talking about grounds are the holes/pads around the mounting points grounded to the pcb ground plane?

More progress (or not!)

1. I tried lifting the source off the mains totally. This was done by using a UPS running off only its battery, unplugged from the mains totally. No change.

2. Tried a (cheaper) alternative SPDIF cable. The lock itself was a little worse, and took longer to recover. Went back to proper coax.

3. Tried isolation transformer for source and DAC. This was done by connecting a pair of identical transformers back-to-back. The transformers were only 220VA, so I didn't run the tests for very long. Zero improvement, so I don't know that an isolation transformer will eventually work.

I could really use some ideas until the 9018 comes along. A lot of people in my apartment keep switching on and off appliances, so get a pop every few minutes. Can't focus on the music at all.

Ummm no, there's already one on the output of the source but I guess I'll give it a shot. We don;t get such things in this country - will one salvaged from an old LAN card help?

hello again
ok found out I had some instable noise on the outputs of the B and decided to reconfigure the layout on my sloppy breadboard design
all x-formers to the left and following a line to the right with respective psu´s and then stacked B and I with usb card on the side.Ivy psu gnd to usb psu gnd and mains to chassis
result: dead quiet and yesterday during an hour or more playing;; NO DROPOUTS :d/ :d/
also even cleaner and more transparent sound
best
Leif

indeed!
listening to waltz for debby with bill evans trio and it´s really swinging
had a friend over on friday and he was really impressed of how close this was to my basis/airtangent reference/lyra titan i/lyra erodion x-former/thorsten loesch/borderpatrol 150 lbs diy lcr riaa combo.
not bad?

best
Leif

Edited by user Monday, February 2, 2009 2:39:09 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Great record. In case you don't know them, you should try Kenny Barron Trio, live at Bradley's, I and II.

Last post here, this is only for reference. So my PC was full of very noisy fans, so I took it down for a complete overhaul. New power supply, fans changed out and mounted with rubber clips, and remove the noisy CPU fan. Connect it back to the Buffalo and wham! the popping is back. Any electrical switch being flipped causing a dropout and loss of composure. So I enable the onboard audio, and connect the Buffalo there. No galvanic isolation, and very ordinary sound.

Go through the E-mu again and reset the Buffalo. Automute comes on. Switch off the UPS, and start it up again. Popping cured completely. So the cycle that seems to work is:

Popping -> Reset Buffalo (automute light on) -> Power cycle source and Buffalo together -> no popping.

I don't know that it even begins to make sense, but maybe it will help anyone else. During all of this, no change has been made to the Buffalo at all, it is still resting on a poor old fiber board platform.

Strange, I don't even get the slightest popping. Fingers crossed.

My system is spread out over a 14"x28" piece of fiberboard, a remnat of an old table. I used garden variety solid core in twisted pairs to hook the boards to each other. And shielded single-core wire for digital in and analog out.

I guess things will become a little testy once I move it into a proper chassis.

I use my PC with my Buffalo DAC using USB. I too had a problem with random popping and slight drop outs. After a couple of weeks listing, I finally realized it only happens when I power up my computer up before my DAC. Problem solved, now i just make shore i turn the DAC on first or if the computer is already on I unplug the usb cord before i power up the DAC. Sounds beautiful now, nice DAC.

hi everyone,

i just received my bufalo24 board and i cant get proper lock

its fine for 1 minute and than i loose the signal progressively. then when i power up again shortly after it locks for 10 secs max than nothing( like maybe something bad is accumulating, may be heat?). could it be that i use 12 vots for both dc input with the same psu? what do you guys have found as being the best solutions of this type of problem?

regards,

-pierre