How To How do I get my sound working through my DAC? Need some advice!

[Yoran]

Hello everyone,

I'd recently decided I wanted some better audio gear, moving a step up from my Beyerdynamic DT 770's and my Schiit Magni Heresy. I decided on some Hifiman Arya Stealths, with the Topping A70 & D70 Pro's. I got the amp in the mail first, connected it with a mini rca cable directly to my desktop and experienced no problems.

Then the dac came in the mail. Unplugged the mini rca, connected the amp & dac with the topping tcx1 xlr cables and a usb a/c directly into my motherboard. Updated both the amp and dac to the latest versions, got the right driver for the dac, swapped to the right output in the windows playback device section... no sound. Both the amp and dac turn on, screens work, windows recognizes the correct dac and even recognizes there's sound being played through the right playback device. Dac has been set to the right input aswell. I feel like I've tried most things, but I am very new to this.

I must be missing something. Everything else seems to work, everything is recognized, but I'm not hearing anything. Where do I start troubleshooting this issue?

 

[Factualist]

I had a similar issue, not with the same gear. Turned out switching the amp on first, then source then DAC resolved the issue.

 

[Friesiansam]

What software are you using to play music?

 

[Yoran]

What software are you using to play music?

I'm unsure of what you mean; would I need specific software to be able to hear sounds, and then troubleshoot from there? Youtube, Spotify and other software I've tried haven't been able to produce sound so far. Or are you referring to specific drivers software?

 

[Jasonovich]

Have you done the basics in Windows setup? In the sound output option have you selected the Topping DACs?
Sorry if this sounds obvious. I assume you downloaded the Topping USB (ASIO) drivers.

 

[Yoran]

Have you done the basics in Windows setup? In the sound output option have you selected the Topping DACs?
Sorry if this sounds obvious. I assume you downloaded the Topping USB (ASIO) drivers.

View attachment 8293

Haha, no worries at all. I've downloaded the Topping drivers, updated both the amp and dac to their latest firmware and have selected my output device to be 'Topping USB DAC' (this was 'Topping D70 Pro Sabre' before the driver install). Windows recognizes the DAC, there is volume being displayed on the screen of the DAC, I've selected USB on the DAC but the only thing that is missing is sound. I'll try reinstalling the drivers tonight to see if that makes any difference, but I just don't know how to troubleshoot this issue effectively.

If the DAC isn't on, so just the AMP, audio plays fine through Realtek.

 

[Friesiansam]

If you are using the Realtek sound device in your pc, whilst using your external DAC, you are sending the DAC an analogue signal, therefore it cannot do it’s job.

You need to use WASAPI or ASIO drivers to feed the DAC a digital signal via USB.

I use Foobar2000 and the ASIO drivers supplied by Pathos, to send to my headphone amp’s DAC via USB.