For those who use a computer USB input to a headphone Dac/amp, you got check this device out. - Page 3  

 

 

With all due respect mate. I disagree with you.

 

People come here looking for advice on how to spend and get best value for their hard earned cash.

 

If all they ever got to read was was enthusiastic but unsubstantiated personal opinions the forum would soon lose all credibility and therefore value as a reference. 

 

That's how it works. You either have to provide independently verifiable evidence or  expect to receive differing points of view. There is no need to fall out about this. Readers will make up their own minds anyway.

 

I would be very happy to provide you with an opinion on the effect of your gizmo. PM me if you want my address. I undertake to write a full review within 2 weeks of receipt.Thanks for reading.

And yet, the rest of your post is a rebuttal to many comments made in this thread. It is an argument???

I have more than enough offers from those who write for magazines...no thanks.

 

I also offer a 10 day money back minus shipping trial period.

 

What more does one need?

Honest companies who make products and charge reasonable prices for them considering materials and manufacturing cost. That's all anyone is asking for. So many companies do it now, why does one have to be so greedy not to?

I am extremely skeptical of this entire thread at this point. Lizard King claims he's using $1000 USB cables (Which are identical to the cables shown in the picture with a different name shrink wrapped over) with $250 headphones and a $200 DAC/Amp. I call BS.

Ferrite beads / chokes were already mentioned. They just cost a few cents. They are also incorporated in more reasonably priced products.

All I'm saying is get a proper DAC / audio interface instead of a broken one and trying to fix it with this gadget.

 

Another attempt to silence negative comments?

 

Hmm you just linked to an application guide of ferrite beads and chokes that cost a few cents. If I post a link to how to design DACs or how digital audio works do I also automatically have technical knowledge to offer?

Do you have anything to back up the noise filtering claim of your product and how it improves performance of audio interfaces? (other than anecdotes of course...)

Edited by xnor - 2/3/13 at 2:35pm

For me, based on the cost of the parts and the effort involved, $200 for one of these filters is very reasonable.  If one doesn't think the filter is worth that to them, then I'm fine with that.

There are differences to cable that you cannot see - I've had a hand in the design of some of the Ridge Street Audio stuff....that's what is throwing you.

I've never heard of them before. When I saw the product pages and price list I knew why.

There's yet to be a DAC that I've tried the filter with that hasn't benefited.  I think maybe it is because DAC guys are just focused on other things and overlooked this one in the process - maybe, I guessing?  I suppose based on my experience thus far, they all broke, as you would say???

 

One should also appreciate that many, many DACs are nothing more than implementations of the their respective dac chip data sheets - if that's what you meant.

 

Yea, I can see you looking at some chokes, etc. and saying the parts don't add up to much.  But, one must also have the knowledge and skill to know and put it together.  Near as I can tell, I'm the only one to have ever done so in the manner that I have.  Certainly, my labor is worth something?

 

Frankly, in my and most people's opinion once they hear the filter, it is worth much more than $200 sonically.  I wish I could charged based on its sonic merits.

 

Look we can all measure until we're blue in the face - nobody busy audio gear to measure it.  Everyone busy audio gear to listen to music.

 

The measurements in the link sheets - provided one knows how to read them - are more than enough.  Several of you are assuming that USB receiver designers know how to impedance match so the differential data signals see the same relative Z - that ain't the case in my experience!  In contrast, most seem to be schooled more so in software and digital design.  Not the technique of impedance matching at the frequencies involved here, so that a balanced signal results in proper cancellation.  You're assuming something that is supposed to theory does, when in practice, nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Nor, I've been building and designing audio gears for decades....Look me up on the Internet - though I predate that....  

The PDF you linked talks about suppression of radio emission at FM radio / TV broadcast frequencies. These frequencies are already "polluted" by said broadcasts and it seems that DACs don't care about this noise too much.

So please explain one crucial detail - how noise filtering can help in anything but, well, reduction of noise? Many people don't hear any audible noise from their DACs and I think that explaining how exactly inaudible noise can degrade their listening experience would greatly help you in getting new customers.

And as for the reduction of audible noise, there are already significantly cheaper products known to work.

Seriously, I don't get it. Do you mean that USB transceivers make so many noise-induced errors that they can continuously affect the digital audio data transmitted over USB?
Edited by mich41 - 2/3/13 at 3:04pm

Mich41, I'll take the last thing you said, then I'm gonna watch some football with my son....

 

No where ever did I ever say it effected the digital data - you added that, not me.

 

If you really wanna get a feel for this take and probe around in your dac with your spectrum analyzer.  You'd be shocked!!!

 

It isn't so much the noise changing the digital data as it is the noise running all over and getting into the analog stuff.  That's where the harm comes.  Again, you'd be amazed....