The Off-Ramp 3 is our next generation USB converter, adding many features and improvements over our previous Off-Ramp Turbo 2 and Off-Ramp I2S converters. The Off-Ramp 3 has new discrete power-supply technology and clock technology that delivers even lower jitter than our previous offerings. More outputs come standard too, including isolated S/PDIF coax, AES/EBU and Empirical Audio I2S bus. As in our previous generations, the Off-Ramp 3 supports up to 24-bit, 96kHz sample-rate.
No formal reviews are out yet on the Off-Ramp3, but here is a shootout including our Off-Ramp turbo 2:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue39/ramblings_computer.htm
The Off-Ramp 3 also has the advantage that 16-bit data at 44.1kHz is changed to 24/44.1. The playback is still bit-perfect, but 24/44.1 enables digital volume control to be used without impacting the music data because of the additional bits.
The Off-Ramp 3 uses the native drivers on your computer, so no driver must be loaded for XP, Vista or Mac OSX. 24/44.1 data enables the Off-Ramp 3 to be bit-perfect on Vista.
The Off-Ramp 3 includes:
– AC Power supply
– 5m USB cable
– playback, upsampling and ripping software for PC
– Instructions for setup
Options are:
– Superclock4 (modded)
– NextGen output jack
– Canare BNC output Jack
– 5V I2S interface
A matching LI battery power supply will be available in 2009.
Pricing:
Off-Ramp 3 $800.00
$199.00 to add Superclock4
Empirical Audio products are currently only sold direct.
http://www.empiricalaudio.com