INTONA USB 2.0 HI-SPEED ISOLATOR
Decibel Hi-Fi, recently appointed the Australian distributor for Germany manufacturer Intona Technology, has released that company’s new USB High-Speed Isolator.
‘ The Intona USB High-Speed Isolator is the world’s first fully integrated solution for the galvanic isolation of the USB 2.0 bus in high-speed mode (480 Mbit/s), thus providing an ultra-clean and stable USB-connection with separate grounds,’ said Brian Maddern, of Decibel Hi-Fi. ‘ Simply connect it between the USB port of a PC and the DAC, and it will provide an instantly-audible improvement in sound quality, so it is ideal for all audiophiles running computer-based home audio systems.’
According to Daniel Stämmler, CEO of Intona Technology, the company did not originally intend the isolator to be used in home audio systems, and only realised its potential in the consumer arena when audio enthusiasts reported improved sound quality when using the isolator. ‘ Initially, we did not focus on audiophile customers when designing the isolator,’ he told Australian Hi-Fi Magazine. ‘ We had a technical outline to overcome the needs in laboratories and industrial environments. Customers complained about noise issued by the computer when trying to make measurements down in the nanovolts region. So, we decided not to trust any external switching wall-wart, but designed our own proprietary galvanic isolated supply. This has the benefit of controlling noise and to characterise this independent of the computer’s noise. The result is an always really low-noise output independent of the environment.’ ‘Because we have a strong background in professional audio we were able to measure and tune the isolator with full attention to the audio frequency range and we are very happy that audio enthusiasts worldwide are now as well benefitting from our invention,’ he added.
‘ Intona’s Isolator is built using parallel FPGA technology to remove common mode and ground noise,’ said Maddern, ‘ with the result that it provides probably the lowest packet noise (8 kHz and harmonics) of any device while also achieving full USB repacketising and re-clocking with less than 12pS of data jitter.’ Available in Australia now, the Intona Technology USB 2.0 High-Speed Isolator sells for $495 (RRP).
For further information, please contact Decibel Hi-Fi on (07) 3344 5756 or visit www.decibelhifi.com.au