USB - Is it a bane or a wonder for digital world in audiophile ? USB or Universal Serial Bus is a universal connector can be found almost any where in digital world from computer to mobile devices and almost anything digital like TV or an amplifier. We cannot deny that USB has become an important part of life while we are using the digital device. What about the context of USB in the audio world ? Well USB is mainly being use for many different hardwares like AV receiver, an integrated amp or most of the digital playback. Although USB is a very useful connection but is also well known for being noisy or not so perfect signal. I am sure many will think about error correction and such but in reality is not what we all think. If you are not someone who agrees with this than probably is time to stop reading.
Now for those who want to look for the improvement of USB in your audio, this is one piece of hardware that is going to do the job. Today we are going to be talking about Innous USB Phoenix, a USB re-clocker. Pretty fiery name to called the device "Phoenix". A little bit of background of Innous. Its a UK based company founded back in year 2009. Not too old or too young, is almost the time that digital audio getting heat up. The company aim is to have digital audio quality with simplicity. The picture here with the introduction of the re-clocker.
From the outside (Top and Bottom), the hardware is 2 pieces of metal. The top cover and the bottom base. Simple yet solid box for the unit. 3 pieces of legs at the bottom with rubber ring and a little suspension from the leg to the bottom plate. The unit about shoe box size but the weight is about 9kg for a small box. Majority of the weight is due to the transformer inside it.
Once the cover is lifted, the belly of the beast is revealed. The component arrangement nicely done with possible of shortest route for the wiring. Cables are properly arranged and also as much as possible with similar length.
The toroidal power transformer made by Innous in house. Pretty big piece for a USB re-clocker. As for any audio product, the power supply is always important. No doubt that Innous do want to give the best for this Phoenix.
Innous spare no expense to give what is best possible. When comes to capacitor (Mundorf) is like the gold standard. Of course is a pretty penny on this. Each of this Mundorf capacitor has10,000 μf.
This is a lot of capacitance for re-clocker.
Than it comes to the heart of it all. The clock and the USB chip regeneration. The Phoenix USB Reclocker takes the USB signal from any source and completely regenerates it to an extremely high-precision signal to feed into your DAC, allowing it to perform at its best.
Next will be how it is connected link up to your chain of equipment. The simplicity of the re-clocker is allowing any kind of USB playback to be use with it. It can be a simple laptop computer, or digital steamer. The simple rule is as long as it has USB output from it. Simply plug it in and switch it on. Looking at the back of the hardware is as simple as it can get with one input and one output for the USB. On the right side is the on/off switch and the power cord. The input is from the source. It can be a computer or any digital playback device. The output will be from the re-clocker to the DAC. Once connection is all plug in, what you have to do is just to turn on and play as usual. Simple 😏
For myself, I have always been the fan of single board computer. I have hook this up to the USB of the Asus Tinker board. From it output to the re-clocker and than to the DAC.
I am going to up a simple summary on this box. Not going to go into the detail of what I heard or what I think about the audio but I will say that its something I will miss. What I mean by that, I have been using it for 2 weeks now. Taking it out of the chain I can definitely notices the difference. Is this an upgrade, my answer is yes. It might not be for everyone unless you are very much into USB connectivity for your audio. This box will cause you quite a few penny, being SGD 4000. Not easy to justify for it, is also subject to what kind of level in audio nirvana you want to reach. Simply to put it when you are starting of zero, any small thing will be quite a jump but when you are at 80% level, to squeeze another 5% is not going to be the challenge not just the setup but also to the cost of it.
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