[bonyjam]

I use a Gustard U12 reclocker and am pleased with the results.
Prior to having it, all my 3 DAC (Gustard x9, SMSL Sanskrit 6th, and Topping D50s) have some digital glare at the top end.

With the U12 installed, even the cheap SMSL Sanskrit 6th sounds better (better instruments separation, no digital glare), at least to my ears.
I am not sure if a higher-end DAC would benefit from a reclocker but for budget or mid-tier DAC fed from a noisy PC, a reclocker might be a worthwhile consideration

 

[Mitchell Lee]

Hmm so it seems the reclockers are the ones that make the difference. However, wouldn’t using a master clock even better then?

 

[iFi audio]

Hmm so it seems the reclockers are the ones that make the difference. However, wouldn’t using a master clock even better then?

A DAC first has to have necessary IO to connect to a master clock, which is not that common. USB reclockers are far more universal as they work with every DAC with a USB input.

 

[Mitchell Lee]

You say this but you’re iusb 3.0 cleaners are always out of stock.

 

[bonyjam]

You say this but you’re iusb 3.0 cleaners are always out of stock.

You mean this?
https://www.stereo.com.sg/ifi-audio-ipurifier-3.html

 

[Mitchell Lee]

No. This
https://ifi-audio.com/products/micro-iusb3-0/

 

[iFi audio]

No. This
https://ifi-audio.com/products/micro-iusb3-0/

micro iUSB3.0 should be discontinued, but due to the demand we manufactured yet another batch, and some should still be left. I'd ask your local iFi rep

 

[kkl10]

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.

If your Explorer 2 is connected to a noisy source like a PC, it's very much worthwhile investing in something that can at least feed it with clean DC. Needs not be a huge investment; a cheap battery-based solution will work. I have the same dac and I'm using nimh battery packs to power it. Big difference. Even greater difference if you cover the 5V and GND pins on the PC end of the usb cable with electrical insulation tape (yes, this can make a difference even if power is not being drawn from the PC, but make sure the cable is shielded for this to work with the GND pin covered). Even better if you're not using any cable at all, in which case you can just get an iDefender or something much cheaper like this, tape the 5V and GND pins of these adapters, feed them clean 5V power, connect your dac and enjoy an instant upgrade. If you use a cable, put these adapters at the end of the USB cable (just before your dac) and tape the 5V and GND pins on the cable end instead.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

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 in the sense that if your USB ports have noisy power and you can't find those "audiophile" USB cables that don't have a conductor on the bus power pins they can cut the power coming in from the computer and use their own power supply to send filtered power to the DAC. What it doesn't do is try to turn a regular kind of DAC with a bit of a noise floor on its own into a DAC that has nothing ie make a blacker background for when the noise isn't coming from the computer; or when the problem is the noise is in the audio signal already as it comes from the computer.

As for "audiophile pcie cards," if you mean a soundcard that can output clean SPDIF in case your motherboard has noisy or no SPDIF out (and the USB is noisy), then yes, that works. If you mean those "audiohile pcie cards" that claim they will clean all the noise throughout the computer from getting through to the DAC when it's not even part of the audio chain, then no.

 

[iFi audio]

If you mean those "audiohile pcie cards" that claim they will clean all the noise throughout the computer from getting through to the DAC when it's not even part of the audio chain, then no.

I had no idea such a product even exists Can you tell any example?

 

[Mitchell Lee]

https://jcat.eu/

https://www.matrix-digi.com/en/products/333.html

 

[Mitchell Lee]

Also ASR has consistently talked crap about ifi purifier and other usb cleaning products. I mean they talk crap about a lot products it seems. His testing methodology might be flawed? Idk I’m not an expert

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-micro-iusb3-0-usb-filter-review.11284/page-3

 

[Mitchell Lee]

I had no idea such a product even exists Can you tell any example?

https://jcat.eu

https://www.matrix-digi.com/en/products/333.html

 

[Ragnar-BY]

Hmm so it seems the reclockers are the ones that make the difference. However, wouldn’t using a master clock even better then?

If you have a DAC and a transport that both accept master clock input, than yes it should be better. If your master clock is connected to DAC only, you should get better SQ with transport upgrade or USB-reclocker.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I had no idea such a product even exists Can you tell any example?