How do you connect a SuperDAC to an amp

Assuming I cannot win the battle against RFI in my PC (I seem to be losing it big style at the moment) then I may have to reconsider a DAC. I was looking at the M-Audio SuperDAC 24/96 as a possible partner with the EWX, but it seems to have 1/4" phone jacks out, rather than the standard RCA outs. Is it possible to simply get a couple of adapters to adapt to the use of RCA.

I hope I can avoid this DAC really, as I have ordered a Zalman PSU (very expensive £85 supply) to try and help with the problems. I hope it helps because if I have to add the SuperDAC (~ £130) to the soundcard (£130) and £85 for PSU, £100 for new silencing and other gubbins I could have had a kick arse CD player for the money I've spent.

What a crap day I am having

 

you could try some dish cloth in your endevour to stop RFI

 

I'd rather try things that are genuinely likely to help. I've wasted so much money on this so far......

The soundcard is great, but I needed to quieten the fans. New heatsink and fan.

The heatsink and fan I bought do not perform well without case cooling. New case fans.

The case fans are too noisy. Fanbus for the PC.

Now, I finally find a great pair of headphones that I love, but they make it blatantly obvious how bad RFI is. New Power supply (after a load of unsuccesful tweaking).

I seem to be throwing good money after bad.

If the PSU doesnt help, I am coming back on the DAC side.

 

I understand your apathy with it, but dont dismiss untill you have tried
Have you tried pabst fans? very quiet for a reasonable CFM

 

I have got YS-Tech silent fans.

However, when there are four of them, they arent so quiet.

SO how do you connect a superDAC? it must be as simple as an adapter 1/4" phone to RCA yes?

 

Doesnt matter I've found out that I can do this...

 

You can buy 1/4inch jack to phono adaptors from Maplin. Try part no. KW36P. Shouldn't break the bank.

Paul

 

paul,
for the money you're paying you could probably build a dedicated media pc using a slower cpu, ropier graphics card, etc. requiring minimal cooling - you may even get away with passive cooling. get a crossover cable or if you already run a small home network hitch it up to the switch box and get a player with network remote control. you've probably got the expensive bits already (soundcard, hard drives etc.) all you need is the mother board / cpu and case and you're away and you could find them for peanuts at a computer fair. monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. can be shared.
worth a thought.
cheers


julian

 

Paul, you could just blow £3.98 at craplins and get a pair of gold plated phono jacks to replace the 'Jack sockets' sounds better too, plus no mating probs with your GWS mate WM

 

Thanks guys, if I do the superDAC route, then I will have a look down Maplins.

I also read that a relatively low cost upgrade to the SuperDAC is a replacement power pack thing for it, apparently about 10 dollars.

I'll have to look into these things if I cant get rid of the blasted RFI (which ironically, I only notice on headphones, but thats what I use half the time). Need to have a play around first, see if I can get rid of it without going to this expense. Its such a pity because the EWX24/96 has a great sound otherwise.

Julian, its a good idea I agree, but that'd be more costly, and i dont think it would work out in my situation.

Cheers

 

paul you should really be looking at sheilding some RFI emitters inside the PC
I know you refuse to accept that dishcloth can work, but like i said if its good enough for HP the it will work in your little home PC

 

I would do penance, but the thing is, I wouldnt know where to start....

 

well starting with the PSU is good
then look at processor, gfx chip, northbridge etc
not any easy task but should pay off

 

Paul,

I'm not quite sure what you're problem is here.
Are you talking about RFI, i.e. radio frequency interference affecting the electronic signals within your soundcard, or are you talking about noise from fans within your PC?

If you're talking about noise within PCs, try the following:
- 7v mod your fans. It's dead easy to do. If you're unsure about it, go to www.overclockers.co.uk, they sell 7v mod adapters for all of £2 each. That will slow your fans down and makes them MUCH quieter
- If you have a problem with CPU heat, then something like a thermalright SLK800 / SLK900 with a 7v 80mm fan will do the trick. My Athlon 1700 runs at 45 degrees when 7v modded with an SLK800
- Adding damping material to your case will also help

Ref Papst fans, don't believe all the hype. Yes, they are quiet, but that's because they don't spin that fast and have low flow rates. Go check out the Db noise ratings and throughput that exists on the overclockers site for fans. What you'll find is that noise for a certain fan size is basically directly related to the flow rate, seemingly regardless of whether you buy a papst or a YS-tech. As I say, don't take my word for it, go check for yourself.

 

I can hear the noise of my fans through my headphones, even though the sound of the fans is not loud. I can also hear a buzzing noise when I move my mouse, which gets worse when moving a mouse over a webpage...

My fanbus allows me to turn them down to 7 volts, and it works a treat.

I already have an SLK800 with YS-Tech Silent fan.

I know, thats why I bought the YS-Tech. It is a mere 1 db louder than Papst, but also gives 1 CFM more airflow, and cost £5 each instead of £15.

Penance, how am I supposed to shield my CPU, that sounds impossible to me. The PSU I've ordered is a Zalman 400 watt, which not only runs silent, but apparently is the most heavily shielded and stable power supply on the market (along with Enermax offerings). Northbridge already has passive cooling. The Graphics card does not, although I could add a Zalman heat pipe to that, but I'd rather not really as in terms of noise, the PC is already quiet enough, its just that I can hear the fans as if I had my head stuck inside the case through the headphones. I wouldnt care, but the soundcard is very highly regarded, and allegedly, good at RFI rejection. The soundcard is placed as far away from the rest of the components as is possible. Initially I thought it was my Eupen, as if I pushed the cable hard back into the amp, it stopped doing it. So I swapped it with a blackcurrent and the problem went away for about a day or so, and then was back, so it cant be that.

I have to say its really pissing me off

 

Can't you try shielding the card?
How about laminating some tin foil to insulate it, then building a little box around your card.

I can't really see that it is airbourne RFI if the mouse makes it noisy, hopefully a high power stable PSU will help you.

Have you tried removing your existing PSU from the case to see if that helps, the leads are usually long enough for this and it will run quieter for being in free air.

 

Nah, the cables on the PSU are only just long enough for where it is, no way I could get it out of the case and turned on at the same time, dont have any extensions either.

 

Paul,

For your two problems:

- Buzzing from the mouse. Have you a spare mouse you can try out. Maybe you have frayed wires in the mouse lead which is causing an earthing issue.

- For the case fans. If you're system is still too noisy, even with 7v modding on your fans, the only other option I can suggest would be water cooling. Be aware though that I'm not going to suggest a normal water cooling "kit". Most of the kits seem to have an external reservoir/radiator, often linked to a 120mm fan, which will be at least as noisy as your existing kit.
The best method I've seen for doing this is to use the standard water blocks and pipework. For the radiator, simply put a 3 gallon fishtank near your PC. A 3 gallon tank is going to have no problem dissipating the heat, and won't need any fans at all. Your water pump can be a submersible, and therefore running under water, i.e. quietly. If my missus would let me get away with it, it's how I'd do things.

 

Hi mate,

Yes I've tried a different mouse.

The case fans are not too noisy in the sense of annoying me in my room or keeping me awake, the main problem is hearing them through the headphones.

My computer desk is a metal thing. I have took the case off this metal desk, on the floor. Seems to help a little.

My GWS interconnect died, and now I'm using a VDH The Bay C5 interconnect. This seems to have helped a great deal, although it may be too early to say - it might come back, as it has done on previous occaisions where I thought I'd fixed it before.

I dont wish to pursue water cooling.

 

So are all of your fans 7v modded? For example, I've found that 120mm fans running at 7v are about as noisy as 80mm fans running at full speed. So for quiet days, I simply run all my 80mm fans at lower speeds and completely turn off the 120s.

One other thought, do you really need your normal PC for late night listening? Could you use an older/slower PC just for listening purposes? e.g. a Pentium 300 or similar, with nearly passive cooling. Drop your soundcard into it along with a LAN card. That would allow you to use it independantly for music, whilst connecting up on the LAN for music sat on your other PCs hard drive during normal daytime hours. Just a thought...