With the 3R USB Renaissance, Ideon Audio attempts to enter a domain that few audio companies have dared to date. Outside the digital audio signal boundaries, where the raw data is located before entering the converter, inside the USB connection. Theories have been formulated and products have seen the light of the market, with the promise of improving the conditions of signal transmission "there", but among the more skeptical and cool observers there is a suspicion: Most audio manufacturers have little knowledge of what "there" is and its effects to "here", that is, to the actual behavior of an audio device. On the other hand, the truth is that Ideon offers some good ideas and its implementation is more than ambitious. Therefore, a key question is if one can shift the conversation from the simple hear-say/subjective-based acceptance or denial, to some more rational arguments, thus attributing to devices such as the 3R USB their true value.
Based on what the company says, the 3R USB Renaissance aims to improve data transfer conditions via USB ("3R" comes from "Re-Drive", "Re-Clock" and "Re-Generate "). Its place is between the host computer and the d/a converter and, according to the published details, “it offers some excellent results, highlighting the lost details and dynamics, using the ultra-low jitter clock to re-clocking the signal and minimizing any transmission losses.

Ideon states that unlike the usual data transfer via USB, where errors are corrected by repeating the data transmission, when this is needed by the system, in audio streaming a method of error correction does not exist. This, says Ideon, means that the errors remain, along with the problems that the power supply and the jitter can add. The final result of these degradation mechanisms can be heard and towards this direction the 3R USB Renaissance proves useful. Based on these claims, the device is expected to improve audio quality not only when streaming files from a computer but, also, when used with other services (Spotify, iTunes, Tidal or even with lower resolution or compressed files like streaming from YouTube.

Dimitris Stamatakos

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Original Publilcation: 2017/05/17	Last Follow Up: 2017/05/17

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