Intona USB 3.0 Isolator Review

[Filio45]

In-between Corning had designed a USB 3 optical cable extension. That one is a must have if you need USB 3 in excessive lengths (there is simply no alternative), but it also has an excessive price point. Due to the simplifed nature of USB 3 format it is much easier to do capacitive coupling of the data lines (that's why suddenly several isolators showed up that can do so), but as USB 2 MUST be supported as well, Corning had to add a full USB 2 solution into a small connector (fabulous engineering work, done in Berlin . It is not fully transparent (shows up as hub). The most disappointing thing here is that the cable includes two thin copper wires that deliver 5 Volt to the female end of the cable, so despite being optical it does not provide galvanic isolation! I was in contact with the developers at Corning and it seemed they simply overlooked that use case. So some people carefully cut the cable's wires and provide the 5 Volt locally to the female socket to have full galavanic isolation. Not me, though, don't want to destroy it...

Hi @MC_RME . There is a similar version to the Corning from Monoprice that does have a 5V female socket. It has received some positive feedback recently on other forums, so I decided to give it a try with my one year old ADI-2 DAC and NUC7I7DNHE.

Unfortunately, I cannot get it to work. Using Windows 10 and foobar 2000, as I have been doing for a long time, the DAC shows 'disconnect' and doesn't show up in the output device drop down in foobar settings. Remove the monoprice and it's there again normally. I also connected my old Sabre USB dongle and that does work correctly with the Monoprice and it's also posssible to move files between my smartphone and NUC.

I would be grateful for any advice. Thanks..

https://www.monoprice.uk/products/m...ck-fiber-optic-slimrun?variant=31452382003287

 

[MC_RME]

I wasn't aware of that cable. From what I read it works exactly like the Corning, means no full galvanic isolation. I don't know why that cable doesn't work. And I won't buy one to find out, as with near 100% guarantee it's not a problem on our side.

 

[Music1969]

In-between Corning had designed a USB 3 optical cable extension. That one is a must have if you need USB 3 in excessive lengths (there is simply no alternative), but it also has an excessive price point. Due to the simplifed nature of USB 3 format it is much easier to do capacitive coupling of the data lines (that's why suddenly several isolators showed up that can do so), but as USB 2 MUST be supported as well, Corning had to add a full USB 2 solution into a small connector (fabulous engineering work, done in Berlin . It is not fully transparent (shows up as hub). The most disappointing thing here is that the cable includes two thin copper wires that deliver 5 Volt to the female end of the cable, so despite being optical it does not provide galvanic isolation! I was in contact with the developers at Corning and it seemed they simply overlooked that use case. So some people carefully cut the cable's wires and provide the 5 Volt locally to the female socket to have full galavanic isolation. Not me, though, don't want to destroy it...

Ted Smith (PS Audio DirectStream DAC) says the below.

So even though the ground line is there, because it is so thin, the impedance is higher than typical USB cables ground wire and reduces leakage current flow?

 

[Music1969]

And similarly (see highlighted):

 

[Nango]

@amirm I guess no one bet the 350$ .... right?

 

[Veri]

@amirm I guess no one bet the 350$ .... right?

Looks nice. Power filtering, Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC. Could be good indeed.

 

[ahofer]

I was just corresponding with Andrew Gillis at smallgreencomputer, as their Sonic Transporter seems to be a reasonably good deal relative to configuring a NUC. I was disappointed he wouldn't tell me what gen the i5 is - that determines whether it is a deal or not.

I asked if I could connect the Transporter directly to my DAC:

1. you can do that but it's not reamended. You would get MCUH better sound using a player such as a microRendu. This is trur of any music server. They don't have great USB ports like the Rendu does.

[SIC]

I take this review, and others like it, to mean that the existence of "great USB ports" is in doubt, although broken USB ports may still exist.

 

[Atanasi]

- as noted above I have no problems to quickly connect a few units and get heavy artefacts in my measurements. When I got my first Intona I was so happy that I sent them a measurement that they had put on their home page:

https://intona.eu/en/support/answer/1233

How did you connect the isolator: both audio interfaces behind the same isolator, or one with isolation and another directly?

 

[MC_RME]

The latter.

 

[Cavia]

"... a device that CLEANS UP the power and the signal ..."

Places like any digital-to-digital device in the middle.

 

[celroid]

Thanks for teaching about USB isolation and why it's not necessary if you just get a good DAC

 

[Zoomer]

USB isolation and why it's not necessary if you just get a good DAC

And where in this thread did you find the info that supports this conclusion?

 

[celroid]

And where in this thread did you find the info that supports this conclusion?

Intona knows what they are doing when it comes to proper, professional USB isolators. As much as audiophiles are running to them to buy their products, I cannot recommend it for this application. Any half-decent DAC -- and I am talking $99 and above -- produces great performance by filtering its own USB power. And isolating its digital stream from the DAC output.

 

[Veri]

And where in this thread did you find the info that supports this conclusion?

"Not necessary" seems indeed to be the correct conclusion? Even with a budget DAC that gets grounding noise, a $49 iFi iDefender would allow you to cut off the VBUS and feed it external power (some samsung wall wart would do), to solve the problem without having to resort to the $250+ Intona.

 

[Zoomer]

I'm far from an expert on this, but/so I have a hard time understanding how "the quality of a good DAC" could have an influence on electrical problems introduced upstream like ground loops, hum etc.

I think we're in complete agreement about isolators having no effect on the quality/integrity of the DAC output. But in my understanding (and experience) USB isolation can be very useful for solving electrical problems (if that's the correct term) introduced upstream (PC USB output).

 

[Veri]

I'm far from an expert on this, but/so I have a hard time understanding how "the quality of a good DAC" could have an influence on electrical problems introduced upstream like ground loops, hum etc.

Well, a more expensive DAC could actually block the incoming power completely and feed the device with an isolated 5V power line, so that a ground loop should be near impossible. More simplistic approach would be to try and block incoming noise by power filtering and/or voltage regulation. Cheaper designs still will feature none of that and be therefore quite susceptible to any flaws introduced by the host computer.

We're talking noise, though. Not some kind of "sound quality" issue.

 

[Zoomer]

We're talking noise, though. Not some kind of "sound quality" issue.

Yes.

So, if I understand correctly that would incorporate the isolation into the DAC.
Still, from a practical perspective it might not be such a bad idea to "upgrade" your existing system with a cheap but effective isolator if you're experiencing noise problems.

 

[Veri]

Yes.

So, if I understand correctly that would incorporate the isolation into the DAC.
Still, from a practical perspective it might not be such a bad idea to "upgrade" your existing system with a cheap but effective isolator if you're experiencing noise problems.

80-100+ euro is not really cheap anymore IMHO, when 100 gets you a very nice Topping D10s which has RCA and digital outs optical could provide easy galvanic isolation should it be needed.

 

[Zoomer]

80-100+ euro is not really cheap anymore IMHO, when 100 gets you a very nice Topping D10s which has RCA and digital outs optical could provide easy galvanic isolation should it be needed.

Yes optical is a solution of course. Although in my case I had to "fix" a multichannel DAC.
Just out of interest: what price range are we talking for devices with an isolated 5V power line?

 

[Veri]

Just out of interest: what price range are we talking for devices with an isolated 5V power line?

Hmm good question. I don't think you see that kind of thing under €400 range, with proper toroidal PSU.