Apparently, Mr Hotte is intellectually itinerant inveterate.
(Which I would interpret as a global graphiti artist, in search of liquidity. But I've always been somewhat of an intellectual nob, therefor more than likely mistaken)
The more I look on the net the more outrageous stuff I see, and at outrageous prices.
Lots of flashy websites with all sorts of claims, BUT how much of this stuff gets sold really ?.
Dan.
Lots of flashy websites with all sorts of claims, BUT how much of this stuff gets sold really ?.
Dan.
"Many designed were perfected, then rethought, and improved upon, only to be put away again."
So maybe not that many sold, even though they improved on perfect designed!
This may be Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer in a lab coat, in a new venture following the failure of Kramerica Corporation.
As an example the Uptone Audio USB Regen has sold more than 2500, quite a few have also bought other vendors USB hubs (cos that's all they are folks) to compare and play with comparing the resultant sound in sighted sessions... fine and dandy as long as its not passed of as serious scientific research.
A lot of this stuff doesn't have really serious research and product development behind it, despite the claims (often based on a guru spending hours in solitude tuning the circuitry by ear) so start up costs are minimised...
There seems to be a lot of plagiarisation, USB devices are a perfect example, a new gremlin is discovered by the Audio fraternity (USB packet noise, previously unknown!!!!) and suddenly there is a raft of audiophile products to address the issue, most just USB hubs or in-line filters most not really laid out with isolation of noise taken into account... But all seemingly having a very noticeable positive effect on the sound in sighted listening. One challenge for a blind test has been avoided recently on another Forum!
A lot of this stuff doesn't have really serious research and product development behind it, despite the claims (often based on a guru spending hours in solitude tuning the circuitry by ear) so start up costs are minimised...
There seems to be a lot of plagiarisation, USB devices are a perfect example, a new gremlin is discovered by the Audio fraternity (USB packet noise, previously unknown!!!!) and suddenly there is a raft of audiophile products to address the issue, most just USB hubs or in-line filters most not really laid out with isolation of noise taken into account... But all seemingly having a very noticeable positive effect on the sound in sighted listening. One challenge for a blind test has been avoided recently on another Forum!
Of the subjective reviews I have read, a disproportionate number contain the phrase "seems to"......hmmmm.
Dan.
Dan.
(the designer of Uptone Audio, and also likely of the usb thingy, appears to be a layout professional)
USB REGEN updated. Amazing bass! All unshipped orders will be the late – UpTone Audio
Why measure something when you can write 1000 words of fluff 🙂
Why measure something when you can write 1000 words of fluff 🙂
The designer of the Uptone is an engineer, used to work doing semi-conductor design, Mr Swenson:
Q&A with John Swenson. Part 2: Are Bits Just Bits? | AudioStream
Layout shown here, it is a basic Hub, somewhere I started doing a copy for fun, even though the chips have their numbers removed you can reverse engineer by looking for USB hub drivers in a 28 pin QFN package and match the pin outs... because it is a hub device the USB data is regenerated so their is some isolation, but coupling of noise has not been considered...
UpTone Audio USB REGEN | AudioStream
The Jitterbug is thrown together with no regard for the noise coupling mechanisms, no point filtering if you aint going to lay it out properly, I gave a more in depth critique on the jitterbug thread on this site.
The Uptone Regen is a basic USB hub with lots of words surrounding it, the Jitterbug is a joke.
It is the way loads jump on the bandwagon, create a new myth or fear and then milk it, quite honestly my tolerance for a lot of what goes on in some areas of audio is decreasing greatly... Top of the tree though has to go to this lot....
Synergistic Research
Given their use of a 3 ohm resister for isolation effect of the cable ground as a reference could that have caused so noise isolation ?😱
Well I'm happy, they should at least get the same deal as the op-amp rollers. They need to explain how digital manipulations are audio frequency specific.
Somewhere in one of the pages linked was mention of data signal rise times getting into power/earth planes and effecting on board oscillator.
Dan.
Dan.
Eh, I think you may have read it wrong could you try and find the relevant passage, they harp on about fast rise times as it seams to some to be a major factor in signal integrity (reading the what's best forum will give more insight) when in fact to fast a signal rise time causes signal integrity problems....
Signal rise times are why decoupling capacitors, their size and placement are so important to digital designs and specifically ground and power plane bouncy wouncy.... Fast rise time means fast current delivery (also a greater number of higher frequency harmonics within the square wave, Knee frequency will determine the harmonic content we have to worry about), but any switching digital signal will have some effect on the power delivery system integrity, the point is to design the power deliver system to minimise these effects, the best way is to use a power delivery integrity system to check the AC impedance of the power supply at the required frequency (only really done on very critical designs or where they have the money to spend). It is the signal switching and thus the rise and fall times we care about, cos that when the current is being switched, sourced and sank and its that that leads to all the problems, digital that doesn't switch is great🙂
Missed the bit about oscillator, again it all down to design and layout, digital almost always has clock, plenty of ways of controlling and isolating the clock from "signal rise times".....
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ECL still switches just not as harshly, again my memory is vague on this because its years since I have used it. DDR memory uses a similar sort of idea to minimise switching problems, the data etc. is referenced to Vref (always exactly half the supply voltage, thus an equal resistor potential divider is much better than a separate regulated supply as it will track the supply voltage) not 0V for switching thresholds (I am a bit rusty and need to check my documentation)...
but thanks Bill for destroying my weak attempt at humor with non-switching digital
but thanks Bill for destroying my weak attempt at humor with non-switching digital
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