Best Audiophile USB Card ?

[prinz]

I am replacing OCXO with Ultra OCXO on my usb card.

OCXO is for sale, drop me PM if interested.

Ultra already installed and working. Didn't listened yet, but will make some brief listening within an hour or so.

 

 

[prinz]

O.K,

Few words of initial observation.

First of all I am kind of guy who hates spending money on audio :) I do so quite often in the pursuit of high musical experience, but I cannot say that my observations are usually in line with others. I don't care if a component costs 1EUR or 1kEUR, I try to stay neutral and judge the product mainly with price / performance ratio.

 

My roots are around DIY, so to put you in my shoes for a while:

A week or two ago I replaced ELNA cap on HDplex PSU with Mundorf Mlytic and even after 200hours of burn in I cannot say they are definitely my cup of tea. Sure, they sound linear with good bass response, but.. somehow.. It's harder for me flow and enjoy the music as with Elna's. People like to use Z-foil or tantalum resistors - while I don't. I do have a bunch of them, but I found my best all around resistor - russian MŁT :)

rarely, at least in my case - swapping components brings only the improvement, usually there are pros and cons, and as an another example of my preference and approach - after I red what one of our colleagues wrote about Taiko ATX - I decided not to proceed with the pre-order, as I am afraid it will make my gear sound too open and too detailed.

 

 

OK. To the point:

From what I remember OCXO (over stock TCXO) in my system improved resolution, dynamics, details retrieval. The overall improvement can be described like moving from SD into HD video playback.

With ULTRA I was expecting a step up in the same categories, which honestly made me also worried a bit as my intention is not to use my audio system like doctors use Roentgen's rays :)

 

I was really surprised to hear that ULTRA sounds: warmer, heavier, more like analog tape, with high 'foot tapping' factor, more organic, less digital, Little bit smoother, maybe even laid back a little (VS forward presentation of OCXO).

At this moment in time (so quite early) I need to say that Ultra has different sound signature than OCXO.

Maybe it improves OCXO strong points by ~20% (details, resolution etc) but whats even more noticeable - it shifts the type of presentation. OCXO was like LCD or LED, while Ultra OCXO is like Plasma TV :)

(if you know what I mean).

[prinz]

 

Well, in this case I misunderstood what you've wrote few pages back under "Solution A". Talking about emotions and sound is never easy.

 

Windows 10 Pro AFAIK is installed on my PC.

 

[prinz]

Of course. With pleasure.

Will let you know after few days. 

Maybe I will again swap back to ocxo to double check my impressions.

[prinz]

On 4/27/2021 at 8:40 PM, Topk said:

Let us know what are your thoughts in a little while after burn in (those clocks need a few days and stay on 24/7 during this period) but this is very valuable and fascinating indeed and correlate with Christian Puunter’s review on the hifi advice website. This is my type of sound. Must resist!!! :-))

Few days have passed and I am still impressed. I confirm my initial observations and actually we need to rely on them as in the meantime I made several other changes (as usual) and I am unable to track changes in Ultra OCXO performance :D

 

Life is to short to wait for burn in to finish ;]