Design and properties

The layout of ifi’s boxes has a chance of becoming a trademark on its own.

   The device has a design constituting another incarnation of the ifi micro standard, so again we have in our hands a silver top bent in two places, with quite fancifully shaped, also silver panels at the front and back. This model is a next generation of ifi iUSBPower module, which I personally use, which original purpose was to serve two basic functions: to amplify USB signal and clean it, all this achieved by splitting a traditional single cable into two, one for the signal itself and the other for amplifying power separated from it. Therefore the device is a kind of expanded adapter for a cable which comes out of the computer as one, then splits into two between the computer and the transmitter, and then goes into the input again as one. Apart form iUSBPower itself, also a special, double iUSB Gemini cable is needed, which can be bought for additional nine hundred zlotys. Nothing has changed about that cable, although now it is possible to use a single one, with still a vast variety of improvements. What has changed, is basically everything else, that is the quality of improvement. Optimization is here achieved not only by splitting into two cables, but also by eight separate means of achieving electronic perfection. To visualise this, ifi offers stickers with a smiling octopus which is to show that using this device is so delightful and rightful.

Let’s follow this octagonal path to perfection, like some audiophile Buddhist, because in their culture one follows eight paths to perfection, to which ifi is clearly, although not explicitly, referring.

The first improvement is “cancelling out” the noise floor of USB signal, which is called active noise cancellation. This trick has been taken from the military, specifically a from radar cancellation system of the French fourth generation Dassault Rafale aircraft, which can actively cancel the enemy radar system. With active noise cancellation, called ANC+®, which has been put into iUSB3.0, the noise floor is reduced a hundred times, decreasing to an immeasurable value of 0.1uV. The sonic effect of this is a huge step from digital to analogue music.

The second improvement is called REclock® and it consist in something that has been already elaborated upon on different occasions: a master clock, according to which the discontinued digital signal samples are matched. ifi refers to this as rebirth, that is raising from the initial rubble of bad timing. As a result, the infamous jitter, causing the annoying distortions, is killed and the music becomes cleaner, deeper and more accurate. The clock’s accuracy hasn’t been given, but it is probably the same as in the one implemented in iDSD, that is two hundred femtoseconds.

Just like the design of these unique devices. And here comes another one – iUSB3.0.

The third perfection that has been implemented is called REbalance® and is supposed to bring back the balance inherent to USB signal, which is often downgraded with unbalanced form and additionally spoilt with noise.

The fourth aspect is using the USB signal in 3.0 version, handling the transfer of 5GB per second.

The next, fifth improvement is better grounding, that is IsoGround® technology, already used in iUSBPower, and now additionally improved.

The sixth thing – Dual-Ports® – is the basic technology of dual cable, used in the previous model and also improved here.

Number seven is the possibility to charge batteries of other devices, called Bus Charge 1.2, which delivers up to 2.5 A.

All this is supplemented with the eighth improvement: correcting impedance mis-match, which is the last one of the total improvements offered by iUSB3.0 micro. This device has been designed to work with iDSD transducer and headphone amp, which has just been reviewed.

I would also like to add one or two operating notes. Our American friends have established that iUSB3.0 works significantly better when its power supply is plugged at the beginning of a power supply strip, that is on the side where the cable goes in. Apart from that, it is susceptible to polarisation, so it’s good to check beforehand how it should be oriented towards the hot line. You just have to listen with the device plugged in both configurations and you’ll hear the difference. What is also good to know is that ifi’s power supplies are of superb quality, and they are offered with four different parameters, so you can pick one that will match some of your other devices, which will surely work better with its support.

The latest ifi is a kind of USB signal regenerator.

Such power supply costs about two hundred zlotys and it’s definitely worth buying, because I’m told the satisfaction is guaranteed, and I know for a fact that making such a power supply is not a child’s play. Finally, I would like to add that the double ifi Gemini cable is really working good here, and to connect the iUSB to a computer, you have to use the cable provided with the device, which has a special USB plug with some unknown theoretical properties (grounding perhaps?), but with definitely positive practical properties, which I have personally tested. (See the picture.) And one more thing: if you’re using Foobar, it’s good to implement the ASIO plugin.