USB improvement gadgets - a survey

[davide256]

I've been playing around with Allo USBridge as kind of a science project

1. Power supply quality was paramount to taming audio nasties

2. Reclocker was essential for clarity,  transient detail. And the ISO regen feature to allow replacement of the USB 5V with known good

clean power is worthwhile

3. USB cables are evil, happy with USPCB connector, wish it was about 1/2" longer to allow more space for other cables/ power connectors.

 

All these took the stock Allo sound that was butt ugly and brought it within hailing distance of the microRendu I had before... really wonder now how much better MR could sound with the same ISO Regen/LPS 1.2  peripheral device improvements added.

[davide256]

22 minutes ago, mansr said:

If you look at all of home/personal audio sales, that's hardly even measurable.

 That comment shows lack of  personal experience with innovation or market segmentation...  many ideas languish for years as niche products before gaining mass market acceptance. In about 2-3 years we should know, which if patents are involved could make the owners very rich. Most new product offers I've been involved with lose money the first year and are considered successful if they show a profit after 3 years. What matters is the growth trajectory of sales... unless your Apple, most successful offers have a "hockey stick" sales trajectory on innovative offers where the first few years are lean while the market figures you out.

[davide256]

4 minutes ago, mansr said:

6000 units sold is still a drop in the ocean today. Semente is right in saying that most people do not use any of these devices. Of course, most people don't have any USB based audio devices in the first place. The interesting metric here is what fraction of those who use USB for audio have any improvement widgets. I don't have any figures, but I think it's safe to say it's still a minority. As for the future, there are several ways things might turn out. One is that DAC manufacturers start incorporating these ideas directly, which would make external boxes largely obsolete.

A single chassis streamer /DAC/ high quality DC power supply where the boards plugged into a back-plane and could be upgraded is what I feel is sorely missing on the market.  There have been at least 2 threads recently where folks had a good DAC but had an outdated USB1 section that was degrading their sound, neither of which had a factory upgrade option