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Audiointerface or external dac/preamp as a sound source?

Cigibroke

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Aug 10, 2023
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Hi,
I wanted to increase the quality of my pc sound so i bought active speakers. But i had a problem on source side. The problem is that: I watched some you tube reviews and according to their advices, i bought audio interfaces. But they made distortion in sound or occasional intermittent sound while watching music videos, etc. over the internet. This was especially evident in YouTube videos. Even when I opened a new tab in the browser (browsing) while the video was open, the sound was temporarily distorted.
I don't know if this is due to audio interfaces or a mismatch in browser or YouTube settings. So I returned these interfaces. Instead of them, I have bought topping e50 usb dac, which it has balanced TRS outputs and can be used as a pre amp. I will try connecting it directly to "focal alpha 50 evo" active speakers via TRS balanced input. Do you think using an external usb DAC/preamp may be less problematic on audio playbacks than audio interfaces if i do not make any recording, mixing etc.? If topping e50 shows a similar issue, what should i do?

Thanks for your advices
 

BDWoody

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Do you think using an external usb DAC/preamp may be less problematic on audio playbacks than audio interfaces if i do not make any recording, mixing etc.? If topping e50 shows a similar issue, what should i do?

Weird glitches can be a pain to figure out. I'd say you've got a better chance of fewer problems with a simple box like the e50, but you won't know until you hook it up.

Keep us posted on what happens, and if there's an issue hopefully we can help track it down.
 
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Cigibroke

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Aug 10, 2023
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Weird glitches can be a pain to figure out. I'd say you've got a better chance of fewer problems with a simple box like the e50, but you won't know until you hook it up.

Keep us posted on what happens, and if there's an issue hopefully we can help track it down.
May i ask you something: my first audio interface was focursite 2i2 4th gen, it had headphone sound issues on youtube music videos so i returned it. Then i tried universal audio volt 2 interface. I tried it with my new active speakers. Again it has the same issue on these speakers (i did not try headphone side)
Could these problems occurred because of usb connection, browsing' s hardware acceleration option etc?
 
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