Audiophile PCI to USB card

[iaudio]

Saw this on another forum:

SOtM tX-USB Audiophile PCI to USB Audio Card

On paper, looks like it could counter some of the issues inherent to USB. But would it, actually?
Anybody who has experience with such a product?
What do techies think about the rationale/ tech behind this audio card?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Approach with scepticism!

Well, why not? Shouldn't we always do that with these things?

As to this particular thing, I'll honestly say that I have no idea if any of their claimed benefits are actual benefits. This is exactly the sort of thing where measurements should help. If it does something , then why aren't they showing that it does something?

Anyway, I have this thought... The designers and makers of USB devices design and make them to work with PC USB ports as they are. And that is including the things that may not be perfect about either the specification or its implementation. If not, then surely their USB device is likely to be poor and not worth buying?

But, OK, let's say yes to that, but go on to wonder, "Is it not possible that this device might not make things even better?" Ahhh... in creeps FUD, undermining our feelings of satisfaction and security in the setup that, yesterday, we thought was just wonderful.

Thank goodness I don't use USB sound, or I might very well be feeling that myself, right now! Certainly there was a time when I would have leapt at this sort of thing .

$300 would buy a decent soundcard. If I was choosing how to spend $300 on my PC audio right now, that would be my personal choice.

I am a little less impressed with the company when I find that they are selling things like noise filters for PC fans, and even SATA disks (even the solid state ones!). This is where I fall back on my regular position: Will they make my spreadsheets more accurate? No? Then they won't make my audio more accurate either, thank you very much.

But hey, say I have an internal sound card. What about the analogue circuitry on that sound card and the electrical noise? Back to the earlier assertion: if it is a half decent device, then it is working in an environment that it was designed to work in, warts and all. If not, then it wasn't worth buying.

Still, though, there is the FUD, and many people will reach for their credit cards. Especially as some these things are not, individually, very expensive.

 

[gryph0n]

With some laptops (Apple's one Macbook famously), the USB hub that's used for the external ports is also used for internal devices like keyboard, trackpad, etc. This could lead to audio dropouts. The article below has a tiny discussion regarding the Apple USB.
Computer Audiophile - Computer Audiophile Pocket Server - C.A.P.S. v2.0

On desktops, such an implementation of shared hub would be rare. Checking my desktop's Device Manager, I see zero internal devices hooked to the USB hub. Right off, i think this device has limited appeal for it's target market (desktops).

And as Thad has mentioned, it costs more than many decent soundcards. IMO, not worth the moolah. It might have been OK at <100$ (although it would still potentially be snake oil)

I am a little less impressed with the company when I find that they are selling things like noise filters for PC fans, and even SATA disks (even the solid state ones!). This is where I fall back on my regular position: Will they make my spreadsheets more accurate? No? Then they won't make my audio more accurate either, thank you very much.

But hey, say I have an internal sound card. What about the analogue circuitry on that sound card and the electrical noise?

I have an Antec 900 cabinet, with an issue that I get static on the FrontPanel(FP) audio ports. My soundcard's backports have a clean signal, but the FP has static that is particularly susceptible to moving the mouse around (also attached to FP). I googled on this issue and it turns out that all the FP ports on my cabinet have the grounds shared. And this was for a supposedly premium case :annoyed:

I removed the mouse from the front panel, but I still got static, now synchronized the the hard disk's seeking I finally hooked up the audio to soundcard's backpanel when I couldn't eleminate the static from the FP.

So I do wonder if the SATA noise filter could have helped me. Yes, it would be the case of treating the symptom rather than the root cause (shared ground on FP), but one does wonder.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

USB can be imperfect indeed, and not all USB ports on the same machine are equal. I use the front ports on my case for all those temporary-connection things like moving files off camers, to/from phones, portable devices and so on. My case is an Antec too, the P183. I don't have any USB-audio devices, but I do believe that something like an interrupt processing problem can affect the whole machine.

That is how I happened to end up with a Firewire audio device: I had huge problems with my PCI device, thought USB was more closely allied, and that Forewire might be an extra step away. No such luck: the firewire device did not work on that machine either. Who knows, I might have been lucky with USB!

I don't really believe in SATA noise. Let me stress the really, because someone, somewhere can probably measure the EMF from the disc as it spins! Same goes for fans. True, all motors are going to radiate something, but does it make a real practical difference? I don't think so: my spreadsheets are still right! It's all data until it reaches a DAC and an analogue circuit.

All this kind of stuff is most likely to end up in dedicated music playing machine. Straight away, we can cut out any theoretical noise from fans but having a really low-power, low-temperature CPU, and we can do the same for any theoretical noise from disks by using solid-state drives. We save money on the CPU, but spend a bit more on the SSDD, but, one way or another, we end up with a music player that won't make any more physical noise than the amplifier it sits by! It's a question of using the budget well.

For the many general purpose machines, like mine, that are also used for serious music listening --- there is the FUD

Well... my cassette deck has seized up; my CD player is still working but its display shows nonsense; my amplifier control panel seems to be on its way out. The experiment I wanted to do with my PC, dedicated headphone amp or even DAC/headphone amp, is off the budget, and none of this FUD stuff has even a chance of getting onto it!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

All this kind of stuff is most likely to end up in dedicated music playing machine...

With some laptops (Apple's one Macbook famously), the USB hub that's used for the external ports is also used for internal devices like keyboard, trackpad, etc. This could lead to audio dropouts. The article below has a tiny discussion regarding the Apple USB.
Computer Audiophile - Computer Audiophile Pocket Server - C.A.P.S. v2.0

I just saw this link, where the builder is using both the USB card and the SATA noise thing.