Become a Site Supporter and Never see Ads again!

Author Topic: USB port > DAC playback distortion (solved)  (Read 1942 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline thunderbolt

  • Trade Count: (37)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1030
  • Gender: Male
  • Music est vita!
USB port > DAC playback distortion (solved)
« on: July 25, 2015, 03:22:37 PM »
Solved:  Increase playback buffer.  Running multitrack was too much for the Mac.

(Addendum:  This problem only occurs with Audacity, not when playing sound/music via any other means.)

I'm getting distortion at unpredictable times (but now pretty much within seconds) on playback through both USB ports > DAC on my late-2011 MacBook Pro:

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5
Intel i7 at 2.8 GHz
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Sometimes it distorts and fades to silence, and at other times it just distorts.  If I stop and restart it may play through or may distort quickly.  This does not happen on the built-in 1/8" output.  I have a new Audioengine D1 DAC.  Used it earlier in the week through a pair of Audioengine 2 with Dayton 8" sub..  Sounded nice.  During that first listening session, I started hearing distortion on playback only from my four-track Audacity .aup files (24/44.1).  I am saving and running files from a WD 3TB drive.

Fix attempts so far:

Exchanged the DAC with another new one.
Updated Audacity from 2.1 to 2.1.1.
Reset PRAM.
Tried both USB ports.

I did use a crappy NuForce DAC in the past with no problems.

Anyone ever heard of this problem?
« Last Edit: August 01, 2015, 01:08:58 PM by boltman »

Offline DigiGal

  • AES Associate Member
  • Trade Count: (30)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 2583
  • Gender: Female
  • Stay healthy and safe!
    • DigiGal Internet Archive Recordings
Re: USB port > DAC playback distortion
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2015, 08:39:29 PM »
Macs have optical digital outputs built-in, if your DAC has an optical input then you can use 1/8" to TOSLINK optical cable.
Mics: AKG CK91/CK94/CK98/SE300 D-330BT | DPA 4060 4061 4266 | Neumann TLM 103 | Senn ME66/K6/K6RD MKE2 MD421 MD431 | Shure VP88 SM7B SM63L SM58 Anniversary Cables: Gotham GAC-4/1 Quad w/Neutrik EMC | Gotham GAC-2pair w/AKG MK90/3 connectors | DigiGal AES>S/PDIF cable Preamp: SD MixPre-D Recorders: SD MixPre 6 | Marantz PMD 661 Edit: 2011 27" 3.4GHz Quad i7 iMac High Sierra | 2020 13" MBA Quad i7 Catalina | Wave Editor | xACT | Transmission | FCP X 

Offline thunderbolt

  • Trade Count: (37)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1030
  • Gender: Male
  • Music est vita!
Re: USB port > DAC playback distortion
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2015, 06:26:58 AM »
Thanks Sharon, but unfortunately no optical on the DAC.

 

RSS | Mobile
Page created in 0.04 seconds with 31 queries.
© 2002-2024 Taperssection.com
Powered by SMF