Interspace USB to Balanced Box (DAC)

[amirm]

This is a review and measurements of the Hive Interspace USB Balbox adapter. It is built in UK and was kindly drop shipped to me by a member. The version I have is no longer on their site but they do have a version 3. No specs are provided to know if there are improvements in issues I have found.

The version 3 costs US $183. If mine is anything like it, it only exposed 16 bits at sampling rates of 44.1/48 KHz. It must be one obsolete, old PC targeted DAC silicon.

Measurements, after setting Windows Volume to max, was super disappointing on multiple fronts:

For a professional product, I expect minimum of 4 volts output. Here, we don't even have 1 volt! And yes, this is with the pad disabled. Enabling the pad gives you candle light levels of output!

Moving on, we see massive distortion as one would expect from super vintage DAC IC. I realize this is a "solution box" but come on, please give it modicum of attention to produce proper output, not this embarrassing level.

Didn't see the need to measure more.

Conclusions
A robust metal box ready to spit out quality audio over USB to balanced XLR would be nice to have. Alas, while the company manages to produce that as far as physical construction, the guts need major transplant surgery to even approach anything I recommend. As noted, it needs to have far higher output voltage, not underperforming even a $9 dongle!

Needless to say, I can't recommend it.
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[MMJ]

That was quick

 

[DWPress]

V3 better be something special for $183.

edit: we'll probably never know!

 

[dtaylo1066]

I saw this when walking in a field today! Cow dung! Yeeesh.

 

[dtaylo1066]

They don't even advertise it as an audio product but to reduce hum when running USB from your computer.

You could get a number of DACs or dongles that would be half the price and surpass this piece of poop.

D10S, Go Link, etc., E1DA, etc.

 

[beeface]

They don't even advertise it as an audio product but to reduce hum when running USB from your computer.

You could get a number of DACs or dongles that would be half the price and surpass this piece of poop.

D10S, Go Link, etc., E1DA, etc.

USB BalBox 3 - Interspace Industries

Eliminates hum problems when connecting audio from your presentation computer source

www.interspaceind.com

it's definitely advertised as an audio device. to understand the first sentence, you need to understand the problem it's trying to solve

it's designed for use in live environments, totally different to the products you mentioned

I used to work in AV hire at a venue. we'd use devices similar to these. the main concern is reliably getting audio to a mixing desk. using a device like this is far preferable than using the audio output of the laptop (if the laptop even has one). this isn't a high fidelity product and it doesn't claim to be one - it's likely just going to be used for a video in someone's powerpoint presentation. it'll ideally do a good enough job for that, the main concern is being reliable and robust.

 

[amirm]

I used to work in AV hire at a venue. we'd use devices similar to these. the main concern is reliably getting audio to a mixing desk. using a device like this is far preferable than using the audio output of the laptop (if the laptop even has one).

I would go alone with that if it did better than 1 dBu output. BTW, I switched the thing to mono and the waveform got completely distorted!

 

[beeface]

I would go alone with that if it did better than 1 dBu output. BTW, I switched the thing to mono and the waveform got completely distorted!

tbh I'd expect a Radial to at least be passable. Never heard of Interspace, I don't think it's distributed here in Australia

 

[DonH56]

OK, the product sucks, but the beheaded panther with the Royal Guard hat is genius!

 

[Mnyb]

I understand it’s kind of a problem solver thing to have in your pocket when needed . But why so bad ? How do you even manage to design it so badly ? a simple old 16/48 usb interface and some DAC chip are not this bad ?

 

[kemmler3D]

If this was $22 I might be willing to say "mission accomplished - with some casualties" but for $183 you have a wide array of options that will do the job with 2-4x the output and 100x cleaner.

If you absolutely must have this form factor and it's independently documented as having survived being run over by a tour bus, maybe I can see it despite the bad output. But somehow I doubt it.

The SM58 can double as a hammer and go back to being a mic after, but it got that reputation by sounding good enough to earn a spot on stage long enough to need durability.

 

[amirm]

a simple old 16/48 usb interface and some DAC chip are not this bad ?

At the height of production of such ICs for computer use, they were likely this bad. I recall while at Microsoft trying to set the performance level better than 60 dB SNR and major PC OEMs cried loudly, keeping is from being able to do so!

 

[YSC]

Wait, what? That was short! I just ready a cup of coffee and waiting to watch a long review and that’s unexpected

But just my own suggestion, for PC related hardware it’s actually common to have best performance below max output in windows volume, for some reason they tend to have the 100% at a somehow “overclocked” level. It would be interesting to see if at low volume it would become acceptable

 

[amirm]

The output voltage is its main problem at max level. Lowering it makes that situation even worse!

 

[dfuller]

It's putting out about 0dBu. That's... not great, but it's certainly enough to drive amps with plenty of gain, especially if there's a mixer of any sort between. 0.1% THD is less than ideal, but it's probably not enough to be objectionable in the circumstances where these are used.

 

[YSC]

The output voltage is its main problem at max level. Lowering it makes that situation even worse!

Oops I didn’t expect the distortion didn’t get better at like 80% volume.

At the height of production of such ICs for computer use, they were likely this bad. I recall while at Microsoft trying to set the performance level better than 60 dB SNR and major PC OEMs cried loudly, keeping is from being able to do so!

Somehow I still missed how a sound blaster and my favourite Onkyo soundcard sounded. Back in the days I don’t recall having felt the SQ was this bad, which I believe primarily due to the fact that most PC consumption was on crap tiny speakers with 3.5mm (Altec lensing was the TOTL hifi PC speakers for a generation..) so maybe back then SINAD was kinda moot for PC, especially pre internet era where nobody is actually critically listening to CDs using PC, and for gaming effects the games back then mostly rely on MIDI and still felt good. So in that era some 50db might be fine

 

[Mnyb]

Separate soundcard was probably not that bad , but onboard motherboard audio on the other hand

Is this actually a 12 bit DAC ?

This product is quite expensive, for 10$ I would maybe expected surplus pc motherboard parts ? But not at this price ?

Edit: comma

 

[amirm]

Somehow I still missed how a sound blaster and my favourite Onkyo soundcard sounded.

Soundblaster was a huge upgrade over in-built DACs which is what we have here. That was the standard "premium" upgrade for years.

 

[welwynnick]

Thanks Amir, I think.
Speaking as a Brit, this is embarassing.

 

[sikamikaniko]

The output voltage is its main problem at max level. Lowering it makes that situation even worse!

It´s a device designed to plug into live consoles via the MIC input; 0.7 V RMS is more than enough. However, that THD is quite poor.