Apollo Twin Hardware Issue - Constant Static on Playback

  • So I think I've narrowed down my poor playback issues to it likely being a hardware issue at the interface:/.......For all the Apollo Twin thunderbolt owners out there, has anyone had to troubleshoot constant poor playback issues? At first I was getting static filled playback in the DAW, regardless of SPDIF vs. analog tracking. BTW, monitoring from KPA through the interface sounds amazing (clean, no static, I'm definitely not recording/playing back a poor signal). I then completely turned off the KPA and DAW, leaving only the computer and Apollo on and tinkering w/ the windows sound settings.


    After triple checking that both the playback and recording devices were defaulted to the Apollo Twin, I clicked the "test" button, where windows gives a nice little stereo jingle to confirm the device is working. 100% of the time, when I hit the "test" button to play the windows jingle through the Apollo, it plays back static filled. When I switch the default device back to the stock audio driver on the computer, it plays the jingle clean, no static/distortion. This occurs w/ Apollo playback both through headphones and studio monitors.


    When I adjust the buffer size in UA console, the lowest setting produces the most severe static on windows playback, while the highest setting improves the static tremendously, however does not completely eliminate it. Triple checked the sample rates of the windows/DAW/KPA and everyone is @ 44.1 khz, also updated KPA firmware to most current. Windows sound settings are saying that all Apollo drivers are current and functioning properly. I also did a hard reset of the interface per owners manual specification (hold down multiple buttons, then switch on - red lights flash repeatedly) and the problem still persisted.


    I spoke w/ UA this morning, and they're requesting I send them a few reports from my PC regarding system info and latency. I will do this asap. They also mentioned simply swapping out the thunderbolt cable. I'm currently using a brand new cable but it could still be the issue, I will also try to uninstall/reinstall the UAD software.They did confirm that I was using the recommended thunderbolt adapter for my computer as well.


    Anyone else have a similar experience setting up their Apollo Twin on a PC? Thanks again.


    Hardware

    KPA power rack

    Apollo twin mkii thunderbolt - w/ thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 1 adapter (Startech)

    Dell G5 laptop - windows 10


    Software

    Cubase 9.5

    UA Console