Good luck with USB tuning, they weren't spec'd to be audiophile quality. I've never tried improving USB signal integrity.
They definitely weren't, but so much modern gear uses USB for many purposes. The craptastical switch-mode power supplies used in USB powered devices including computers inject noise into the audio on a broad spectrum from 60 Hz up through 20 KHz or more. The noise goes away completely when run on a USB power bank, but then you have no connectivity for data. I've looked at making clean power injection USB adapters that would enable a clean power supply while maintaining the data connectivity to other devices, but then the risk of ground loops and wrong direction power flow gets to be a big problem. That's why I'm hoping the ferrites help out enough that I can fix the remaining noise in post production if I need to. It's such a pain in the ass. Gonna spend a lot of time looking at an oscilloscope and probing around for noise over the next month or so. Fun, fun ,fun.
Gonna spend a lot of time looking at an oscilloscope and probing around for noise over the next month or so. Fun, fun ,fun.
Use FET probes if you can. The probes I used to use for sensitive high frequency circuits were rated about 2pF. Hands down the best probe for high frequency signal analysis.
I'm really surprised audiophile manufacturers went with USB for high fidelity signals. I can understand using them for any communication requirements but high quality music deserves shielded, terminated coax for maximum signal integrity.
Use FET probes if you can. The probes I used to use for sensitive high frequency circuits were rated about 2pF. Hands down the best probe for high frequency signal analysis.
If my Rigol 1054Z scope and passive probes aren't up to the task, I have a friend I can borrow a nice high end scope with active probes from. He also has a set of calibrated loop probes for EMF tracing and measurement, but honestly I think my ears and a FFT audio spectrum analysis software plugin I use will be the real workhorses in this adventure. It's going to more about what I hear versus what the scope trace shows. But we'll see how it goes once I'm wiring it all back up again.
I'm really surprised audiophile manufacturers went with USB for high fidelity signals. I can understand using them for any communication requirements but high quality music deserves shielded, terminated coax for maximum signal integrity.
A lot of "professional" music gear is made by relatively young and inexperienced small companies. To these kids the lure of USB is too strong and they go that route instead of isolating your analog and digital paths. They layout their boards with little regard to noise, rely solely on ground planes to get rid of some glitchy cross-talk and don't seem to know what bypass capacitors are for. They care more about the software that runs everything and really cut corners on the hardware unless it affects the design aesthetic they are going for (I'm looking at you, Teenage Engineering!). They then slap a price tag on it that looks like what Apple would charge you and ship it out broken (again o_o, Teenage Engineering). But that's how it is today I suppose. Sigh...
A lot of "professional" music gear is made by relatively young and inexperienced small companies.
Yeah, the young guys today were brought up in the digital age where digital recordings were deemed "good enough". Nothing like the old days of vinyl, analog amps and klipsch speakers. I can understand their marketing approach relying more on gui/features/bling vs %thd though I don't agree with it.
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