Innuos Phoenix USB Reclocker Review

[Apesbrain]

I can't recommend the Innuos USB Reclocker. It is huge amount of money to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Well said.

 

[VientoB]

When I was in a first-year student in grad school (and this is absolutely true) -- I spent a semester "techniques in biochemistry" session working in the lab of a rather esteemed physical biochemist noted for his expertise in analytical ultracentrifugation*. Without going into too much detail, subjecting interesting macromolecules (proteins, nucleic acids... those kinds of things) to intense centripetal acceleration can tell one interesting things about their size, shape, and hydrodynamic properties. The technique(s) can be used, e.g., to study associating systems (which is what I was doing at the time). Some of these studies are performed at equilibrium; others are kinetic, measuring, e.g, sedimentation velocity as a function of... whatever.

Where this gets interesting is that the experiments are done at very high rotation rates: 50,000 to 100,000 rpm.

With a totally straight face, I asked a postdoc in the lab whether the tangential velocity at the outer diameter of the centrifuge rotor (where the samples are located) was close enough to c that allowance was required for time dilation when calculating velocities.
The postdoc laughed.

ok but what is the answer?

 

[Esprit]

1.100€?

Network Acoustics eno2

According to Chris Frankland, the Network Acoustics eno2 is an inside-and-out upgrade of the popular eno. With its excellent cables, it represents one of the best ways to improve streaming.

hifiplus.com

 

[Hargit]

If you can get your hands on it, please review Laiv harmony uddc as well. This outputs I2S which is hyped as a new standard, while I think from a technology point of view, USB would always be better due to being asynchronous and use Independent clock in the DAC itself instead of S/PDIF or I2S depended. When you have sufficient buffer and don't loose or alter bits, sound should be as good as it gets due to the clock used by the USB chip (XMOS XU-316 used in SMSL I think and others) and the DAC chip (e.g ESS9039 or other) in the DAC device itself.

 

[AdrianusG]

If you can get your hands on it, please review Laiv harmony uddc as well. This outputs I2S which is hyped as a new standard, while I think from a technology point of view, USB would always be better due to being asynchronous and use Independent clock in the DAC itself instead of S/PDIF or I2S depended. When you have sufficient buffer and don't loose or alter bits, sound should be as good as it gets due to the clock used by the USB chip (XMOS XU-316 used in SMSL I think and others) and the DAC chip (e.g ESS9039 or other) in the DAC device itself.

It will probably be just as useless, regarding so called "improvements"

 

[Maximus12]

Perhaps it’s a matter of less is more, and less costs much more!

 

[testp]

like a saying:
...less is more.. -meaning good.
if we pause for a moment and say
..more is less.. -feels also good. <-like a paradox

 

[Pearson1977]

How many here have listened to this?

 

[Blumlein 88]

How many here have listened to this?

How many who have listened to this heard it make a difference? The answer is a single digit and the digit is one of those used in the binary number system. The lower value number in that number system.

 

[Pearson1977]

It's not serious. There are actually several good reviews and many people are satisfied with this product. I haven't heard it and some measurements don't help.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It's not serious. There are actually several good reviews and many people are satisfied with this product. I haven't heard it and some measurements don't help.

Those reviews are in error after seeing the measurements. It will do nothing anyone can hear. Now if you read things on this site you know where this is going. For one thing the supposed audibility of digital clocking is somewhere between hugely overblown to very nearly non-existent. There may be a few bits of very poorly timed gear this might help maybe. If you have money for this clock however you aren't going to be using one of those. Not at all uncommon in audio for people to convince themselves and each other they hear a difference where one does not exist.

Again if you read the forum which I see you are a fairly new member, you'll know you cannot reliably ascertain minute sound quality differences with simple comparative listening impressions. You'll need something more to keep from being overcome by your natural bias.

 

[Thighsofsteel]

It's not serious. There are actually several good reviews and many people are satisfied with this product. I haven't heard it and some measurements don't help.

When you say listened to it. You are of course referring to a biased controlled listening test?
Personally any product needs to pass the “Bullshit” test before I give it my time and effort to proceed to the listening test.

 

[Pearson1977]

Those reviews are in error after seeing the measurements. It will do nothing anyone can hear. Now if you read things on this site you know where this is going. For one thing the supposed audibility of digital clocking is somewhere between hugely overblown to very nearly non-existent. There may be a few bits of very poorly timed gear this might help maybe. If you have money for this clock however you aren't going to be using one of those. Not at all uncommon in audio for people to convince themselves and each other they hear a difference where one does not exist.

Again if you read the forum which I see you are a fairly new member, you'll know you cannot reliably ascertain minute sound quality differences with simple comparative listening impressions. You'll need something more to keep from being overcome by your natural bias.

So you're saying people are lying when they say they hear a difference? I really can't take this forum seriously when so many people haven't listened to a product they're rating. It's like they're following their guru and everything he says is truth.

 

[Thighsofsteel]

So you're saying people are lying when they say they hear a difference? I really can't take this forum seriously when so many people haven't listened to a product they're rating. It's like they're following their guru and everything he says is truth.

How on earth did you jump to that conclusion?

 

[JSmith]

So you're saying people are lying when they say they hear a difference?

Don't get all defensive and take @Blumlein 88's comments as some kind of personal attack... it isn't at all. It's amazing how people get about this stuff...

No one is saying they're lying, but we're saying it's not the device (which does nothing at all)... it's the human biases at play (e.g. expectation bias) we all have due to how our brains work.

It's like they're following their guru and everything he says is truth.

See now you're just becoming offensive yourself whilst attempting to be defensive about something you don't need to be defensive about. Unless you're saying you're not human?

Did you read page 1 btw?

Innuos Phoenix USB Reclocker Listening Tests
I connected the output of the D70s to Topping A90 and drive my Dan Clark E3 headphone with it. This is an excellent closed back headphone. This means it isolates environment noise that you would have with speakers, allowing you to much more into the noise floor of the music. It also has lower distortion than just about any speaker so please don't say this testing should have been done with speakers. Headphones are the gold standard in audibility tests of small impairments.

Since I already had the D70s looped through Innuos Phoenix, I started with this chain. I queued up one of the popularly played "audiophile" tracks and listened. It sounded fine.

I then pulled the Innuos out and connected the D70s direct using the same Frankenstein USB cable. I was immediately impressed with the difference: the volume appeared louder, and noise floor sank very low. I was able to hear very subtle differences that I had not heard when I had the Innuos being in the loop!

Let me repeat: the chain that sounded worse was with Innuos! Why did I hear a difference? The measurements indicate that none should be audible. Well, the brain is not influenced by just sound. When I changed the setup to just D70s, my mind became a detective, focusing and analyzing the track I was listening to. Not surprisingly, it started to hear detail, openness, air, etc. that it missed the first time. In other words, the comparison is invalid because the state of the brain is changing due to test being sighted.

Feel free though to buy it and conduct a properly controlled blind comparison test with a DAC, with and without the reclocker. If you note a statistically relevant difference, the forum will be receptive to your data and attempt to ascertain why. But if you just say "people said so, are they lying"... well that won't fly here.


JSmith

 

[amirm]

How many here have listened to this?

I have. Did you not read the review? It made the "sound" worse in my testing.

 

[Blumlein 88]

So you're saying people are lying when they say they hear a difference? I really can't take this forum seriously when so many people haven't listened to a product they're rating. It's like they're following their guru and everything he says is truth.

I'm not at all saying they are lying. I am saying most humans if they are careless and go by memory of sound or by switching between devices without matching levels will genuinely hear a difference. With level matching and no knowledge of which device is which almost always the difference disappears.

So if someone indicates they did all the proper controls and heard a difference it is worth paying attention to them. If like most reviews you read other than here, where people listen and hear these differences then it doesn't mean anything. They are going by memory, or are being biased by price/appearance/reputation/philosophy.

In some cases, one needs not hear the product. Just like no matter how many might claim they can flap their arms and fly, I would confidently not believe them.

An uncontrolled listening comparison is given way more meaning than it deserves.

 

[amirm]

So you're saying people are lying when they say they hear a difference?

No. They just don't know how to properly evaluate the sound of something using their ears alone. This is what they need to do and they are not due to lack of knowledge:

Above says that I too performed my listening tests wrong. But you asked me for impression just like the other people you believe so I provided it.

I really can't take this forum seriously when so many people haven't listened to a product they're rating. It's like they're following their guru and everything he says is truth.

What we can't take seriously is layman understanding of how to perform proper listening tests. I can give you a box with nothing in it, have it route input to output and get testimonials from countless people that it made the sound better. Indeed, such tests have been performed. Clearly the type of listening audiophiles do is faulty so results cannot be trusted. If you are here and want to learn one thing, this would be it.

 

[Pearson1977]

How on earth did you jump to that conclusion?

As I mentioned earlier, there are many people who are satisfied with this product.

I have. Did you not read the review? It made the "sound" worse in my testing.

Yeah, you're probably the only one who's heard this.

 

[Doodski]

As I mentioned earlier, there are many people who are satisfied with this product.

Yeah, you're probably the only one who's heard this.

Why do you doubt the validity of experts whom state that this sort of device cannot and does not improve the sound?