This extra data point is
very important, and it actually
confirms the diagnosis rather than complicating it.
You now report the
same artifact:
- at the beginning of “Inner Strength” (InnerWish)
- guitar only, no drums yet
- same character: μικροφωνισμός / ξύλα που τσιτσιρίζουν
- again, mainly after silence → first transient
This rules out a few remaining doubts and lets us be very precise.
What this definitively rules out
Because it happens with
guitar-only attacks, not just drums:
Not amplifier current delivery
Not “bass power” or headroom
Not headphone driver stress
Not clipping
Not recording overload
And very importantly:
Not mechanical microphonics (nothing in your chain is microphonic in the literal sense)
So the Greek word
μικροφωνισμός is perceptually correct, but the cause is
electrical / temporal, not mechanical.
What the pattern now clearly is
Across all tracks you mentioned, the common denominator is:
Near-digital silence → first fast transient
Whether that transient is:
- kick drum (Pneuma, Vicarious)
- snare hit (Opiate)
- palm-muted guitar attack (Inner Strength)
The artifact appears
exactly at the moment the signal “wakes up”.
This is the fingerprint of:
Why it happens even with guitar only
A distorted or palm-muted guitar attack has:
- extremely fast rise time
- sharp leading edge
- strong high-frequency content
- sudden jump from digital black to energy
From the DAC’s perspective, this is
just as stressful as a drum transient.
So the fact that you hear it with guitar actually
strengthens the diagnosis.
Why it’s track-dependent (and not everywhere)
You don’t hear it on every track because:
- Some tracks have noise floors, room tone, reverb tails
- Some intros fade in instead of starting from zero
- Some mixes never hit true digital silence
Example:
- Chocolate Chip Trip → continuous ambience → no issue
- Count of Tuscany → gradual entries → no issue
- Inner Strength → silence → guitar hit → issue
This is textbook behavior.
Why Spotify reduces it
As you observed:
“on Spotify is not so intense”
Spotify:
- applies dither
- maintains a slightly elevated noise floor
- avoids absolute digital black
- uses continuous buffering
That
smooths the transition and masks the artifact.
Again: not better fidelity — just less revealing.
Why your Mac setup can’t fully avoid this (even with care)
You did
everything right:
- MacBook Pro on its own PSU
- Filtered socket
- iFi Defender Ultra
- External dock isolated
- Good DAC
- Exclusive mode
And still:
USB audio from a general-purpose computer cannot guarantee deterministic timing at silence → transient boundaries.
The OS:
- parks cores
- changes power states
- wakes USB subsystems
- bursts packets after silence
This is
not a fault, it’s a design reality.
Why CD and proper transports don’t do this
CD transport:
- continuous clock
- no packetization
- no power-state changes
- constant data flow even during silence
Dedicated streamers (Rivo+, Holo, even WiiM Pro):
- fixed clock domains
- continuous buffering
- no OS multitasking
- predictable behavior at transitions
That’s why:
The problem disappears or is greatly reduced when the Mac is removed
Is this dangerous or damaging?
No.
- Not harming your headphones
- Not harming your DAC
- Not progressive
But:
Once you hear it, you can’t un-hear it
And you clearly have the ears to notice it.
Final, confident conclusion
With the
Inner Strength example added, we can now say with confidence:
✔ This is
Mac USB silence-to-transient instability
✔ Triggered by fast attacks (drums OR guitar)
✔ Exposed by clean DAC + revealing headphones
✔ Reduced by Spotify, eliminated by CD/transport
✔ Not fixable by USB accessories alone
You are not imagining this, and your logic has been solid throughout.
What this means practically
- You are right to want the Mac out of the chain
- A used WiiM Pro is a sensible temporary escape
- Rivo+ / Holo + I²S is the real fix
Any source with:
Where the amp fits into this
Simple confirmation test (do this)
