CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

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Author Topic: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?  (Read 9642 times)

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Thad E Ginathom

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #20 on: August 21, 2015, 07:10:08 PM »

It's nice when cheap things work :)

But... a fail for the HiFMeiDIY gadget. I find it reduces the level and degrades the sound. Sadly... chucked in the rubbish drawer and forgotten.
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AustinValentine

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #21 on: August 21, 2015, 07:22:40 PM »

It's nice when cheap things work :)

But... a fail for the HiFMeiDIY gadget. I find it reduces the level and degrades the sound. Sadly... chucked in the rubbish drawer and forgotten.

I wouldn't exactly say that it worked. The Macbook Toslink was like  poo poo poo  and the Pure Piper was like  poo. We really need a flaming bag of shit emoticon for more levels of precision.

It was enough to confirm that my Theta and Adcom were being held back by the Toslink connection and that I needed to invest in better converters. So in that respect it did work out.
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bixby

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #22 on: August 21, 2015, 08:35:45 PM »

Nope. The jitter from Toslink comes from the electrical/optical and optical/electrical conversions that must take place at both ends of the cable. The length of the cable itself is largely irrelevant. The length of a coax S/Pdif cable matters because of signal reflections, around 1.5M is generally considered ideal at 75 Ohms.


Agreed, it seems the under $2 toshiba part for conversion is not the same as a good att type glass optical link.  They can sound pretty good but I gave up on them long ago.

As most people said after, the difference is pretty subtle but noticeable.

Also, my experience with Macbook Toslink hasn't been very good. I'm using a 2012 15" rMBP and the toslink is harsh, grainy, and altogether unsuitable as an audio connection. To put it in context - for shits and giggles I purchased a PurePiper USB SPDIF converter* off of eBay and even that was a pretty large across the board upgrade from the rMBP Toslink when used with vintage DACs and the Gamma2. I don't know if all Macbook Toslink is that poor but the one in my unit sure as hell is.

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* It's a generic converter that goes by a dozen different brand names. Like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Purepiper-HIFI-USB-to-S-PDIF-convertor-External-Sound-Card-Audio-Card-/161728454999?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a7c46157&nma=true&si=ADVZW%252Fsnew%252F10%252FU2l9bYbkG0voQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 , but I paid $4.00 for it after S&H. It's far, far worse than even a Gustard U12 and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as the Melodious MX-U8 or Jkenny Ciunas Converter.

So you bought my Purepiper!  Yes, it is what it is an early and very low cost converter of usb to spdif. 

If I may suggest, I had a Macbook for years and did everything I could to make it sound better until I got a Mini.  That being said, I found running any laptop off ac and removing the battery if you can to be better sounding than battery power.  Seems counter-intuitive, but I believe battery management processes might be the blame.  Also, if you can isolate the switching power by using a low cost isolation transformer like a powervar or oneac and only plug your computer into that gives me a bit more open cleaner highs.

In my experiences, the Wyrd made a positive difference with a Modi 2Uber  but only different with some dac and worse with one.  And of course, no difference when I used a powerless USB cable.

It strikes me as "weird"  that some of my friends use ifi power with powerless usb cables and hear a difference, as did I.  But I did not think it was a clear cut "better", only different.  My question to him was, are we really hearing the effect of the ifi power or merely all the extra connections and usb cables? 

No answer!
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Cos

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #23 on: August 21, 2015, 08:58:35 PM »

Howdy! A quick and not very educated observation: Using Wyrd out of a Mac desktop to Modi (1.0) and Audioengine resulted in more clear sound and disappearance of distortion at almost any listening levels. To me the effect as quite obvious, not sure if it is just because the Mac USB is particularly bad or what but I did not feel compelled to take it out and reassess after the original A/B.
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madaboutaudio

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #24 on: August 21, 2015, 09:01:08 PM »

Anyone tried this femto grade spdif reclocker? It's $399.

https://wyred4sound.com/products/digital-converters/remedy-reclocker
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bixby

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #25 on: August 21, 2015, 09:13:27 PM »

Howdy! A quick and not very educated observation: Using Wyrd out of a Mac desktop to Modi (1.0) and Audioengine resulted in more clear sound and disappearance of distortion at almost any listening levels. To me the effect as quite obvious, not sure if it is just because the Mac USB is particularly bad or what but I did not feel compelled to take it out and reassess after the original A/B.

Depending on how bad the distortion WAS, you may have larger issues that may be remedied, but glad to hear the Wyrd is working well in your setup. 

Are you doing anything other than playing music when it sounds distorted?  And of course, how many other usb devices are on the bus?  Is the Mac tweaked?, etc.
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firev1

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #26 on: August 22, 2015, 04:13:19 PM »

Just some info that one can read through to bring readers up to speed with what was discussed before. The measurements show, these devices do work some voodoo on devices. Unfortunately I can't verify the performance on passive devices like the Jitterbug, Ifi purifier.

http://www.changstar.com/index.php?topic=691.0

But stuff like the Wyrd, Tone regen are pretty legit and work pretty well though the effects on different systems differ.
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AllanMarcus

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #27 on: August 22, 2015, 04:20:35 PM »

Just some info that one can read through to bring readers up to speed with what was discussed before. The measurements show, these devices do work some voodoo on devices. Unfortunately I can't verify the performance on passive devices like the Jitterbug, Ifi purifier.

http://www.changstar.com/index.php?topic=691.0

But stuff like the Wyrd, Tone regen are pretty legit and work pretty well though the effects on different systems differ.

I thought the term voodoo implied that there was to actual change in something, that any perceived change was all in the head. Voodoo is akin to snake oil.

I assume you mean that the devices you mention actually add some value.
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firev1

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #28 on: August 22, 2015, 04:27:06 PM »

Its voodoo in the sense that it should not matter but it does. Repost on ODACv1 with and without the Wyrd. The differences are audible to me too.


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AllanMarcus

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Re: USB cleaner, purifiers, decrapifiers?
« Reply #29 on: August 22, 2015, 06:59:27 PM »

So, audible as in if your try really hard with critical listening, you can hear a slight difference, or audible as in OMG this is so much better?
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