Purité Audio
Trade: Purite Audio
Borrow one and compare it unsighted to your laptop.
Keith
Keith
Do USB Bridges work?
- Thread starter nostromo
- Start date
Heckyman
pfm Member
No it wasn't.
tuga
Legal Alien
Archimago measured a USB filter that works:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LCRCT8T/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2022/03/measurements-topping-hs01-usb-20.html
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LCRCT8T/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2022/03/measurements-topping-hs01-usb-20.html
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
nostromo
pfm Member
So I managed to get my hands on two of these USB filters to see if I could get my Dell 7090 miniPC to sound as good as my 9 year old Asus Xenbook. A reminder that this feeds my newly acquired Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC.
I spent far too much time trying to assess if these two devices helped in my use case. The answer for me is NO these USB filters do nothing to improve the sound nor do they do anything to degrade the sound.
I wanted to do blind testing as Keith and others here recommend (and I sort of agree with) but this was too difficult to set up (everyone I asked, SWMO, Offspring and a friend, suddenly had better things to do (undertandibly)).
I used a short list of about 4 tracks, including Liberty by Anette Ashvik but in the end settled on just one: Gabrielle - Out of Reach. A little time into this track Gabrielle's voice has some deliberate distortion/feedback/overdubbing which I felt was a good feature to focus on (also human hearing is supposed to be fine tuned to the voice, in my case the female voice in particular...a sign of healthy genes
).
After swapping in and out countless times (about 20 times for each device) I found no improvement. Conclusion the Dell 7090 is not a good device to feed a Dac and that these two devices do not help.
The Intona was very nicely built with clear inputs and outputs and led incators on both ends that weren't too bright but reassuring. The unit is very lightweight with nice rubber feet (4). This is now winging it's way back to Amazon. The £230 will be better spent on Glenfarclas.
The Ideon 3R USB Renaissance doesn't work without its LPS walwart and I found it looked and felt a bit horrible, but had it worked for me that aspect would have been overlooked, my need was such. Will be glad to give it back to my friend (who has two of them!).
PS: the apt lyrics began to dawn on me too: 'I knew the signs wasn't right, I was stupid for a while, now I feel like a fool, so confused my wallet bruised'.
I spent far too much time trying to assess if these two devices helped in my use case. The answer for me is NO these USB filters do nothing to improve the sound nor do they do anything to degrade the sound.
I wanted to do blind testing as Keith and others here recommend (and I sort of agree with) but this was too difficult to set up (everyone I asked, SWMO, Offspring and a friend, suddenly had better things to do (undertandibly)).
I used a short list of about 4 tracks, including Liberty by Anette Ashvik but in the end settled on just one: Gabrielle - Out of Reach. A little time into this track Gabrielle's voice has some deliberate distortion/feedback/overdubbing which I felt was a good feature to focus on (also human hearing is supposed to be fine tuned to the voice, in my case the female voice in particular...a sign of healthy genes
).After swapping in and out countless times (about 20 times for each device) I found no improvement. Conclusion the Dell 7090 is not a good device to feed a Dac and that these two devices do not help.
The Intona was very nicely built with clear inputs and outputs and led incators on both ends that weren't too bright but reassuring. The unit is very lightweight with nice rubber feet (4). This is now winging it's way back to Amazon. The £230 will be better spent on Glenfarclas.
The Ideon 3R USB Renaissance doesn't work without its LPS walwart and I found it looked and felt a bit horrible, but had it worked for me that aspect would have been overlooked, my need was such. Will be glad to give it back to my friend (who has two of them!
).PS: the apt lyrics began to dawn on me too: 'I knew the signs wasn't right, I was stupid for a while, now I feel like a fool, so confused my wallet bruised'.
Last edited:
nostromo
pfm Member
Yeah, the Xenbook is still limping along now aged 9, so I'll be looking to replace it something similar when it gives up the ghost. I just hate the login password on Win-11, so maybe my first MAC if that avoids password nonesence.