Delightful digital !

 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. 

No longer headless

 

So what is so headless about ? In computer or digital world , headless pretty much is saying that you are operating some hardware without a screen or keyboard. Practically you don't see any kind of interaction with the hardware. What is in the picture is a DIY box of music player / streamer. The inside hardware is a single board computer (Asus Tinkerboard S) loaded with volumio O/S. The idea of it is to have a remote without the need of any kind of display which is convenient.

Although this is what the whole intention is about but no doubt sometimes it will be also nice to have some visual while we are enjoying our music. Even we listen with our ears but something nice to the visual is always a plus point.  After all, hifi is an entertainment. It does make sense to make the environment to be as good as possible. Of course this also meaning that what we see during the listening is critical in adding on to the enjoyment.

So here it is, I have added a small monitor of 11 inch in size to the unit via HDMI. The Tinkerboard do support A/V as with its HDMI capable of 4k resolution and even atmos / dts X surround. That is another story. So is pretty use to have a monitor add on to it to have the nice display of the unit. The display is pretty standard is showing what is playing, volume level, the minutes, play, pause. I guess with the display you have a sense that there is something playing behind the scene of the music. This is a standard fullHD monitor but it does work with touch screen monitor too. Initially I was thinking of touch screen monitor but is quite a bit costly. I am happy to settle with this. Very much happy with it and will surely enjoy my music a lot more to come. 

My Humble CAS, Asus Tinker Board & Teac UD-501 DAC

Asus Tinker Board in it's most basic form

I first experienced CAS in 2010 and quickly adapted to it with excitement back in 2011 in the form of Bryston BDP-1 & DAC-1 combo. It's now more than 10 years since, and at one point, even before I started my hifi sabbatical in 2016, I had already given up on CAS. Somehow, I still prefer physical medium for my emotional connection to music. While the conveniences of CAS and sound quality can be highly achieved indeed, I somehow still have a preference for physical medium when it come to music. Something that you can hold in hands just feels more real. Should you feel otherwise, then to each his own. I am not one who likes to argue and get stressed over hifi matters.

I have also since learned not buy packaged music streamers & DAC sets such as the above mentioned Bryston duo. As technology moves too fast, and so does the rate of depreciation. It's a killer blow, never mind the sound!

Then a buddy of mine, Simon introduced me to this dinky little CPU called Asus Tinker Board, which is the equivalent of the Raspberry Pi CPU. Coupled to Volumio Music Player interface app on one's smart phone, it's an easy & cheap solution to music streaming. Simon says the Asus Tinker Board can be used as a HTPC too, but with different set up & interface app. Now, who wants to play a game of Simon says?

Power supply goes in from side, unused HDMI output, and all other USB inputs/outputs & LAN from the back. Note the blue/black Oelbach USB cable which connects to the Teac UD-501 DAC

Simon had the Asus Tinker Board set up in a small plastic casing with window top. The Asus allows 4 USB input/output, and 1 LAN input. On the side, it has a Type B Micro USB power connector, and HDMI output. The Asus can be powered from any Android phone 5V power supply with the above mentioned connector. While any old Android phone power supply or charger will do the job, the Asus does sound a whole lot better when powered by a 1.2 Ampere, 5V  linear power supply. There are now plenty of such power supply to choose from, mostly China of origin. I got mine from a Asus users group buy sometime back.

The good part about using the Asus Tinker Board or any Raspberry Pi CPU as streamer is that it will adapt to any music storage resolution formats such as WAV, FLAC, or DSD at no extra cost. The only question is, can your DAC process it? With this, I took the opportunity to pick up a used unit of Teac UD-501 DAC, which can do all the resolution format available today, and for a half sized hifi component, it also has XLR analog outputs, which are definitely my preferred connection. Back in 2014, when this unit first became available, I had a go with it and really liked it. A few years later today, the latest Teac UD-505 DAC model revision still bears much functionality and design cues based upon the UD-501.  

The whole CAS set up from left: Teac UD-501 DAC, Multi USB Input, 5V Linear Power Supply(bottom) & Asus Tinker Board(Top) 

I used USB Type A to Type B cable from Oelbach to connect between the Asus & the Teac. With the overall tonal neutrality of the Teac DAC, it was actually the music file ripping quality doing the talking most of the time. The system was totally transparent & highly revealing of the rip quality. Using Cardas Neutral Reference XLR cable from Teac DAC to pre-amp, I did gain back some of that much needed warmth to make some of those busy sounding hi-res audio just bearable. 

For me this very cheap(costing less than MYR3000, excluding cables!) & cheerful CAS set up is all I have to continue with convenience music,or when I just need some back ground music.