cleg
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2011
- Posts
- 1,578
- Likes
- 4,818
Really stupid design, but maybe there are reasons behind it.
IMHO, they've done it to separate power line from data line. When I've used Fiio E17, one of the USB ports of my old Macbook produced very audible hum because of power supply imperfection. So, DACs, using power from USB should isolate it very carefully. Or, like in PHA-3 use two separate lines (I've seen some hi-end USB cables, doing so)
As for battery life, you can take care about it, and allow PHA-3 to work from battery time to time, so battery will run through regular charge cycle, and it'll be OK