USB Nervosa Thread Decrapifiers, pro interfaces, and bears oh my

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by zerodeefex, Sep 28, 2015.

  1. Chris1967

    Chris1967 Friend

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    I understand your viewpoint, i just mentioned it because it works for me, and for a few other friends here in Greece.

    It has been used (on a friends system) together with the Mutec interface and provides a very noticeable improvement to the better.

    I am not an advocate of usb or spdif, either may work fine depending on the implementation. I do not agree that spdif is superior in all cases.

    All these things make some or other difference, it is (as far as i can see) a matter of proportion to the cost and amount of detail of any given system that it is used with. The combination with the Mutec interface is in a four figure system, and the power supplies, ethernet and usb cabling etc are cost wise far beyond the cost calculations i read above. And so is the improvement according to the owner.

    Sales of this product are quite large (considering the size of this small company) in Asia by the way, that is what the designer tells me.

    I just wanted to tell you there is this product AS well, nothing more nothing less.
     
  2. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Reclocking USB audio does not help. Cannot help. It's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of not being a doofus and understanding how things work.
     
  3. Chris1967

    Chris1967 Friend

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    You may call me any names you like, i don't mind at all. I have seen from your answers to posts that you have a very strong (to put it mildly) viewpoint on many matters.

    I am, and not going to be intimidated by you, and i will always post my findings.

    I don't care what you think about recklockers they make and audible difference, and i have heard this on my system and on my friends systems.
     
  4. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    You know USB audio is asynchronous and is buffered then clocked out from the receiver, which would negate any fine temporal relationship between the packets on the USB bus, right? This is not about personalities, merely magical thinking which can mislead people into wasting their money.

    There are some interventions which can help, like filtering/isolating/replacing vbus*, but re-clocking itself is like painting the cable with red nail varnish to make the music happier. The only clock quality which matters with USB audio is in the receiver.

    No improvement is attributable to "reclocking". ever.


    * Which loads of stuff does, including maybe the thing you linked. However, since your link yielded a 404, it's necessary to guess.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2018
  5. Chris1967

    Chris1967 Friend

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    I think you should read less and listen more.
     
  6. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    This thread needs to stay open so we can keep all this garbage out of the rest of the conversation on the site.
     
  7. winders

    winders boomer

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    Yes, USB audio is asynchronous and is buffered then clocked out from the receiver. You might as well argued that bits are bits and no cable or device should never ever make a difference. Yet they do.

    What you are not taking into account is that any extra work done by the receiving USB PHY in a DAC may result is extra noise from that USB PHY contaminating the D to A process in the DAC. So, a crappy USB signal fed to a DAC might sound not as good as a quality signal.

    How much contamination? Who knows. I don't even know how we would measure it.
     
  8. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I was actually waiting for that particular bit of poorly-quantified handwaving :cool:

    Search back in this thread- before it drove him to the point of headdesk, the late lamented Torq dealt with that better than I ever could.



    (I love how Schiit have too much integrity to claim that the Wyrd achieves anything real beyond cleaning up power a bit, incidentally. That is rare in the world of hifi, as the masses are all Fox Mulder up in the motherfucker- they want to believe.)
     
  9. Darren G

    Darren G Friend

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    Ah well, the Eitr checks any potential nervousa (or real) boxes for me.

    Ground isolation? Check
    VCC isolation? Check
    Move mysterious USB processing outside of the DAC? Check
    Well clocked SPDIF stream into the DAC? Check

    Oh and if you ever do swap DACs, and doubt the DACs USB implementation, that is covered too, so long as it has COAX SPDIF in.
     
  10. Dotard

    Dotard Acquaintance

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    Thanks for the advice. I may just use the Mutec MC1.2 as it doesn't contain a reclocker and seems to have some flexibility with digital signals bouncing around.

    The speakers are an esoteric model which is almost embarrassingly low fi. They have some sentimental value so I find it hard to let them go, even as they cause these kinds of toslink troubles in my set up.
     
  11. Mystic

    Mystic Mystique's Spiritual Advisor

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    Any recommendations for a cheap PCI USB card that is powered by the PSU? I've got Gen 5 USB, just want a better USB output to it rather than the shitty ones on my PC.
     
  12. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I've got an Lynx AES16 and breakout cable you could have for cheap. Both are sitting in a box collecting dust.
     
  13. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Can it be pcie or does it have to be pci? I bought a rather inexpensive Startech USB 3.0 pcie card that is a slight step up over my built in usb 2 and 3 ports. It cannot run a dvd drive or even usb 3 stick though just my dac.
     
  14. Mystic

    Mystic Mystique's Spiritual Advisor

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    PCI-E works yes.
     
  15. bixby

    bixby Friend

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  16. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    I recently purchased a Sonnet Allegro PCIe USB card. I got the Pro version with 4 independent controllers for just over $100. There's a version for a little under half the price with one controller (still 4 ports).

    I got it for two reasons:
    • RME recommended it on their forums because it has nice Fresco chips
    • I needed USB with better latency for my guitar using a Focusrite Scarlett
    The Pro version works perfectly for me because I can use my ADI-2 DAC alongside my Scarlett and an external NAS hard drive enclosure, all using their own controllers and not disturbing or being disturbed by other devices.

    I can now use the minimum buffer with my DAC and my audio interface!

    I guess USB isn't dead to me. Thanks RME and Schiit.
     
  17. jdev

    jdev New

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    That card doesn't have a jumper to allow you to disable the power to the ports. All the big boy DACs don't need it, and it can get in the way. Even worse, that power is drawn from the motherboard, not directly from the PSU.

    I got a cheapo Rosewill that has a SATA power connector that I leave unplugged. The data transmits just fine without the unnecessary power noise. Can you disable the power on the JCAT? I think on the old 1.1 you can but not the new one.
     
  18. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Yggdrasil does, all gen 5 Schiit usb boards do.
     
  19. Grahad2

    Grahad2 Red eyes from too much anime

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    The PCIe slot itself supplies power. The controller chips don't run on hopes and wishes.
     
  20. jdev

    jdev New

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    Right, but the 5V power rail travelling through the cable is disabled?
     

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