dsavitsk

You prefer it when Microsoft steals your data?

Johnny Mandel, Oscar-winning composer behind M*A*S*H theme, dies aged 94 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/30/johnny-mandel-oscar-winning-composer-mash-theme-dies-aged-94

Buy audio components with competently designed power supplies. A $3 inductor does way more than any of these cables or conditioners.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/18/lankum-the-livelong-day-review

Is it possible that there is not a dedicated podcast thread yet? https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Semiconductors/TLLG4400-AS12?qs=ZTK%2Bjoi3Sg6xGMde4j6A1A%3D%3D

That's a wrap ...

It's worth checking the transformer, but that seems like the less likely issue here. Transformer induced noise will generally either increase with volume (if it is being picked up on the input wires) or be constant with volume (if it being picked up past the pot). And you have pretty good distance here. The grounding, however, does not look very good. It is difficult to see exactly what is going on, but what you need is a single ground point that everything connects to directly. I usually put two terminals somewhere, such as in the middle of the case, spaced about an inch apart. Run a thick-ish piece of wire between them, and call that your star. Connect everything - the PCBs, the jacks, the RCAs, the pot, the PS, directly to it. For earth, connect the earth pin on the IEC to the case as close to the IEC as possible. If everything (jack, pot, RCA) is isolated from the case, then you can use a ground loop breaker to connect that point to your ground star, but if you are grounded correctly, it is probably not necessary, or useful. Instead, I'd just connect that point to your star ground, too.

My opinion is that the 1704 is a lovely chip that is probably not going to be easily bettered, there have not been leaps forward in DAC design in the last couple of decades, and that the analog portion matters more than anything in the digital chain. I can't comment on the relative merits of the specific devices.

RIP Larry Kramer https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/larry-kramer-dead-84.html

Happy Birthday!

Good luck. Since this pandemic started, FedEx has screwed up numerous shipments for me. They have damaged things, lost things, sent stuff to the wrong place, or simply been late. And they have denied all claims ("You can't prove that that damage happened while the package was in our possession - maybe your customer, upon receiving the package and before opening it, ran a spear through the box."), and refused to answer their phone. I would estimate they have cost me ~$3K at this point.

Some of the older TI USB audio chips would do this if the USB voltage dropped too low. PCM2707 IIRC.

Linseed oil soap is another option: https://www.earthandflax.com/product-page/ottosson-linseed-oil-soap-1-quart

Happy Birthday!