Make it sound better perhaps - which is strange, because USB doesn’t transport audio, it has no sound, so how can it be made to sound better with a widget? I think someone is having you on 
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I’m planning my self to use the i2s port soon but only to play dsd1024.
You have never seen products like reclockers, regenerators, filters, isolation devices, iFi products splitting the power side of the cable And their purifier, Offramp device, and others. Some of these types of products have been out there for almost 10 years.
Sorry, but USB is data, it is not audio! You are wasting your money on these things.
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So you are saying that usb carries analog signals?
Analog transfers have always had issues with lost packets/retransmission dog data, timing issues, etc…
USB is the only interface that carries power down the same cable which introduces noise. USB is also bidirectional and is built to handle many devices that might be connected thru a usb hub.
That’s why there are many many tweaks/products on the market to get around these issues.
It doesn’t have to. My computers allow me the option to completely de-power USB ports.
How do you do that?Just curious.
Nothing special, its all in the selection of parts used in putting the computer together. PM if you want more info.
I see, so I just need the mother board with USB port with the option of no power to connected devices.
Hey Rick,
My MAC Mini runs off of 12VDC and is dead quiet as sits right with the rest of my gear. It furnishes a USB signal to my Audiobyte Hydra DDC run on 5 VDC (both units run of a Multi-Voltage LPS) then AES to my DAC. Could not be any more simple and efficient!
Just another way…that’s all!
Pretty much. Although, the same USB ports come with power filters that provide “clean” power if you so choose through those ports. With the added benefit of getting to choose better power supplies to power said motherboard.
It’s even simpler that that. You can just use a usb cable that doesn’t connect the power lines. Power and data run on different lines, so it’s possible to just make a plug that doesn’t carry one or the other. This is seen more commonly with power-only USB cables which can be used to charge devices on untrusted USB ports where you aren’t comfortable establishing a data connection (like at an airport charging station)
There are similarly data-only USB cables, although they’re not very common because there’s not much incentive for them to exist.
Also, for the record, Ethernet can also carry power and data inside the same cable. It’s called “Power over Ethernet” commonly called PoE.
And, as others have pointed out, neither USB or Ethernet carry audio and cannot color or alter the sound of your audio. The fact that there are a multitude of products which claim to solve non-existent problems is rampant in the audio world and not limited to just data cables.
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True. One of the main points of the voltage configurable USB port was that it provided filtered and stable power. Being able to turn the power off is just an option.
While I’m reading all of these scenarios, they all represent hacks/tweaks to a basic setup. If I’m using a network attached dac that is highly rated and my computer is in a different room, maybe 75 ft away from my audio room, how can you make it simpler than that?
If you tweaked your computer to run silent, what do you do to quiet down the attached disks? Using all SSD’s, way overkill for audio, using a NAS, another tweak that you had to buy. If you isolate the Mac or Unix server in another room isolated from your audio room, you can have the loudest setup and it won’t matter. You can buy a rack tray that lets you place a Mac mini inside it along with Using pcie boards and disk drives and it comes with fans to cool everything, and the music room will never hear the noise if it’s isolated.
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If you are replying to me, see my first post of this thread.
Personally, I keep my server in the basement office and a floor or more away from the main listening areas. My NAS’s are there also. I build my own large computer as a server and feeding everything via Ethernet, except for my near field desktop speakers, for which I use M-Audio AV40s fed by an EVGA NU.
Rugby, Sorry, no. I’m with you, keep the server away from the audio room and connect Everything by Ethernet. Everyone of my Roon endpoints is connected by Ethernet, and my dac in my audio room is connected by Ethernet using an upgraded Ethernet cable
Which one? I thought Ethernet cable is Ethernet cable as long as it works?
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Because they cost thousands of $$$
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Get a Nucleus and a DAC and connect them with USB, you will need those anyway.
Then borrow, or buy with a return policy, an Ethernet endpoint.
If you notice a difference, done.
If you don’t notice a difference, return it, done,
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