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Question for the computer music specialists

D

demu

pfm Member
How do i connect my caiman dac via sp/diff to a laptop that only has usb connection ports.

As I understand it, usb does not support 24/96, so any 24/96 improvement would be lost through the usb cable.

I have trawled through a number of computer related threads, but to no avail.

Thanks in advance.
 
I can only speak for Windows, but USB certainly does support 24/96. You would need a USB to SPDIF converter to do what you ask. Economically, you might be better off getting one of the new generation of DACs that has a good USB input
 
USB supports much higher than 24/96, its the Beresford USB inputs that don't. My DAC accepts 32/384 over USB, and there is higher than that available now.

Something like a USB > S/PDIF converter will do the trick. An M2Tech Hi-Face will be cheaply available somewhere (under £100) and give you 24/192, asynchronously reclocked.
 
Alan Brown said:
USB supports much higher than 24/96, its the Beresford USB inputs that don't. My DAC accepts 32/384 over USB, and there is higher than that available now.

Something like a USB > S/PDIF converter will do the trick. An M2Tech Hi-Face will be cheaply available somewhere (under £100) and give you 24/192, asynchronously reclocked.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but it would be 24/96, NOT 24/192, if the Beresford S/PDIF is limited to 24/96.
 
USB 2.0 (now standard on most computers) will support up to 24/284, if the DAC does! There's a large range of 24/96 USB > SPDIF converters now available: the cheapest is around £75 - ranging up to £2K+

If you have an AES/EBU input on your DAC, its normally best to use it. The power supply for the converter can make quite a difference, too: John Kenny modifies the M2Tech HiFace for battery operation which improves it considerably. Similarly, the KingRex UC192 converter can be externally battery powered.
 
"...up to 24/284...." Is that with a custom driver, or generic?

Its all down to implementation, drivers, and hardware. But in theory:

With USB 2.0 there is a RAW maximum bandwidth of 480 megabits per second.

Only using 40% effective throughput (which seems to be generally accepted and confirmed repeatedly), there is still around 190 megabits per second available - that's almost enough for 14.2 channels x 32 bits x 384 ksamples per second! (if one is so inclined)

There are certainly DACs out there now which handle the high sample rates - how audibly beneficial that is remains to be agreed.
 
item said:
USB 2.0 (now standard on most computers) will support up to 24/284, if the DAC does! There's a large range of 24/96 USB > SPDIF converters now available: the cheapest is around £75 - ranging up to £2K+

If you have an AES/EBU input on your DAC, its normally best to use it. The power supply for the converter can make quite a difference, too: John Kenny modifies the M2Tech HiFace for battery operation which improves it considerably. Similarly, the KingRex UC192 converter can be externally battery powered.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong but it's up to 32/384 NOT 24/284.
 
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