iMac USB ports noisy?

[carbontune]

Is anyone using a 2017 iMac and playing audio via USB to an external DAC and then onto powered speakers? I have spent a lot of money changing DACs and cables but still get a crackling noise from the speakers. If I plug a Blu-Ray player directly to the speakers via phono cables then the crackling noise is not present. Also, strangely, if I plug headphones into the DAC then I don’t hear the crackling noise either.

Speakers are KRK Rokit 5.

I’ve reduced the noise by using a very high quality USB cable between the iMac and DAC.

The only other thing I could try is another set of speakers but that’s a very expensive option. I’m going to try using the 3.5mm headphone out on the iMac directly connected to the active speakers via a 3.5mm to RCA cable.

As the iMac is just a few weeks old then I could contact Apple and I’m so disappointed as it’s cost me around £3.5K for the iMac and I get very poor audio quality from it, plus Apple has limited the digital audio output to USB only.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

You might consider trying something like the Schiit Wyrd to help clean up that USB noise.

http://www.schiit.com/products/wyrd

 

[carbontune]

You might consider trying something like the Schiit Wyrd to help clean up that USB noise.

http://www.schiit.com/products/wyrd

Thank you for the suggestion! This kind of device may help. This particular model is very hard to get hold of in the UK though.

 

[StellarVixen]

LOL, there's a dongle for that!

 

[cbautis2]

You can just buy the iFi iUSB 3.0 + iFi iGalvanic with Gemini 3.0 cables (for a good measure) if you're in the UK

 

[Cayden]

Are you using Logic or do the crackling issues occur no matter the source? I’m also having some issues with crackling audio issues through a USB DAC but they only seem to happen when playing from Logic and I’m not sure why

 

[carbontune]

Are you using Logic or do the crackling issues occur no matter the source? I’m also having some issues with crackling audio issues through a USB DAC but they only seem to happen when playing from Logic and I’m not sure why

Setup was iMac USB to a DAC to studio monitors. I tried a couple of DACs with the same results. I tried several USB cables. I tried many analogue cables from the DAC to the speakers, both balanced and unbalanced.

This week I noticed that the speakers made a noise even when the DAC was powered off but had been on and music had been playing. I then plugged headphones directly into the iMac and the sound was fine. Then I tried the headphone output on the DAC and that was fine too. This left just the speakers. So, it may not be the iMac after all.