[leeperry]

EDIT 05/2021 newer/better/badder JCAT USB XE version review is up: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/usb-card-xe-jcat.25121/reviews#review-25788

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Hiya my fellow audio buddies, I'm very surprised not to find a dedicated thread for this groundbreaking USB controller and I would love to share experiences and tips with other owners so here goes a short review of what it's achieved for me

I've been messing with computer USB controllers for a while now, it seemed obvious to my friends and I that a dedicated controller with discrete clocking made for a drastic sonic improvement over mobo USB ports, for a million reasons such as poor quality clocking and high noise on both bus power and data lines.

After much comparisons and modifications, it appeared clear to us that we required TOTL masterclock and low-noise PSU feeding the computer USB controller itself because in the computer world 3mV ripple is endgame but in the audiophile circle it's more like 1uV and 1mV = 1000 uV, not to mention that feeding a clock with low-noise PSU is usually the recipe to happiness

So we had to resort to PCIe risers in order to feed clean 12V, problem is that PCIe pinout only provides 3.3V & 12V so both risers and PCIe controllers also had to be modified with better voltage regulators, wires going to the riser also picked up interferences and introduced extra jitter/distortion, so all in all pretty cumbersome to deal with to say the least.

Fact is that femto DAC's took the market by storm a while ago(Antelope comes to mind) and femto USB3 PCIe controllers have finally showed up, but only JCAT's can be fully powered by external PSU with the ability to disable any extra voltage regulator and feed it untouched as-is AFAIK, so here goes the audio gizmo I've been very fond of lately: https://jcat.eu/featured/usb-card-femto/

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Unlike other femto controllers/reclockers, this one runs Crystek CCHD-957 clock that's specifically designed for HD audio and also mil-spec rated: https://www.crystek.com/crystal/spec-sheets/clock/CCHD-957.pdf

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Mil-spec usually means tighter tolerances as you are essentially paying extra for cherry-picked superior bits of wafer and also extra tolerances to heat and vibrations.

You can find pics of what's inside the shiny Faraday cage at https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/crystek-cchd-957/

What's a femto clock anyhow??? This should shed some light as to why we want one: https://www.mysoundaffairs.com/blogs/icons/17498964-ultima-femto-clock

A low jitter, low noise clock will ensure less DAC timing conversion errors, reducing distortion and lowering the noise floor.
This will bring forth more low level signals and details. The sound will be much more analog in its feel and texture.

Right on, "femto or go home" is what comes to mind after hearing it

As I said, this PCIe controller can also be powered by external PSU completely: https://jcat.eu/featured/usb-card-femto/

We redesigned the card so that all internal circuits are powered by ultra-low noise linear regulators exclusively if any 5V power supply is connected

It's indeed using LT3080 linear voltage regulator:

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This board also comes with firmwares to either enable both USB ports or only one for improved sonics, my goal is to feed a USB DAC exclusively so I went with single port firmware: https://jcat.eu/usb-card-femto-gets-a-free-update-to-ver-2-0/

If you connect only one USB device to the card (e.g. only a USB DAC), it is recommended to run 1PORT upgrade for best sound quality. 2PORTS enables both USB ports.

A weapon of choice to feed 5V was eventually the 1uV-rated 5V ifi-audio iPower:

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Third-party ripple measurements speak for themselves: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/31119-power-supply-8-group-test-lps-and-smps/

It takes serious gear and methodology to measure 1uV ripple anyhow: https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/iPOWER-Much-Ado-About-Nothing.pdf

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Stellar sonic improvement wherever I'd plug an iPower, only downfall is that it's cheap OEM that sounds way better than it looks but reliability hasn't been all that in my experience as I had a 9V iPower that after 3 years started R2D2 whining and outputting 12V sporadically so I'm glad they recently came up with a more sturdy "iPower X" version that costs twice more using a supposedly more robust PCB. I do plan on upgrading shortly, please advise if anyone did as I don't really expect any audible improvement but 'cha never know

I guess I should also state that I run a shielded power cable to my low-ripple EVGA G3-550W powered HTPC together with two power filters as I live in a big city and interferences are fusing all over the place so noise must be fought against at every stage:

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My current rig boils down to W4S íntimo DAC, Soekris dac1101 DAC & Hifiman HE5se:

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Both DAC's run XMOS USB chipset, the nice thing about dac1101 is that it's fully USB powered and runs a FPGA so the cleaner the input, the cleaner the output without any middle-men such as aging clocks for instance.

To top it off Soekris USB input is isolated and both DAC's run an on-board headphone amplifier so no middle-men again, allowing this unforgiving femto USB board to shine even further.

JCAT board is using D720201 USB3 chipset from Renesas, should be PNP on any recent computer otherwise drivers can easily be found:

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So i removed all jumpers for second USB port as it will remain completely unused, I setup first port for external power jack and I still had to decide whether I wanted to feed external 5V PSU as-is or going through on-board LT3080 voltage regulator....It didn't take much A/B comparisons for me to feed the 5V iPower as-is as barely anything can improve the sonics of 1uV-rated iPower anyway.

I haven't bothered using pricey USB cables yet as it already sounds fantastic with a cheapo 50cm fully compliant USB2 silver LINDY:

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I previously had great results with a DIY USB cable made of tri-braided solid UPOCC + dual alu foil/copper braid shielding + brass plugs + 10% silver solder but this was data-only with no power wire so I shall build another one with a discrete dual-shielded 5V wire, it's on my TODO list but no big hurry for now as sonics are already way beyond my expectations and I like to keep potential sonic improvements up my sleeve for rainy days

So yeah, the whole point of all this was to be build endgame USB output off my HTPC, and lemme tell you that it's delivered and then some

No audiophool placebo subjective improvement here, femto clock + 1uV PSU pay in cash SQ-wise, even my old vastly modded PCIe controllers can't compete, a mil-spec femto clock designed for HD audio fuelled by a 1uV PSU makes everything so clear sounding and tight, both my DAC's provide wayyyy more resolution and clarity, a true game changer to my ears, "This is Sparta" kind of improvement

It's readily audible that the board itself can truly be fully powered by external PSU as unplugging the latter requires a soft reset for the board to function again from mobo bus power and sonic downgrade is HUGE....so this is no promise in vain here my good friends, board can truly run from an external PSU completely which is a HUGE selling point in my experience, no more PCIe riser kludge required to reach audio nirvana TYVM.

I only wish they used 0.8uV LT3045, the current game-ending voltage regulator but I'm not even sure it was out when board was designed. Anyhow, you can always bypass LT3080 and feed external PSU untouched as-is so not a big deal in the end as I can live with 1uV ripple iPower hah

I was hoping that this game-ending USB port on my HTPC would render my shielded power cable useless but not quite, anyway there's only so much you could expect from a cheap unshielded power cable when you see what's inside my current power cable with semi-solid foil-shielded silver-plated 14AWG OCC power wires and double OCC wires for ground connected to cable shielding in order to capture interferences.

A while ago here on head-fi an old-timer told me that he would prefer a $100 headphone on a $1K rig than the opposite and this USB board kinda nails it to me because the pricier your headphone the more it will act as a magnifier and there's only so much you can magnify from a poorly driven source......fact is that in the audio world you never know what you've been missing till you get to hear it, nasty but so true.

6moons owner also recently nailed it IMHO: https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/wyred2/4/

you can still polish up USB from the computer and remove faint rust of minor grit/grain between and around the notes. If you call that unfair, even inhouse DACs up to €9'000 aren't immune to such 3rd-party enhancements

I would most definitely agree and this femto USB board trumps any reclocker as it makes far more sense to me to go low-noise femto USB to begin with instead of polishing a poor quality signal, as this always tends to add its own sonic color IME and yes you can find femto reclockers but their clocks aren't specifically designed for HD audio and can't feed untouched 1uV iPower as-is.

But truth is, it's kind of a waste to use such high-grade equipment to listen to brickwalled lo-fi material, gotta go up the food chain or else and for me this board has been a total trap to get back into music production

All in all, a stunning sonic improvement to my ears, I'm open to any further tinkering so please speak up and thanks for looking

 

[leeperry]

BTW, these compilations have always sounded amazing to my ears with some of the best SQ I've heard but it's a match made in heaven with that femto USB board: http://benliebrand.nl/grand12/index.html

He pays top dollar for unreleased or simply rare master tapes, remasters them with top sounding gear et voilà diner is served, I often end up bobbing my head silly at music I don't even like just because SQ is fantastic.
Chase & Supernature on CD1 of Vol1 are not to be missed IMHO but Vol1 has so many great tunes, quite the thrill to hear them again with such clarity

 

[leeperry]

Upgraditis is at stakes

, newer/better/badder JCAT USB XE version review is up: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/usb-card-xe-jcat.25121/reviews#review-25788

 

[manueljenkin]

Curious to know if you've compared jcat against other similar products if they exist, or signal regenerators like ifi iusb 3.0, uptone ether regen (which also uses a crystek low phase noise oscillator) etc? Going a step further, any trials on jcat feeding a signal regenerator feeding a dac ?

I'm planning to build a workstation (early next year hopefully), and likely would consider a good usb audio card and linear power supply.

Also regarding cables, the cableco has a price drop on their shunyata venom cables. I intend to get the phasure lush 3 when I have the money, wonder if you had any experience with it. Jcat also has a cable but it's crazy expensive for me.

Side note: I like your use of emoji and humour in the passages. On point!

 

[leeperry]

Thanks, I did compare it to Uptone Regen Amber + 9V iPower and the latter sounded utterly harsh and colored in comparison to JCAT femto USB + 5V iPower, no going back ever possible.

A while ago I did try iFi iPurifier 2 and much preferred Regen Amber + 9V iPower because there's only so much you can squeeze from filtering host-provided 5V and the lack of external PSU jack was very audible.

Last I checked, Crystek clocks in Uptone gear neither were HD audio-grade or mil-spec, Ether Regen is a network device so could only be compared to JCAT femto LAN board IMO.

Heavily shielded power cord to the PC matters quite a bit IME, especially if you're bombarded by wifi & 4G/5G in a big city, borrow one from a seller with a favorable return policy and hear how that works out for you

Best cable is no cable and second best is the shortest possible, you can build a very short braided one with external 5V wire using solid UPOCC for very cheap, shield it with alu foil + copper tape, 4 wires to solder onto both USB plugs and it's very much on.

 

[manueljenkin]

I agree with the short cable best cable approach. I have the uptone uspcb that I like a lot, and thanks for the references, I'll try to make one myself. I'll also look into power cords.

Regarding the uptone, yes I meant the ether regen not the usb regen. Usb regen is low price and I donot expect it to compete with jcat (and jcat anyway is kinda killing the noise close to the root of generation so it'll be hard for any regenerator to compete directly with it).

 

[iFi audio]

A while ago I did try iFi iPurifier 2 and much preferred Regen Amber + 9V iPower because there's only so much you can squeeze from filtering host-provided 5V and the lack of external PSU jack was very audible.

Yeah, a separate power feed does make a difference indeed.

 

[leeperry]

Yeah, a separate power feed does make a difference indeed.

So much that feeding JCAT USB boards with 5V iPower directly from their external power jack rendered my two AC iPurifier's useless, less clutter and bright LED's under the desk.

Quite frankly it's for music production that these JCAT USB boards become weapons of choice because you're not dependent on lo-fi brickwalled mastering for the masses anymore and get to unleash their true potential, 3D soundstage placement of each instrument is sheer eargasm

 

[iFi audio]

3D soundstage placement of each instrument is sheer eargasm

I hear you, that's what silence (after removing excess noise) does to our heads

 

[leeperry]

I hear you, that's what silence (after removing excess noise) does to our heads

To my ears it's more like the tighter the signal fed to the DAC the more focused the sound and story/personal experience goes like the lower the jitter the larger the SS.

JCAT XE USB fuelled by 5V iPower provides such deep and wide 3D SS, plain amazing to mix into with those VST plugins and others:

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[iFi audio]

To my ears it's more like the tighter the signal fed to the DAC the more focused the sound and story/personal experience goes like the lower the jitter the larger the SS.

JCAT XE USB fuelled by 5V iPower provides such deep and wide 3D SS, plain amazing to mix into with those VST plugins and others:

What can I say, enjoy the heck out of these!

 

[leeperry]

What can I say, enjoy the heck out of these!

Thanks, my point is that both AC iPurifier's were useful when using a mobo-powered modded PCIe USB controller but became useless once I fed 5V iPower directly into JCAT USB PCIe boards external power jacks.

Indeed, thoroughly having a ball with Hifiman HE-500 + Soekris R2R DAC off this rig

Maybe someday I'll try 5V iPower-X but for now I'll just sit and wait for a sale as my local reseller used to give annually 50% vouchers storewide pre-covid, I'm sure he'll do it again at some point. Time is on my side and I also enjoy keeping potential upgrades up my sleeve

Next nearly-free upgrade will be a game-ending solid UPOCC 15cm braided USB cable with triple shielding & discrete 5V wire, a bit of work but I'm sure it'll sound great.

 

[iFi audio]

Thanks, my point is that both AC iPurifier's were useful when using a mobo-powered modded PCIe USB controller but became useless once I fed 5V iPower directly into JCAT USB PCIe boards external power jacks.

That's fair enough.

my local reseller used to give annually 50% vouchers storewide

What a generous man he used to be

Hopefully he'll continue expressing his generosity in the future too

 

[leeperry]

What a generous man he used to be

Hopefully he'll continue expressing his generosity in the future too

This merely proves the sort of markup they make on your gear, I know Burson allow their resellers to make 50% profit(excluding VAT)

 

[iFi audio]

This merely proves the sort of markup they make on your gear, I know Burson allow their resellers to make 50% profit(excluding VAT)

Suffice it to say, audio isn't the only industry where margins are high