Hi all,
I hope someone can help.
On the whole i am really pleased with my home set-up at the moment. I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and a Chord Chordette QuteHd, which sounds really wonderful. Quite a lot better than my old Naim CD5i it has to be said! These are linked with the supplied usb cable from Chord. and is then fed to my Naim amps via a Chord Cobra.
I do have one issue though...On certain tracks i get popping, crackling and skipping noises on an intermittent basis, i.e. i can listen to a track one day and it doesn't skip then all of a sudden it starts again!
I try restarting the track and sometimes that cures it but it is hardly ideal. It is like the dac is struggling with something...Playing through the internal Mac speakers there are no issues at all.
Has anyone else on this wonderful forum had a similar issue? if so what has been done about it?
All music is in AIFF, has been ripped with EAC, and I'm using iTunes.
Thanks!
James
Posted on: 06 August 2014 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by Jamesw1:
Hi Wat,
Yes I downloaded the windows 7 driver for the DAC.
Didn't make a difference unfortunately!
I think you and Gary are on the money. Seems like the DAC is your culprit.
Posted on: 07 August 2014 by Jamesw1
I thinks so unfortunately. However i think i'd rather that than some strange issue with the macbook that takes weeks to discover...Chord said that they'd replace the board inside the Dac for me so we'll see what happens when i get it back!
Cheers all for your help...
Posted on: 07 August 2014 by alainbil
I have a similar problem, with a dedicated MacMini and NAIM DAC, in particular when playing high res files. This is very irritating.
Posted on: 18 August 2014 by Jamesw1
Hi again everyone,
So a little update...I've had my DAC tested, and upgraded to the ex version of the Chordette, and had hoped that this would solve my skipping issue, but with no luck...same issue still!
So I've bought myself a cheapy toslink optical cable to use between the macbook and the DAC, and this has completely erradicated the. Skipping issue. I had an entire night of music without a glitch.
Now I'm not leaving it there. This must mean that it is an issue with the USB output of the macbook. Considering I have a USB DAC and that is rumoured to be the best input, I want it to work as it should.
Does anyone have any apple knowledge that may help me fix my USB problems?
Thanks!
James
Posted on: 18 August 2014 by james n
IIRC the Chordette uses a pretty standard XMOS implementation. I've had my Mac mini running plain iTunes and various music players into my Devialet via its USB input (also XMOS) with no issues - all the way up to 24/192.
Have you tried any other USB DACs to try and narrow down the issue to source or DAC ?
Posted on: 18 August 2014 by Jamesw1
Hi, it is definitely the laptop as the Dac's entire board was changed at the Chord factory and it made no difference. It can only be the outputs from the MacBook
