I posted this some time ago in JPlay.eu forum but want to share it here as it really makes me listening to another level on the PC. I
must add to that that the analogue LP musicality "simulation" immediately disappears without using JPlay in hibernation with buffer set to 1 sample
It is more than a week later and the Olimex keeps on going to open up and become more spacier
I bought a second one and I am experimenting to completely bypass its 2 dc-dc regulators and feed it directly with 5V coming form a Paul Hynes supply. I will post my findings also here.
The enormous effect of JPlay and the Olimex needs a third leg which contributes to it: the music files
must be on an outside hdd ( I have a SSD) through a 2,5" SATA/USB converter which accepts clean linear 5v ( not 12V it will add another dc-dc converter for the needed 5V, that is why a 3,5"enclosure will sound less) . You have to tape pin4 on the USB cable to disconnect the 5V form the PC. Especially this and the use of a at least entry level audiophile usb cable is mandatory for the analogue magic. All digital DC_DC converters/Voltage regulators are a disaster to simulate musicality in the digital domain. coils to clean up the switching mess can only partial restore the damage. better is to kill them all, which is utopian, sigh. even in the innards of the hdd and on the mobo are those practical "monsters". But you can absolutely hear the improvement when one by one they are bypassed or killed in the chain. Even at last Audiophilleo will bring a battery version on the market.
To have out of a PC, space, musicality, micro details, live appearances of the music you need these 3 conditions, separate linear voltage to outside hdd Marcin discovered this to his lucky surprise- and a good USB cable, the Olimex and JPlay. If you really belief you have those musical properties already then try it out and be happily surprised. It is all under 80 US dollars excluding Jplay. Even with Jplay the combined price is less than many entree levels IC cables while the effect is forever more than the most expensive cable can ever reach.
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OK I have bought and tried the last two evenings the Olimex USB-ISO between PC and USB/SATA hdd. Ordered in Europe it will be close to 50 € incl shipping taxes and so on.
It is a nifty little device in the hands of an audiophile person. The unit has nothing to do with the audiophile paradigm but all with laboratories and programmers:
"
USB-ISO is USB Full speed USB 2.0 compliant port isolator with 1000V isolation
voltage. This device is very useful as protects your PC computer USB host from
over-voltages, ESD shock. USB-ISO provides 1000VDC isolation and this way you
can connect to your PC programmers and debuggers which work directly with
targets at high voltages like 220V mains power supply etc"It is powered by the USB host from the computer and it has a separate voltage in for extra power as well as an internal but digital. DC-DC converter.
I immediately, by taping pin 4 of the USB A cable receptacle, tried to isolate the Olimex from the dirty host 5V and feed it with an ext pws. To no avail. The PC does not see the USB port occupied.
So i tried the Olimex as advertized…
I have read on another forum that a true seeker of audiophile sound and who has tried at least 4 different brands that in the end he left the best sounding USB isolator being the Olimex, as he believed he heard the USB-ISO robbed the highs of its sparkle. Which is a sad thing, if true. When on recommendation of John Kenny I placed attenuators in the S/PDIF line between DAC and source ( in my case a Squeeze Box 3 (10db) and later The JKenny MK2 USB/SPDIF converter (21db)) I immediately heard next to a blacker back ground more space and "peace" I first heard less highs to a point I was not interested. Until with different songs I noticed I heard more high freq details but they were less sharp, less articulated.
See a a full tree in autumn as a basic black and white drawing in front of you, with a lot of branches and leaves. Now colour it with all those beautiful autumns colours . The tree smiles happily at you and seems complete. Now remove all the black lines that form the thin border between the different colours. You will have a more natural drawing with the synthetic "articulation" between the forms of colours removed. That is what the attenuators do and that is EXACTLY what the Olimex USB-ISO is doing.
It sounds as if less clear, softer, the tone shifts one octave down, while in fact it sounds less mechanical, less "hifi", less electronic, much more musical. And there is this strange thing, very positive that can be heard but I cannot get words for it. It has nothing to with frequencies although the bass under 60 hz is more clear, pronounced and defined. It is something that I never heard in contrast before. With the USB-ISO the whole music as a gestalt, as a unity becomes more "whole". The virtual reality that the system produces, becomes more real less virtual, it sounded more right and started to grow on me as becoming more important by the hour. As if all the different participants and sound elements are more synchronised to each other, working together belonging together to produce "oneness" including the echo's and the space where it was recorded. I fully understand now Marcin's enthousiasn in the galvanic isolation of the hdd
For instance on a home recording of Willy Oldham ( Bonnie Prince Billy) I could hear before the Olimex the lightning and thunder as a strange sound in the background, not belonging to the song and the singer and the guitar. It was as if an intruder which should not have been on the recording. With The Olimex it was a perfect element of the scene, as the recording (Time machine) showed how realty was at that moment. I saw a young man bent over his guitar sitting on a chair which produced some queeking sound of its own from time to time, the tapping of his foot on the ground, the room, the microphone, the table with recording gear and the storm outside the house, they became all ONE picture of what happened that day, all elements perfectly in accord with each other. It became more than music alone.
Still I have my reservation except about this "strange thing". A relative short time before the Olimex I had a new element : a brand new SATA/USB converter with 5v linear PHynes pws. I let it played 24/hrs 4 days in a row to "break in" the new 5V dc wire and the electronics of the converter as well as its USB cable. Then the Olimex arrived and did not sound immediately as described, only after 40 hrs or more of continuing play but also adding 40 hrs to its USB cable and to the rest of the new setup. I did 4 or 5 direct A/B listening {by now more then 12, still a few, but I just hate to disconnect the device as a waste of listening time] , with and without it which is not enough. I could do more, but the lover inside of me of good music refused to disconnect the USB-ISO as the music would loose this "rightness" .
Also I have a very revealing setup especially the OB speakers with Visaton B 200 paper cone drivers which fully changed their character when lacquered with Ennemoser C37. That made them very musical and transparent and ruthlessly honest to recoding mistakes also because they are corrected by the digital DEQX preamp. They are powered with highly modded Jadis tube amplifiers in triode mode not sounding like yesteryears tubes but as very fast modern tube amps with NOS power tubes and psavane 12AU and 12AX drivers.
So the sibilants in pop recordings, the electronic articulation in voices I have to accept as most recoding engineers are too much engineer and too less audiophiles. You get used to it and WILL miss it when the Olmex takes it away for at least 60%. My 21 yr old neighbor and my son of 22 ( Mp3 apple lovers) both preferred the sound minus the Olimex, only when they listened to acoustic chamber music with viola cello and piano and with my "suggestions" for what to listen for they "suddenly"( within half an hour) could hear how unnatural most pop sounded and how that was diminished by the Olimex in tandem with the other 2 conditions previously mentioned.
I assume when the stereo setup is not on the "bright" side but the opposite, a bit "lifeless" or "soft" the USB-ISO may not be welcomed. Also systems which are not transparent enough to show this 3D "rightness" will wonder about the "fuzz" I make.
I suppose the more expensive fiber glass cable option of Adnaco S3A may even sound better as I presume there is no switching dc-dc converter involved on the USB end of the unit. It has a 5V DC in
Anyone tried the Olimex? For purists who hate like I do all switching RFI generating dc-dc regulators:
What you have to do is:
1) Remove black rubber sleeve
2) Remove resistor R0 (FUSE1) – it is located between PWR jack and USB_H host (while unsoldering it be careful with C8).
If you remove R0 the power from the USB host will be disconnected so no need to alter your cables. If you don’t remove R0 and you follow the instructions onward you will have two supplies and probably would damage the board.
3) When R0(FUSE1) is removed there would be two pads left. Provide 5V to the pad near the end of the board (Not the one near C8).
Please be sure that you provide exactly 5V (not more) to the pad.
I attach a picture with explanation of the above.
Best regards,
Lub/OLIMEX
