I really DOUBT it's the USB cables now but if you can find a KNOWN good one by all means try it. Also I suspect you do NOT need that $60 USB thingamabob (yet). And as Mac mentioned it could be a bad audio cable (broken/unconnected shield letting EMI/RF like noise bleed in)

USB and USB cable isn’t like XLR, low impedance guitar, home theater audio, or any other braided analog cable - it's for DIGITAL signals, it doesn't carry analog anything. It carries four signals:
+5VDC, + data, - data, and ground


USB cable thickness is not a useful metric here ut it DOES need to have an unbroken shield to keep artifacts/EMI out of nearby analog signals, etc.

Something else is going on here if not firmware SNAFU (why don't you upgrade or even just redo firmware update), sample rate mismatch, etc. then it COULD be, but this is all speculation now so just thinking out loud, possibly an actual trace break/crack inside unit; or the USB jack inside the unit or OTHER issue inside unit probably right where all the physical strains are at "backplane."

Last edited by Larry Kehl; 01/21/14 06:36 PM. Reason: typos and new useless thought