I want to connect an Ideon streamer to my Vivaldi setup. Do I connect the streamer’s usb output to the Upsampler or to the dac? Does it have to be 5V or not/
Hi Antonis,
You can connect it to either, but if you connect it to the DAC you will lose the upsampling functionality so connecting to the Upsampler would be preferred.
You want to connect the left-hand (non-5V) output on the Ideon to USB 1 on the Vivaldi Upsampler using a USB-A-to-USB-B cable.
Let us know how you get on. All the best…Andrew
I had the the 5v output connected for a couple of seconds, you think that did any damage?
No, I doubt that line is connected at the Vivaldi end since it isn’t needed. @Phil?
Further to @AndrewS ypu may be interested in the Stereophile review of the Ideon Absolute Stream.
The reviewer normally uses a Vivaldi Apex stack and did so here. He found that the 5V USB connection was necessary for the Ideon to be stable. I gather that no harm resulted. BTW the reason for the 5V supply is for connected devices ( such as dongle DACs) without self power. Mind you a dongle DAC with a £24K streamer strikes me as unlikely 
.
The review reveals a mindset at Ideon that can seem to be 180 degrees away from that of dCS. I particularly note the difference in opinion on the performance of USB v. Ethernet connections ( comment @Phil or @James ?).
The review is very enthusiastic about the resulting sound however but with great reservations about the software. Perhaps this has improved during the intervening time?
I find it all very interesting and hope that you will kindly let us know your opinion once you have a chance to form it.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/ideon-absolute-stream-meta-2024-serverstreamer
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I did have (half) a chance to form opinion of the Ideon setup, the reasons being the (lack of) Nordost Odin2 power cords, I use for my dCS stack and the limited time the Ideons could be in my house. The very friendly people of Ideon strongly recommended the use of a preamp. The Nordost dealer kindly lent me a Burmester 077 with external PSU and an extra Odin2 power cord. Since the preamp has its own PSU, I used the Odin2 to power a Gigawatt power distributor (loaned) to feed the Ideon stack (AlphaWave+Absolute Time+Absolute Stream+Absolute DAC+Ideon data cables+stock power cords). First I listened to my dCS stack through the preamp, to get a feeling of the difference the preamp would make. To my surprise the system sounded so much worse, I could not believe my ears! On my dealers advice, I removed the Odin2 from the Gigawatt unit and powered the Burmester PSU with it: What a difference! The preamp preserved the excellent presentation of the Vivaldi and added a touch of liveliness. The huge improvement the Odin2 power cord did to the sound of the preamp, made me decide that it would be unfair to compare the dCS to the Ideon stack, since the Ideons only had stock power cables and a preamp was needed. So I ended powering only the Ideon Absolute stream with the Odin2 (on the AlphaWave+Absolute Time were stock cables) and had a listen, only comparing the streamers through the dCS dac: The Ideon streamer sounded very similar to the dCS. The main difference was that the presentation of the Ideon combo was a little more bottom heavy. I think I might get a chance to experience the full Ideon stack with proper power cables in the near future.
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I very much doubt that we would do anything with the +5v feed from the USB input other than leave it unterminated as we don’t need it / use it for anything as far as I am aware - it’s possible that we could use it for sensing a USB device is connected but if so then that would be all, we certainly don’t use the +5v rail to supply power to anything.
No … having a +5v connection on a USB port is absolutely normal.
Phil