First one of its kind

Jun 8, 2007 12:46 GMT  ·  By

I guess. I mean, this is by no means the first device if you're talking about internal power but the fact that it can directly pass-through the audio signal using an USB header is indeed a new thing. And as a result you may get an audio quality which surpasses even dedicated amplifiers ten times as expensive. Anyhow, let's get started.

If you have a new gadget, probably one of the best places to show it off is a large IT show. And since Computex is living its final hours as we speak, Silverstone couldn't miss the occasion to launch such a device at this event. Evidently one might ask: what is the relation between a PSU producer (integrator) such as Silverstone and audio amplifiers?

I guess Silverstone themselves couldn't answer that question but if you look at the device itself you will probably realize that the manufacturing issue is besides the point here. The EB03 consists of a small board which fits inside your PC and is being fueled by a 4-pin floppy disk power adapter. The sound is being transmitted directly to the USB headers of the board so there is no digital to analog conversion until the signal reaches the amplifier.

Silverstone has rated its amplifier with 35W of output power per channel. In my opinion it is a little more than a floppy header can pull out from the PSU but they should know better. SNR is rated at 105dB directly from the amplifier and that's pretty good when compared to most consumer end power amplifiers. However they didn't present any additional info such as THD, Noise and Intermodulation.

The output of the card consists of two RCA headers. Silverstone is undecided whether to include a cable for stripped-end connections in the same package but they have already announced that the expected MSRP for this card will be $50. Overall, if this product ever makes it to mass production, it could be very successful. Provided it does what it says. For now I'll keep my doubts about the power part.

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