This is completely different when transferring digital music data: The data are transmitted in real time. Errors or losses in signal transmission are not corrected due to the design. The USB interface is prone to noise, time errors, and data loss; all things that are particularly critical when transmitting audio data. In addition, there is the annoying 5-volt power supply cable of the USB standard, which is routed very close to the sensitive data signals, but which cannot be easily dispensed with. None of this is new, so it is all the more surprising that even in the case of investments in higher and highest price regions, little attention is sometimes paid to this problem.

And that's where Ideon Audio's re-clockers come in. All four models are designed to compensate for and correct signal degradation on the USB transmission path due to cable loss, poor power supplies and clock errors. The special feature is that it always goes in and out via USB. There is no conversion to another data format, such as S/PDIF or I2S^. Ideon addresses the USB vulnerabilities on three levels. The whole thing is then succinctly called 3R and stands for Re-Drive, Re-Clock and Re-Generate.

The core chip, which is used in all four Re-Clocker models, is an individually configurable hi-speed hub controller of the latest generation. Ideon has developed its own firmware for this chip. According to Ideon, signal amplification and correction are implemented in the chip at both the input and output of the re-clocking process (re-drive). In particular, this is intended to minimize the effects of the subsequent USB connection to the DAC. The chip gets its clock signa from a high-precision clock oscillator. This precisely re-clocks the data stream coming from the source, which is intended to minimize jitter in particular. So that there are no misunderstanding: The clock signals have no relation to the audio sample rate frequencies at this point and are not directly involved in the signal conversion. Rather, the USB data stream is re-clocked, which is supposed to make the work of the connected DAC easier.