# Need help fixing distortion **URL:** \ **Category:** Audio Components\ **Tags:** support\ **Created:** [July 30, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557 "2026-07-30T01:02:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vieuxradio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc29f/32.png) [@vieuxradio](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/vieuxradio)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/21 "2026-07-31T15:53:32Z")
flash drive or hard drive? hard drive does that when to fragmented! NaS or Cloud? WiFi or ethernet? ethernet better? microwave? or tool connected to the grid? DC on your electric cable? that clean with demanding music? USB or Optical Spdif? ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/22 "2026-07-31T16:53:12Z")
I don’t know what you mean with everything but I’ll answer to my best abilities: - Flash drive SSD (the internal disk of the Mac Mini) - The Mac is on ethernet but that shouldn’t impact anything bc I’m loading a downloaded file - The electric group is shared with other devices. This may indeed be a (partial) cause I hadn’t considered yet. - I supply AC from the Powerplant into the RME, the RME converts it to DC (I guess), I don’t use DC cables - USB but conditioned with galvanic isolation (Intona 7455-C) and AQ Diamond USB / Curious Cable USB to connect ---
**Author:** ![BruceAB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BruceAB](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/BruceAB)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/23 "2026-07-31T17:14:36Z")
Couldn’t it also be the output stage of the headphone amp, or the headphones themselves? ---
**Author:** ![tomhail](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/tomhail/32/40944_2.png) [@tomhail](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/tomhail)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 6:17pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/24 "2026-07-31T18:17:08Z")
You’ve done an exceptional job describing and troubleshooting the issue. It is curious that it is repeatable and seems isolated to a particular spot in a particular track - thus power disruptions/contamination along with HDD issues etc seem to be ruled out. I’ll be following to see what you discover. ---
**Author:** ![Audioholic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@Audioholic](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/Audioholic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/25 "2026-07-31T18:19:58Z")
Couldn’t the distortion be in the recording itself? ---
**Author:** ![lonson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.psaudio.com/lonson/32/249792_2.png) [@lonson](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/lonson)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/26 "2026-07-31T19:31:41Z")
That was my thought. . . an overloaded microphone perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![vieuxradio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc29f/32.png) [@vieuxradio](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/vieuxradio)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/27 "2026-07-31T20:07:16Z")
macmini, fusion drive? if it’s an old Mac mini the headphone output is also a spdif Optical output? So you have a chance to verify if it does the same thing? Sorry for my comprehension it seems to do this on one song it’s the recording if it does this with all demanding recording then it’s mechanical! Something is not able to keep the pace of the data transfer for the music It happened with fusion Drive on Mac mini ---
**Author:** ![BruceAB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BruceAB](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/BruceAB)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/28 "2026-07-31T23:19:46Z")
It could be except that we’ve been looking at the waveform in that segment of the song and not seeing distortion in it. I posted the waveforms in this post up above. and GavinK posted an oscilloscope capture of the input to the DAC, and it, too, looks distortion free. ---
**Author:** ![vieuxradio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc29f/32.png) [@vieuxradio](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/vieuxradio)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/29 "2026-08-01T17:01:40Z")
by the way I forgot Depending on the amplifier you’re using Some amplifier don’t like the 4 V output of the digital age Back then everything was 2 v So maybe you’re just at the limit of distortion of the input of your pre-amplification! Simple as that Too much in volt ment! (involvement) Makes sense with the loud passage, To high(I) for your Pre-amplification input too i input ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 10:54am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/30 "2026-08-02T10:54:37Z")
There’s a good chance; only way to test that would be to buy a new DAC and a new headphone amp and compare. Perhaps I’ll do that someday, for now that’s a bit beyond my budget. ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 10:56am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/31 "2026-08-02T10:56:56Z")
Thank you very much for the compliment! 🙂 I always try to take small steps and improve as I go, slowly figuring out what does and what doesn’t work. Can’t always trust what’s being said.. I like to try it for myself and see if it works or not, so I have to be very careful not to draw a false conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 10:58am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/32 "2026-08-02T10:58:51Z")
Hmm well yes, it well could be. But then why would Paul McGowan list it as #1 on his playlist, if it has distortion in it? Hard for me to believe. The particular soundwave may just be very hard to accurately convert from digital to analog. It also happens on multiple tracks, not just this one; the Norah Jones track is just the one where the distortion is most (very) present, the other tracks are much more subtle and thus less of an issue overall. ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 11:00am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/33 "2026-08-02T11:00:37Z")
Unfortunately I own a new M4 mac mini so there’s no SPDIF output. ☹ It’s mechanical for sure, there’s multiple tracks where this is an issue. Never considered the data transfer.. I’m considering upgrading to an external SSD so I can store all my massive AIFF files there without clogging the internal SSD memory. But that just seems.. slower? in theory. I’ll keep this in mind. Thanks for all the great pointers thus far! ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 11:02am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/34 "2026-08-02T11:02:48Z")
Hmm well it’s an integrated headphone amp and DAC so that’s really beyond my scope, nothing I can change there. Only way to test is if I would purchase a separate DAC and separate headphone amp, then do a comparison test with RME only, RME + headphone amp, DAC + headphone amp to see. But that would be an expensive test. Maybe some time in the future. ---
**Author:** ![vieuxradio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc29f/32.png) [@vieuxradio](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/vieuxradio)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 11:06am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/35 "2026-08-02T11:06:17Z")
affordable way to test is a Fosi Zh3, cheap reliable and not bad at all! or more cheap, Friend system! go and test there! ---
**Author:** ![vieuxradio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc29f/32.png) [@vieuxradio](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/vieuxradio)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/36 "2026-08-02T14:21:47Z")
ok mac mini! what the midi say? microphone is volume down or inactive (better) this morning, new setup windows and apple! a lot of crash about it for music rendering! ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 2:46pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/37 "2026-08-25T14:46:31Z")
A bit of a bump, but for those interested in following the testing, I have an update. After some consideration and going back and forth with the (excellent) sales rep at Audiophonics, I ended up purchasing a Topping A900 headphone amp. It’s a great amp, as far as I can tell. The distortion has however remained exactly the same! - So it’s most likely the DAC of the RME which is the issue here; I’m assuming it’s the output stage of the DAC, because it’s certainly not the chip (AKM AK4490REQ). Buying a new DAC is 100% out of my budget for now, maybe something for next year. If I end up getting a DAC I will report back here for those interested. Everyone many thanks for the input thus far! P.S. The upgrade from the integrated headphone amp of the RME (an opamp, even though the impedance was very low) was pretty significant. I’m definitely not returning the headphone amp! The whole system handles volume differently; it’s hard to explain in words. It’s as if there are more “steps” in volume, similar to upsampling. At least, that’s the best analogy I can make. ---
**Author:** ![BruceAB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BruceAB](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/BruceAB)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/38 "2026-08-25T20:26:47Z")
GavinK, I’ve been in and out of this discussion thread because I was (am) dealing with distortion on the same Norah Jones album. I still don’t understand why but I have resigned myself to assuming it is baked into the recording. Two possibilities: 1) What you are actually hearing may be a limiter that is squashing down the peaks in a most inelegant manner, or 2) those peaks have been manually edited and not of a natural shape which has resulted in a cleaning looking waveform that sounds like trash. At any rate, on my system which is quite detailed and resolving the peaks are right on the edge of distortion but the rest of the recording is very clean. If that is what you are hearing this could be the answer and I’d blame the recording, but if the distortion is more than the peaks in a few places and heavily distorted in several places I’d continue to look into your equipment for the cause; it would seem probable that the output of something is overloading the next stage in the chain of electronics. As an endnote, I’d like to mention that many recordings that are considered high quality but of the eras 1960s to 1980s suffer from distortion in certain passages. Are you also hearing distortion when you play more recently recorded music? ---
**Author:** ![GavinK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GavinK](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/GavinK)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557/39 "2026-08-25T20:55:47Z")
Hi Bruce, The distortion varies significantly across tracks. For some tracks I have discovered that it is truly baked into the tracks. Yet the Norah Jones album has always been the most interesting to me to test. Perhaps it is in fact in the recording, it’s very well possible. At least it’s not caused by the headphone amplifier; that is “proven” (for my system). I experience similar things to you; the peaks are, in my case pretty heavily, distorted, but the rest of the track sounds perfectly clear. Though honestly, if you really start looking for it, you’ll hear the piano also distort a bit now and then.. sometimes the guitar, sometimes you can even find it in softer vocals. Or maybe I’m going insane, that’s also an option. That said, listening to the track again now as I’m writing this post, the distortion has decreased a tiny bit compared to when I listened this afternoon.. I feel like. Perhaps there’s more to explore. The answer will come some time, some day. Just not soon I’m afraid. [Previous page](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/need-help-fixing-distortion/44557.md?page=1)