[FredA]

ahh ok, I was going to sell you mine but thats cool. Either way i'm sure my industrial version will sell pretty quickly. This thing does work for systems that need it. I just have a rediculously low noise system. 

Yeah i figured you would sell it quicky on headfi or CA. I waited for 24 hours but then i read in this thread you were to offer it to friends on the 30th, or something like this, i placed my order.

Just could not wait anymore. I waited for more than 2 weeks in fact.

My system sounded a bit crappie for the last 48 hours, it contributed to making me pull the trigger. Tonight, it's back to normal: quite awesome.

The Intona makes sense using a mac mini computer, with which you are stuck with noisy usb ports...Next computer will probably be one of those fanless mini pc, running linux, powered by the 3 voltage teradak, with possible use of a Paul Pang usb card. Then maybe i won't need the intona anymore.

If ever you decide to not keep your breeze, i might get it, with the Crysteks in of course... This little thing sounds so good that i believe if you try it (with crysteks) though i2s on your M11, your are gonna sell your Gustard. For that, i would recommend the 6-inch cable2go cat6a cable on amazon. Both the M7 and M11 sound better using i2s. And probably with pll off ( i would have to put it back on to make sure this applies as well with the breeze in, as it the case with the di2014).

 

[rb2013]

Well, i'm going to put the Intona up for sale, the teddy pardo, and 3 of the 4 ddc's( will know in 2weeks).

And the PPAV2 isn't really nearly as good at the V3, but I suppose it's not too shabby either. But if you're in that price range, i'd go with the volent usb card.
http://www.volent.com.hk/?page_id=632

That card looks pretty interesting. Is your Teddy 5vdc?

 

[bimmer100]

I almost ordered one of those USB cards. It's spec'd nicely for the price!
And the teddy is the newest model @360something usd plus shipping. But would likely sell if for a bit less. Albeit it's not more than a couple months old. It's the 5V model with 2.5mm DC cable.

 

[mainaman]

Is it better to invest in an Intona or a fancy USB card?I guess the former.I can't afford both and my PC is a quite noisy.

 

[FredA]

I

Is it better to invest in an Intona or a fancy USB card?I guess the former.I can't afford both and my PC is a quite noisy.

If you have a groud loop, you need the intona or some sort of galavanic isolation if you cannot get rid of it otherwise. I like external devices because they cannot be contaminated with the rfi and emi that are strongly present inside a pc. Seems however that you need a usb reclocker after the intona, like the regen, and a fancy psu to power it, to get the best results. I will try to comfirm this by using the intona with and without the wyrd after it. I will also try with and without a jitterbug inside an unused port.

The best bang for the buck seems in favor of the usb card but it does not fix a ground loop, to this day.

Note that using an intona at the output of a fancy usb card defeats its pupose because of its not as good a reclocker. That being said, the results depend also on the usb receiver's clocking.

In practice, you might be surprised by the results you get because of impedence matching, shielding and possibly other factors. The usb cables you choose will matter as well.

 

[bimmer100]

I'm having second thoughts now. I was quick to jump to conclusions I suppose. After extensive testing of lots of my well known music collection. I've finally distinguished not just a difference but a subtle improvement. I had to admit i'm not hearing things either. It's just simply not something dramatic in my system. I'm happy it's not a step sideways or backwards.
The area i'm hearing improvement in specifically is the higher tones, approximately somewhere around 7-9khz. Percentage wise, 3-5%. It's just a touch cleaner/smoother in this area of my music. Not all music i'm able to hear these improvements clearly. So is it still worth the upgrade? That's a matter of opinion. I think I will be hanging on to this til the end of the month and testing more setups with this intona. A local guy who owns a known ultra noisy laptop is wanting to do some testing to see if this device fixes his issues. I'm not doubting it will. 
But last night I was considering selling this and using the money towards something else. It's hard to justify such a small change and a large price. This would totally be justified if my system could take advantage of this, if it were noisy... it's simply not having ground plan issues, EMI/RF etc.
 

 
 
 
 
My PC spec's are not quite audio grade, but a nice mix between a gaming machine that remains audibly very quiet yet is quiet in electrical noise for audio grade type use. I will eventually have an LHLabs Geek Souce 1tb SSD / 1.2Ghz ARM Cortex-A9 Quad Core / 4G Ram / 2Gflash for OS / with fanless design, triple femto clocks (even usb3.0), Ultra Low ESR Power cap upgrade +Power Cap upgrade Plus (high speed PPS bypass power caps). I think the Source will be an ideal music server for my gear at a later date.
 
For now I will be using my PC as my audio server
Specs are as follows:
 
SOFTWARE OS + AUDIO:
OS Windows 8.1 professional 64bit  / Jriver Media Center 21 / Darin Fongs Out of Your Head
 
GENERAL BUILD:
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO 2
*Asus Rampage IV Black Edition Motherboard X79
*Intel 4820K Ivy-E @ 4.5ghz - bus speed remains at stock 100mhz for audio stability (usb ocxo clock speed is 100mhz)
*Corsair Dominator Platinum 16gb 1866mhz (blue/white light bars installed to go with color theme)
 
STORAGE OVERVIEW:
Samsung evo 1tb SSD - 850 EVO (music drive) 
Samsung evo 1tb SSD - 840 EVO (OS drive)
Samsung 830 240gb for games
Samsung T1 500gb SSD portable music drive for audio meets
 
Mechanical Archaic drives (5 total)
4Drive NAS Tower includes: 
(2) Samsung F3 1Tb each 
(1) WD20EURS-73TLHY0 2TB 64mb cache - video storage
(1) HGST Deskstar 4TB (HDS724040ALE640)
external enclosed - WD Book My Book Pro 1.5tb
 
COOLING SYSTEM: 
ALL EKWB Custom Water Cooling - Indigo Extreme -  EKWB Extreme CPU waterblock, GPU Classy Water Block, R4BE Water Blocks. - EK-DDC 3.1PWM EK-UNI Holder DDC Spider - Ice Dragon Cooling NanoFluid - over 50 pieces of solid nickel fittings of various types/angles/extensions for ideal setup.
(2)EK-Vardar F3-120 (1850rpm) High Performance Liquid Cooling Fan (EK-CoolStream PE 240 (Dual) Radiator)
(2) SilenX 15 db exhaust fans (EFX-08-15B)
(1) Noctua NF-F12 iPPC-2000 PWM Fan with Focused Flow™ and SSO2 Bearing for Rear 120mm Radiator (EKWB EK-CoolStream PE 120 (Single) Water-Cooling Radiator)
 
AUDIO OVERVIEW HEADFI/HIFI:
DAC: 
Audio-GD Master 11 w/ 6db gain stage upgrade + Hdmi i2s input + 3M EMI Absorber AB5050S film added to many IC's, between R-Core Transformers and front panel Output connections / DSP, many specific areas for potential noise. Noise reduction caps for all unused XLR, RCA, Coax etc
 
CANS/MICS HEADFI: 
*HifiMan HEX/Norne Audio Draug2 cable XLR 4pin balanced
*HD800/Norne Audio Draug2 cable XLR 4pin balanced 
*Senneheiser G4ME ZER0/Custom hard wired Norne Audio Skoll cable w/ separate occ silver litz cable for microphone)  6.3mm SE for headphones and 3.5mm for mic
*OPPO PM3's/Norne Audio Zoetic cable XLR 4pin balanced 
*Antlion ModMic 4.0 
 
SPEAKERS HIFI:
Vanatoo Transparent One HIFI Speakers + Definitive SuperCube 2000 subwoofer - Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 Double-Shielded Low Capacitance Subwoofer Cable - Audio Sensibility Silver SE Digital Coax RCA 
 
VIDEO /  DISPLAY :
EVGA 780TI kingpin edition - EKWB 780gtx Ti classy waterblock -nickel
Dual Stack monitor stand
Base: Asus Swift 27" G-Sync Monitor pg278q
Top: LG Ultra wide 25" monitor (above the asus on dual mount stand)
 
OTHER STUFF:
Aquacomputing MCU controlled LED Lighting:
Apple Ipad mini 3 128gb for remote control of Jriver and mounted on flexible stand attached to desk.
 
POWER RELATED components:
Corsair AX1200 Gold 1200watt psu (ultra low ripple for smps / USB 5VSB - 5.6mV-7.2mV in load I use) 
Pangea AC-14SE power cord -Cryo'd
Paul Pang V3 USB OCXO PCIE card - Paul Haynes SR3 5v powered - fine silver dc cable
 
The typical general specifications for the SR3 unit are  (specs beat most other LPS/batteries like Teddy Pardo, Mojo etc)
4 times lower noise than lead acid gel batteries and around half the noise of an LiO4 battery.
Less than 30uV of peak to peak noise/ripple
Less than 0.2 uS transient response and settling time from zero to full output
Up to 2.5A continuous, 10 amps transient
Output stage bolted to chassis for heat dissipation
Low ESR energy storage and filtering.
Floating output to avoid ground loops
(hynes Sr3 5v specs finished)
 
Internal PC power filtration devices:
Eifidelity Sata Power Filter for each SSD (all internal drives are filtered SSD's, no mechanical drives)
Elfidelity PC HI-FI Power Filter card PCI/PCI-E HiFi PC audio power purification - PCIe
Eifidelity PC power fan filter (5 of them... yes, 5!  one for water pump, front fans, exhaust fans)
External drives are in a 4 drive NAS tower and smps on another circuit than my audio gear.
 
Power layout:
 
separate
CyberPower Sinewave UPS - 900watt - CP1500PFCLCD to power PC Alone and ACInfinity SR9 fans for audio gear air circulation (usb powered from front panel of ups) 
 
separate
external NAS drives and WD book drive on another circuit/outlet + Laser printer + Lamp on same circuit
 
separate
PSAudio P300 (balanced AC power that is also Regenerated into pure sinewave) for 
Paul Hynes SR3 5V <SR3 powered by modded-Pangea AC14-SE Cyro'd cable>  direction of flow(SR3>PPA3>LHlabs 2g split cable>Intona>supra 1m cable>U12
Gustard U12/Teradak DC30w 7v (DC30w powered with Synergistic Research Tesla T1 cable) direction of flow (U12>HDMI i2s DHLabs SilverSonic .5meter cable > M11)
AGD-Master-11 (powered by Modded PSaudio Lab Cable 6-gauge!!!, 1057-strand copper, SonarQuest Silver plated red copper connectors, Cryo'd) All cables treated with Caig Pro Gold DeoxIT 
 
separate
Brick Wall 8 outlet audio grade surge protector 
Vanatoo T1's, SuperCube2000
 
PERSONAL USE: 
Aluminum Foil Hat
 
 
but honestly, with as much crap as I have installed in one area, I would think I would have a little more noise going on that would leak into my gear. Apparently not much at all. I'm pretty happy to say that. Usually the simple approach gives the best results. Oddly most laptops i've heard are the noisiest sources for audio. I think the Intona would likely benefit these type of machines the most. Especially if you are plugged into the charger for the laptop. Battery power is likely more quiet. OR, invest in a fancy Linear Power Supply for your laptop. Which I honeslty don't know much about since my laptop is used for CAD graphics only, no audio purposes. 
 
For those who ordered the Intona and had excellent results, could you share the specifics of your system and why you think it made a difference specifically?

 

[FredA]

  I'm having second thoughts now. I was quick to jump to conclusions I suppose. After extensive testing of lots of my well known music collection. I've finally distinguished not just a difference but a subtle improvement. I had to admit i'm not hearing things either. It's just simply not something dramatic in my system. I'm happy it's not a step sideways or backwards.
The area i'm hearing improvement in specifically is the higher tones, approximately somewhere around 7-9khz. Percentage wise, 3-5%. It's just a touch cleaner/smoother in this area of my music. Not all music i'm able to hear these improvements clearly. So is it still worth the upgrade? That's a matter of opinion. I think I will be hanging on to this til the end of the month and testing more setups with this intona. A local guy who owns a known ultra noisy laptop is wanting to do some testing to see if this device fixes his issues. I'm not doubting it will. 
But last night I was considering selling this and using the money towards something else. It's hard to justify such a small change and a large price. This would totally be justified if my system could take advantage of this, if it were noisy... it's simply not having ground plan issues, EMI/RF etc.
 

 
 
 
 
My PC spec's are not quite audio grade, but a nice mix between a gaming machine that remains audibly very quiet yet is quiet in electrical noise for audio grade type use. I will eventually have an LHLabs Geek Souce 1tb SSD / 1.2Ghz ARM Cortex-A9 Quad Core / 4G Ram / 2Gflash for OS / with fanless design, triple femto clocks (even usb3.0), Ultra Low ESR Power cap upgrade +Power Cap upgrade Plus (high speed PPS bypass power caps). I think the Source will be an ideal music server for my gear at a later date.
 
For now I will be using my PC as my audio server
Specs are as follows:
 
SOFTWARE OS + AUDIO:
OS Windows 8.1 professional 64bit  / Jriver Media Center 21 / Darin Fongs Out of Your Head
 
GENERAL BUILD:
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO 2
*Asus Rampage IV Black Edition Motherboard X79
*Intel 4820K Ivy-E @ 4.5ghz - bus speed remains at stock 100mhz for audio stability (usb ocxo clock speed is 100mhz)
*Corsair Dominator Platinum 16gb 1866mhz (blue/white light bars installed to go with color theme)
 
STORAGE OVERVIEW:
Samsung evo 1tb SSD - 850 EVO (music drive) 
Samsung evo 1tb SSD - 840 EVO (OS drive)
Samsung 830 240gb for games
Samsung T1 500gb SSD portable music drive for audio meets
 
Mechanical Archaic drives (5 total)
4Drive NAS Tower includes: 
(2) Samsung F3 1Tb each 
(1) WD20EURS-73TLHY0 2TB 64mb cache - video storage
(1) HGST Deskstar 4TB (HDS724040ALE640)
external enclosed - WD Book My Book Pro 1.5tb
 
COOLING SYSTEM: 
ALL EKWB Custom Water Cooling - Indigo Extreme -  EKWB Extreme CPU waterblock, GPU Classy Water Block, R4BE Water Blocks. - EK-DDC 3.1PWM EK-UNI Holder DDC Spider - Ice Dragon Cooling NanoFluid - over 50 pieces of solid nickel fittings of various types/angles/extensions for ideal setup.
(2)EK-Vardar F3-120 (1850rpm) High Performance Liquid Cooling Fan (EK-CoolStream PE 240 (Dual) Radiator)
(2) SilenX 15 db exhaust fans (EFX-08-15B)
(1) Noctua NF-F12 iPPC-2000 PWM Fan with Focused Flow™ and SSO2 Bearing for Rear 120mm Radiator (EKWB EK-CoolStream PE 120 (Single) Water-Cooling Radiator)
 
AUDIO OVERVIEW HEADFI/HIFI:
DAC: 
Audio-GD Master 11 w/ 6db gain stage upgrade + Hdmi i2s input + 3M EMI Absorber AB5050S film added to many IC's, between R-Core Transformers and front panel Output connections / DSP, many specific areas for potential noise. Noise reduction caps for all unused XLR, RCA, Coax etc
 
CANS/MICS HEADFI: 
*HifiMan HEX/Norne Audio Draug2 cable XLR 4pin balanced
*HD800/Norne Audio Draug2 cable XLR 4pin balanced 
*Senneheiser G4ME ZER0/Custom hard wired Norne Audio Skoll cable w/ separate occ silver litz cable for microphone)  6.3mm SE for headphones and 3.5mm for mic
*OPPO PM3's/Norne Audio Zoetic cable XLR 4pin balanced 
*Antlion ModMic 4.0 
 
SPEAKERS HIFI:
Vanatoo Transparent One HIFI Speakers + Definitive SuperCube 2000 subwoofer - Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 Double-Shielded Low Capacitance Subwoofer Cable - Audio Sensibility Silver SE Digital Coax RCA 
 
VIDEO /  DISPLAY :
EVGA 780TI kingpin edition - EKWB 780gtx Ti classy waterblock -nickel
Dual Stack monitor stand
Base: Asus Swift 27" G-Sync Monitor pg278q
Top: LG Ultra wide 25" monitor (above the asus on dual mount stand)
 
OTHER STUFF:
Aquacomputing MCU controlled LED Lighting:
Apple Ipad mini 3 128gb for remote control of Jriver and mounted on flexible stand attached to desk.
 
POWER RELATED components:
Corsair AX1200 Gold 1200watt psu (ultra low ripple for smps / USB 5VSB - 5.6mV-7.2mV in load I use) 
Pangea AC-14SE power cord -Cryo'd
Paul Pang V3 USB OCXO PCIE card - Paul Haynes SR3 5v powered - fine silver dc cable
 
The typical general specifications for the SR3 unit are  (specs beat most other LPS/batteries like Teddy Pardo, Mojo etc)
4 times lower noise than lead acid gel batteries and around half the noise of an LiO4 battery.
Less than 30uV of peak to peak noise/ripple
Less than 0.2 uS transient response and settling time from zero to full output
Up to 2.5A continuous, 10 amps transient
Output stage bolted to chassis for heat dissipation
Low ESR energy storage and filtering.
Floating output to avoid ground loops
(hynes Sr3 5v specs finished)
 
Internal PC power filtration devices:
Eifidelity Sata Power Filter for each SSD (all internal drives are filtered SSD's, no mechanical drives)
Elfidelity PC HI-FI Power Filter card PCI/PCI-E HiFi PC audio power purification - PCIe
Eifidelity PC power fan filter (5 of them... yes, 5!  one for water pump, front fans, exhaust fans)
External drives are in a 4 drive NAS tower and smps on another circuit than my audio gear.
 
Power layout:
 
separate
CyberPower Sinewave UPS - 900watt - CP1500PFCLCD to power PC Alone and ACInfinity SR9 fans for audio gear air circulation (usb powered from front panel of ups) 
 
separate
external NAS drives and WD book drive on another circuit/outlet + Laser printer + Lamp on same circuit
 
separate
PSAudio P300 (balanced AC power that is also Regenerated into pure sinewave) for 
Paul Hynes SR3 5V <SR3 powered by modded-Pangea AC14-SE Cyro'd cable>  direction of flow(SR3>PPA3>LHlabs 2g split cable>Intona>supra 1m cable>U12
Gustard U12/Teradak DC30w 7v (DC30w powered with Synergistic Research Tesla T1 cable) direction of flow (U12>HDMI i2s DHLabs SilverSonic .5meter cable > M11)
AGD-Master-11 (powered by Modded PSaudio Lab Cable 6-gauge!!!, 1057-strand copper, SonarQuest Silver plated red copper connectors, Cryo'd) All cables treated with Caig Pro Gold DeoxIT 
 
separate
Brick Wall 8 outlet audio grade surge protector 
Vanatoo T1's, SuperCube2000
 
PERSONAL USE: 
Aluminum Foil Hat
 
 
but honestly, with as much crap as I have installed in one area, I would think I would have a little more noise going on that would leak into my gear. Apparently not much at all. I'm pretty happy to say that. Usually the simple approach gives the best results. Oddly most laptops i've heard are the noisiest sources for audio. I think the Intona would likely benefit these type of machines the most. Especially if you are plugged into the charger for the laptop. Battery power is likely more quiet. OR, invest in a fancy Linear Power Supply for your laptop. Which I honeslty don't know much about since my laptop is used for CAD graphics only, no audio purposes. 
 
For those who ordered the Intona and had excellent results, could you share the specifics of your system and why you think it made a difference specifically?

That is quite a setup! If you can replace all this, I am not saying you can, by an Intona, it must be the deal of the century. Looking forward to receiving mine after this feedback from you.
 
Thanks very much. Wait a bit more. The Intona has high quality parts in it, it might still improve.

 

[motberg]

Hi bimmer100,
 
As you can see from my earlier post, with the Intona I also initially noticed the cleaning of the highs, then the soundstage deepening, then added bass definition. One thing you can listen for is intelligibility of lyrics.. For me, the improvement on the bass is presented as if the song has been remixed or remastered.. not necessarily sharper or deeper bass, things just sound more like what I would expect to hear during making a mix - - with substantial noticeable definition between the bass elements such as kick drum and bass guitar and synth lines..
 
I think you may be surprised to find that your OS could be holding back the potential of your current source... my guess is even a laptop on batteries using Windows server in core mode and Audiophile Optimizer would be a major improvement over Win 8 and JRiver (though you can keep JRiver with A/O if you like). 
 
As an example.... prior to my current custom computer listed in the earlier post, I was using a nice Dell XPS i5, 4GB, SSD laptop with WinServer and A/O.. when I first switched to the new server with WinServer but in GUI and no A/O...  I was surprised there was not a greater difference from the laptop.. then installed A/O and changed to core in the new computer - wow... back into audiophile territory and the investment in the new server now was evidently worth every penny...
 
The A/O writer is working on a Win10 version I believe... you may want to consider checking on that as an option to spending big bucks on a new dedicated source...
 
Saludos!

 

[FredA]

Got my intona tonight. Still brand-new.

Tried a few combinations, but not easy with the intona having its input on opposite side to its output...

1. cheap 6-inch usb cable into the intona into best usb cable into breeze:

Very airy sound, Better highs, better imaging but where is the medium, where is low medium, bass impact?

2 Straitghwire usb replacing cheap 6-inch cable: the bass it back for the most part, still lacking some medium. My guess is the cheap usb cable had too much resistance to feed the intona properly. The rest is the same as in 1.

3. Guessing the intona likes clean and abundant 5v, i try: jitterbug into 6-inch cable into schiit wyrd into staightwire usb link into intona into ab-system mkii usb cable into breeeze:

Same sound as with my original setup (same setup without usb link and intona) but darker background and cleaner high, bringing better spatiality, more depth. And the cymbals sound very well. Not a big difference, to sum it up, but noticeable.

To early to fully appreciate the improvment especially with my hearing not being 100%, having caught the flew at the end of last week.

And it will most likely improve. It's promising.

One thing i notice now, the sound is more laid back, the drums are farther away, which is a very good thing.

It is also good to note that combination 1 was radically different from my original sound, indicating something wrong.

 

[rb2013]

Got my intona tonight. Still brand-new.

Tried a few combinations, but not easy with the intona having its input on opposite side to its output...

1. cheap 6-inch usb cable into the intona into best usb cable into breeze:

Very airy sound, Better highs, better imaging but where is the medium, where is low medium, bass impact?

2 Straitghwire usb replacing cheap 6-inch cable: the bass it back for the most part, still lacking some medium. My guess is the cheap usb cable had too much resistance to feed the intona properly. The rest is the same as in 1.

3. Guessing the intona likes clean and abundant 5v, i try: jitterbug into 6-inch cable into schiit wyrd into staightwire usb link into intona into ab-system mkii usb cable into breeeze:

Same sound as with my original setup (same setup without usb link and intona) but darker background and cleaner high, bringing better spatiality, more depth. And the cymbals sound very well. Not a big difference, to sum it up, but noticeable.

To early to fully appreciate the improvment especially with my hearing not being 100%, having caught the flew at the end of last week.

And it will most likely improve. It's promising.

One thing i notice now, the sound is more laid back, the drums are farther away, which is a very good thing.

It is also good to note that combination 1 was radically different from my original sound, indicating something wrong.

Interesting - would say it's worth the $250 (I believe you bought the Std version)?  You should try another DXIO

 

[FredA]

Interesting - would say it's worth the $250 (I believe you bought the Std version)?  You should try another DXIO

Yes, standard version. After a few hours of burning and my hearing getting a little better, i can say it is worth the money at this point. The soundstage is getting better and better. Piano attacks are excellent and the piano as a whole is very clean. Ambiance cues are clearer. Everything is cleaner. Cymbals are getting impressive, with strong attacks and nice decays. I will post again tomorrow or the day after. I will try combinations again. This thing needs burning time. Quite impressive at this point.

Those guys on the phasure (best dac on the planet) forum are raving about the intona. I am starting to see why. If it keeps improving, and works as well on its own as with a reclocking device feeding clean 5v, i would say it's a no brainer. At least in a setup like mine. Adding a wyrd or a lps (with split cable) would not be a big concern, it's cheap enough.

Why "another" DXIO?

 

[mainaman]

According to its creator:
 
-it has two FPGAs built in and it does RECLOCKING. It also has a proprietary DC-DC converter followed by a ADP125 ultra-low-noise linear voltage regulator.
-it has a SiLabs MEMS oscillator, with measured Jitter around 2ps.
 
So does it really benefit from additional filtering and reclocking before its input and/or after its output?Why an Wyrd as well?Overkill?If you don't want to use the USB input of the DAC,pair it with the Breeze or whatever,but more devices?Just curious,i am not arguing with anybody here.
 
 
And is there a real benefit to have a setup like this:
 
Audiophile PC(Audiophile Optimizer,audiophile case,i7,LPS,audiophile USB card,etc.)---iUSB3.0---Intona-Mutec MC-3+---DAC

 

[FredA]

According to its creator:

[COLOR=333333]-it has two FPGAs built in and it does RECLOCKING. It also has a proprietary DC-DC converter followed by a ADP125 ultra-low-noise linear voltage regulator.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]-it has a [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]SiLabs MEMS oscillator, with measured [/COLOR]Jitter[COLOR=333333] around 2ps.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]So does it really benefit from additional filtering and reclocking before its input and/or after its output?Why an Wyrd as well?Overkill?If you don't want to use the USB input of the DAC,pair it with the Breeze or whatever,but more devices?Just curious,i am not arguing with anybody here.[/COLOR]


[COLOR=333333]And is there a real benefit to have a setup like this:[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Audiophile PC(Audiophile Optimizer,audiophile case,i7,LPS,audiophile USB card,etc.)---iUSB3.0---Intona-Mutec MC-3+---DAC[/COLOR]

If the reclocking is really as good as stated, then there is not much point in using reclockimg downstream, Maybe a regen is useful for impedance matching considerations.

As for having a wyrd upstream, as i am doing now, it is not the definitive setup. I will see if i can remove it after a couple hundred hours without degrading the sound. The point of it is feeding the intona with clean 5v. The brand new intona benefits from it, perhaps because its regulation is not broken yet. We'll see. But it is rare that a usb-fed component does not benefit from an external supply. My best guess would be using a fancy 5v supply with a split cable (one connection to the pc for signsl, the other to the psu for 5v).

 

[FredA]

More remarks on the intona after 24 hours:

1. It changed the balance of my system it seems, the medium was diminished. A change in a digital component can do this. As a fix, i changed the xlr cable between the dac and pre for a greasier one. Thing are back to what i like: a bit more meat on the bone. What a change in the jitter pattern can do is quite amazing. I have never liked the sound of this xlr cable so much. Everything is a matter of sinergy, but you have to take care of the fondamental problems first, like jitter, distorsion, noise and so on.

2. The benefits of the intona so far are:

-better imaging, including better localisation, more air around the instruments, wider and deeper soundstage
-better attacks and decays
-cleaner timbers, more expressivity in them as a consequence
-darker background
-ambiance cues, for instance echos can easilly be heard (especially evident with a live recording of Vladimir Sidorov, playing now in my room)
-better seperation between the instruments, which implies increased resolution

To quantify the change, i would say the impact is comparable as that of installing the breeze in my system, which was significant. You need a transparent setup i suppose to get all the benefits. But of course, if your computer is already perfectly isolated and usb ports perfectly timed and clean, you should get no benefit whatsoever.

These are all early impressions, but overall, i am happy with this purchase.

My biggest complaint is with the in/out configutation: it is far from convernient in a typical audio setup. In my setup, the intona has to lay on the top of the pre, sideways, to avoid bending the usb cables too much... Looks odd.

 

[schneller]

I
If you have a groud loop, you need the intona or some sort of galavanic isolation if you cannot get rid of it otherwise. I like external devices because they cannot be contaminated with the rfi and emi that are strongly present inside a pc. Seems however that you need a usb reclocker after the intona, like the regen, and a fancy psu to power it, to get the best results. I will try to comfirm this by using the intona with and without the wyrd after it. I will also try with and without a jitterbug inside an unused port.

The best bang for the buck seems in favor of the usb card but it does not fix a ground loop, to this day.

Note that using an intona at the output of a fancy usb card defeats its pupose because of its not as good a reclocker. That being said, the results depend also on the usb receiver's clocking.

In practice, you might be surprised by the results you get because of impedence matching, shielding and possibly other factors. The usb cables you choose will matter as well.

 
What about this external USB hub from SOTM? 
http://www.sotm.sonore.us/SOtM3.html#1