[audioengr]

I have been eagerly awaiting the new circuit boards and they finally came in.  They worked first time and the results are simply stunning.  It's much more fun to build the new board than modify the Transit anyway. Today I will compare a Freeway 2 to the original Off-Ramp Turbo.  The new Freeway 2 crushes the old Freeway and may even outperform the original Off-Ramp Turbo.

I still have some machined boxes for the original Off-Ramp and Freeway that I have modified to accept the new Off-Ramp Turbo 2 and Freeway 2, so I am able to switch to the new product quickly.  Everyone that has pending orders for either Off-Ramp Turbo or Freeways will get the new versions.  First Freeway 2 shipping on Monday.

Pricing is similar, but with some tweaks:

Off-Ramp Turbo 2 - $950
Freeway 2 - $600

AES upgrade - $150 more
RCA output jack in lieu of captive cable (copper with direct-gold plating) - $15 more
AES/EBU output jack in lieu of captive cable - $25 more

Steve N.

[dnewcomer]

is the freeway 2 with the I2S interface also available, now?

[audioengr]

is the freeway 2 with the I2S interface also available, now?

Yes, the Freeway I2S has been available for some time.  $600.00 plus shipping

Steve N.

[shokunin]

Nice.. is there a way that the Offramp can be slaved off the clock in my dac (has BNC word clock in/out)? 

[audioengr]

Nice.. is there a way that the Offramp can be slaved off the clock in my dac (has BNC word clock in/out)? 

This function is not available.  I doubt if the clock would be lower jitter anyway.  There would have to be a modded Superclock3 driving the word clock.

Steve N.

[audioengr]

The testing I did today demonstrated that the new Freeway 2 is actually better than the original Off-Ramp Turbo.  You can now get the performance of the $950 OFT for $600.

Steve N.

[Bemopti123]

Hi Steve:

I have been following the development of your Offramp and other USB audio products and went to your site in other to read some specs and I find news about the Belkin wireless USB with dongle news on your first page.

Let me understand this, so you would connect one end of the USB dongle piggied to a computer with either Itunes or Windows Media and the like and

the other section of the USB would be ideally next to the stereo.  One of the USBs would be connected to a USB sound card which would be connected to a DAC and into the stereo, right?

Another thing that I noted is that this Belkin device does 24/96 oversampling, which would mean that what signal it broacasts wirelessly would be superior to almost ANY sort of the same device out there?

Now we are talking about potential here, if all I have written above is correct. 

I sold off my Squeezebox 2 due to the fact that its interface quirkiness did not do it for me and its impossibility in displaying Asian characters made 1/2 of my music library useless.  Not that I really was able to notice the incredible quality of computer audio as so many people have touted as the next best thing.

[kfr01]

Steve:

Congrats on the test.  I look forward to hearing more about the product before ordering.  What do you believe accounts for the increased performance?

Karl

[audioengr]

Hi Steve:

I have been following the development of your Offramp and other USB audio products and went to your site in other to read some specs and I find news about the Belkin wireless USB with dongle news on your first page.

Let me understand this, so you would connect one end of the USB dongle piggied to a computer with either Itunes or Windows Media and the like and

the other section of the USB would be ideally next to the stereo.  One of the USBs would be connected to a USB sound card which would be connected to a DAC and into the stereo, right?

Correct, the sound card is a USB converter such as the Off-Ramp Turbo 2.

Another thing that I noted is that this Belkin device does 24/96 oversampling, which would mean that what signal it broacasts wirelessly would be superior to almost ANY sort of the same device out there?

Yes, the current wireless solutions that use 802.11G only support 16/44.1kHz.  This would support 24/96.

Now we are talking about potential here, if all I have written above is correct. 

I sold off my Squeezebox 2 due to the fact that its interface quirkiness did not do it for me and its impossibility in displaying Asian characters made 1/2 of my music library useless.  Not that I really was able to notice the incredible quality of computer audio as so many people have touted as the next best thing.

IMO, 24/96 upsampled on a PC is superior to MAC or PC driving 16/44.1, or even upsampled 24/88.2.  If the quality improvement of computer audio is not obvious to you, then you must be using the wrong gear.  The technology is simply superior to CD players.

Steve N.

[audioengr]

Steve:

Congrats on the test.  I look forward to hearing more about the product before ordering.  What do you believe accounts for the increased performance?

Karl

There is not doubt in my mind, it is the design of the circuit board and parts selection.  I expected it to sound better.  There is only so much than I could do to improve the Transit.

Steve N.

[brj]

I find news about the Belkin wireless USB with dongle news on your first page.

Let me understand this, so you would connect one end of the USB dongle piggied to a computer with either Itunes or Windows Media and the like and the other section of the USB would be ideally next to the stereo.  One of the USBs would be connected to a USB sound card which would be connected to a DAC and into the stereo, right?

One caution... based on what I've read, the Belkin CableFree is based on Freescale's ultra-wideband radio techonology.  There have been reports that this technology may be somewhat sensitive to interference, and that it may thus have difficulty penetrating walls.  I don't know how reliable this information is, because it is often quoted in articles that document some of the other competing UWB technologies soon coming to market.

By the way, Gefen is apparently coming out with a wireless USB extendor based on the same Freescale techonology.  This might be worth investigating as well.

[audioengr]

Do you have a link to the Gefen site?

BTW - I have at least one customer using the Opticis USB interfaces.  Some say they are not as good as USB cable, but I think they just may need better power supplies.

steve N.

[shokunin]

www.gefen.com is the site, but I didn't see the wireless usb products listed.  Google's first hit gave me this:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/01/07/wireless.usb.extender/

sounds interesting but is still rather limited in range.

[brj]

I don't think it is shipping yet.  Here is the press release.

[indirstr8s]

Will it available with I2S too.

Sanjay

[audioengr]

Will it available with I2S too.

Sanjay

Sanjay - it is already available with I2S.  The I2S board came before the Off-Ramp Turbo 2 board.  I started with the I2S board design to make the Turbo 2 board.  The I2S is wonderful and this is why the Turbo 2 is so good.

Steve N.