager is set to in windows 7 64bit, I have the following features set: -All enhancements are turned off -Device has full priority -Bit/Sample are set to 24/44.1khz I am using a trial version of JRMC 16 set to "direct sound" output. I can have my computer setup so it has both hdmi and toslink connected simultaneously for audio for whatever reason. This is assuming that toslink will be the better option for bit perfect transfer. It would just be a matter of switching device priority in the sound manager whenever I'm playing music or games. I know toslink only supports 2ch (well atleast on my motherboard it does). I am however planning on getting a dedicated dac in the near future. So far I'm considering the Ayre QB-9. I have a dealer near me that carries these and although I have never demoed it, I have heard their transports, amps, and pre-amps in the past. Very impressive stuff. Much appreciated guys. If you need anymore info from me regarding my setup let me know. Thanks