[dougms3]

Just got the jcat femto usb and it is sounding fantastic. Plugged in an ifi 5v power supply and indeed it did improve the sound as it was stated.

Is anyone using an ifi igalvanic with the jcat femto card? I can't get them to work together. Pc won't recognize the dac if they are daisy chained.

@iFi audio

 

[iFi audio]

Is anyone using an ifi igalvanic with the jcat femto card? I can't get them to work together. Pc won't recognize the dac if they are daisy chained.

@iFi audio

iGalvanic3.0 features three knob settings: DC-RF (it avoids hum in systems without earth), ISO (it provides the full isolation and is the best one to use) and RF (it handles audio drop-outs in setups without RF earth). Connecting iGalvanic3.0 can be a bit tricky, so my advice would be to start from the last setting and connect one component at a time and slowly.

Please connect iGalvanic3.0 to your USB card first, then let them be for two minutes and then connect your DAC to iGalvanic3.0. At least one out of its three knob settings should result in a reliable connection. Hope this helps, thanks!

 

[leeperry]

Just got the jcat femto usb and it is sounding fantastic. Plugged in an ifi 5v power supply and indeed it did improve the sound as it was stated.

Is anyone using an ifi igalvanic with the jcat femto card? I can't get them to work together. Pc won't recognize the dac if they are daisy chained.

If I were you I'd sell both femto JCAT + that ifi tweak so I could buy a JCAT XE USB, that will provide a far greater sonic improvement that any USB tweak on top of femto JCAT ever will. Mostly harmless if you can find the XE USB used but these appear hard to come by.

Next stop will be a better LPS to fuel XE because 5V iPower isn't quite sufficient to let XE USB express itself as I found out myself.

 

[iFi audio]

If I were you I'd sell both femto JCAT + that ifi tweak so I could buy a JCAT XE USB

I wouldn't, at least not until finding out whether galvanic isolation on top of that JCAT card makes a noticeable difference or not

But it's a different story if a JCAT XE USB already provides galvanic isolation. If so, then iGalvanic3.0 isn't needed.

 

[leeperry]

A much more accurate clock will provide a far greater sonic improvement than galvanic isolation, except if he gets audible ground loop, which I bet he doesn't.

 

[dougms3]

iGalvanic3.0 features three knob settings: DC-RF (it avoids hum in systems without earth), ISO (it provides the full isolation and is the best one to use) and RF (it handles audio drop-outs in setups without RF earth). Connecting iGalvanic3.0 can be a bit tricky, so my advice would be to start from the last setting and connect one component at a time and slowly.

Please connect iGalvanic3.0 to your USB card first, then let them be for two minutes and then connect your DAC to iGalvanic3.0. At least one out of its three knob settings should result in a reliable connection. Hope this helps, thanks!

Thanks for the suggestion but I tried all 3 positions and unfortunately it still wasnt working with the jcat card.

If I were you I'd sell both femto JCAT + that ifi tweak so I could buy a JCAT XE USB, that will provide a far greater sonic improvement that any USB tweak on top of femto JCAT ever will. Mostly harmless if you can find the XE USB used but these appear hard to come by.

Next stop will be a better LPS to fuel XE because 5V iPower isn't quite sufficient to let XE USB express itself as I found out myself.

I would love to get the xe but its out of my budget. I'm blown away with the sound improvement from the jcat femto card with an external 5v source.

Perhaps ill upgrade to a linear ps in the future since they're not cheap either.

Any recommendations for an inexpensive linear ps?

 

[iFi audio]

A much more accurate clock will provide a far greater sonic improvement than galvanic isolation,

The cool thing about USB is that reclocking, galvanic isolation and clean power supply stack, so one doens't have to choose one sorter at a cost of other devices. Clocks are very important and here I agree, but it's quite system-specific which solution would be the most beneficial and a setup's noise also factors in. To some our customers iGalvanic3.0 did more than our USB regenerator, but to others it was the other way around. It's a complex subject

 

[yoktjah]

USB XE and NET XE are significant improvements over the Femto variants. I upgraded to both and powering with an external Plixir Elite BDC PSU.

 

[OCC7N]

I was thinking of buying Allo Shanti for JCAT USB XE. What experience do you have with LPS for the JCAT?

 

[kingoftown1]

You're stunting the xe by not using a quality lps. Budget allowing, shoot for something a little better like a plixir, farad, hypsos, etc.

 

[OCC7N]

ok you are saying plixir and farad is better right?....If I buy hypsos its gonna be for oor

 

[iFi audio]

ok you are saying plixir and farad is better right?....If I buy hypsos its gonna be for oor

Although Marcin at JCAT would probably suggest his own linear PSU, I'd ask him anyway, just to see what he says.

 

[OCC7N]

You're stunting the xe by not using a quality lps. Budget allowing, shoot for something a little better like a plixir, farad, hypsos, etc.

But still the Allo shanti would be better than a standard psu like iPower X right?

 

[kingoftown1]

I don't have experience with either of those, sorry.

 

[LucyWu]

Chord Dacs have good and bad factors which impact the performance of these otherwise excellent products. They are very sensitive to noise on signal ground due to the way they treat incoming signals, which can lead to a tiring overbright sound signature. Utilising a LPSU to power a USB card such as the JCAT can bring great improvement here, but a poor PSU will be very disappointing. The JCAT cards, being 5v powered, do not seem to perform voltage regulation on the power line out to the DAC (Marcin may correct me here but 5v in and 5v out leaves no headroom for regulators to work) - this means investing in PSU is where the big gain is when using Femto or XE with Chord dacs because they utilise the 5v USB in (for handshake at least) and any noise is going to impact the sound (this is one reason why Rob Watts prefers optical in - galvanic isolation).

On the other hand, this same design and the way Rob Watts handles clocking within the DACs mean they are largely immune to jitter. The TT2 will not care too much about the precision with which data is clocked into the DAC. So, benefit from the excellent clock in the JCAT cards may not be great. (As an aside here, I have found that cleanliness of signal and ground connections into Chord products is probably the most influential factor in getting good sound out of them. A well implemented USB cable or SPDIF cables will improve the sound more than almost anything else you can fiddle with here.)

There are measurements for the Allo Shanti on other webs sites I think - worth checking how it performs - and you also need to understand how well it deals with rf noise fed in from the mains, a lot of LPSUs are not good at filtering hf noise. More expensive PSUs may be better at this or not. Farad and Plixir have a good reputation, as does the JCAT PSU.