Ever since I was young, there has been this mystery. Intermittent digital noise, that one day appeared as if from nowhere. For the entirety of my music making years, I have been asking myself: Why one day, did my digital audio go from being immaculately clean, clear and reliable, to noisy, harsh and unreliable? I tried so many different pieces of gear and different ways to set it up. Yet the obvious illuded me. The answer the whole time was USB audio is garbage. THAT was the key. THAT was the change I made when my digital sound went to shit. THAT'S what had changed when the noise issues stated up. I had switched from using optical digital to USB. I can not believe so much time has passed to finally figure out such a simple thing. THAT was the cause of the digital processor noise plaguing my system. Example: http://www.sndup.net/dc2c8

So, if anyone tells you USB audio is clean and reliable, they aren't paying attention.

That recording is processor noise perpetuating through my USB audio. Every computer I have EVER owned, from cheap walmart notebooks, to massively expensive professional towers, have had this issue when using USB for audio. EVERY DAC I've EVER owned, from cheap chinese junk, to massively expensive "end game" gear, have had this issue when using USB for audio.

This type of digital noise is mostly reactive. When ever you move your mouse, open a window, run a program or do ANYTHING actively on a computer, this noise is created in the background and pollutes EVERYTHING connected via USB. From what I can tell, it is an innate design flaw of USB technology and no filters or repeaters I've ever tried, got rid of it. If you have experienced this type of noise problem, switch your audio setup to optical connectivity only. The moment I switched BACK to optical, all my noise issues went away.

If I can help it, I will NEVER use USB for audio EVER again. D:<