Computer audio noise problem

[justrideit]

I have my music on an external hard drive. The computer OS is Windows 7 running on a solid state hard drive. I feed the signal thru a PS Audio Lanrover USB transport to an Ayre Acoustics Codex DAC.

When listening to a file, I hear a sound randomly spaced about every 5 to 10 seconds. The noise sounds like a needle passing thru a dirty spot on a record. It is not a pop. It is a "smear" kind of sound that lasts for a second.

How do I go about finding the source of this problem?

 

[justrideit]

I forgot to mention, I am using JRiver to store and select the files to play.

 

[FileFixer]

I know how that sound. This problem comes from HF from the switching power supply or from bad grounding components. Power supply is not bad but ground into them is not to much good. You can to try another power supply unit or you can to try to rotate power cord for 180 degree into the power plug and see what happen. Copy one audio file into internal SSD and disconnect external HDD then play that music file from internal HDD and see what happen.

 

[FileFixer]

I forgot to mention, I am using JRiver to store and select the files to play.

Disconnect all external devices and play one audio file from internal HDD. What happen?

 

[rwartner]

Strip it down and build it back up. I would remove the Lanrover and DAC. Copy few files to internal hard drive. See if you can isolate the problem.

 

[justrideit]

Thanks for the advice. I plan on looking into this when I get back from vacation.