I had a similar experience - a surprising amount of hiss being heard emanating from the SB3 analog outputs compared to my CD player's analog outputs. I would guess the difference was about 15 dB. This was evident when turning my preamp volume control up to about 12 o'clock - a position that is never used in normal usage. The noise was definitely not white either, and had an odd tonal quality to it. I replaced the provided 5VDC psu with a linear supply, and the noise floor improved slightly, and became white. I had intended for a while to get an external DAC, so I went ahead and did that: the first one I tried was the LiTe DAC 68 which I returned on a 30-day trail - I hated it. The next DAC I got was the VDA-2 DAC from Channel Islands Audio. Needless to say - I love it. I connect the SB3 to the VDA-2 with a Sonicwave glass toslink. The noise floor is now what it should be - gone. A coax connection gave the same results. My summation is that the DAC inside the SB3 is not the world's best.
-- Ron F. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ron F.'s Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5616 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28514 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
