As the title suggests, I want to know if usb cleaners and audiophile usb pcie cards work. How much of a noticeable difference do they make? Do they offer better gains than upgrading cables?
USB cleaners mostly work. Although, some DACs (especially newer models) already have great filtering at USB-input and improvement would be small or very expensive. In 2020 in my opinion it is better to spend money on network transport than USB decrapifier for computer. There are plenty of them. Raspberry Pi, Allo, Sonore, Innuos - there is a solution for every budget.
Never had experience with audiophile PCIe cards, but these should be closer to cleaners than transports.
USB cleaners do make a big difference, atleast I do hear. Some people say they do not hear a difference. So best is to try it yourself and see if your ears are good enough to hear it.
USB is sending digital information, so any noise on that stage of the chain is not going to make it into the final analog output wherever that’s happening.
USB is sending digital information, so any noise on that stage of the chain is not going to make it into the final analog output wherever that’s happening.
USB cleaners do make a big difference, atleast I do hear. Some people say they do not hear a difference. So best is to try it yourself and see if your ears are good enough to hear it.
Yup. With Ifi reclocker i once had it made sound super clean like its comming from my S9+. From laptop on battery to dac it doesnt sound anywhere near as clean as on my phone or with reclocker.
Cause this is not even reclocker, this is POS. Try something more serious. Had this Thing and i sold that very fast cause it did nothing except that it sucked all the energy and rolled of bass and highs.
Now Ifi nano usb 3.0 made very noticable improvement even though it had crappy power supply.
I imagine Innuos Pheonix would make staggering difference.
Cause this is not even reclocker, this is POS. Try something more serious. Had this Thing and i sold that very fast cause it did nothing except that it sucked all the energy and rolled of bass and highs.
Now Ifi nano usb 3.0 made very noticable improvement even though it had crappy power supply.
I imagine Innuos Pheonix would make staggering difference.
I don’t disagree that an external master clock will have an improvement but that’s not something I’d have ever called a usb filter before today.
edit: I also think it’s overkill for anythingother than top tier, end game, “price is no longer even a consideration” level of equipment. I’ve gotta be listening to a very good setup to have an appreciable difference compared to what my $200 explorer 2 is able to achieve re:low jitter, which is the main thing that Innuous is trying to tackle.
I don’t disagree that an external master clock will have an improvement but that’s not something I’d have ever called a usb filter before today.
edit: I also think it’s overkill for anythingother than top tier, end game, “price is no longer even a consideration” level of equipment. I’ve gotta be listening to a very good setup to have an appreciable difference compared to what my $200 explorer 2 is able to achieve re:low jitter, which is the main thing that Innuous is trying to tackle.
As the title suggests, I want to know if usb cleaners and audiophile usb pcie cards work. How much of a noticeable difference do they make? Do they offer better gains than upgrading cables?
USB "cleaners" can work but it's a cleaning device and not a sound improving device. It can work if you have ground loops, hissing and noises from your USB output.
I don't see a reason for audio pcie cards to even exist anymore. Poor performance vs outboard solutions, usability limitations, back of computer I/O, etc. Get an outboard DAC/amp.
As for upgrading cables, I've proven to myself they can make a difference but it was subtle and I preferred the $100 cable over the $5k cable. Seems they can affect the sound but price is not an indicator of preference. So I can't really relate to any similarities between usb cleaners, pcie audio cards and cables.
What are you trying to accomplish, what is your setup and what issues are you having if any?
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