USB to DAC questions

Ckorody... ah, good to know... thx for the info. So, if a USB also carries power, does that mean that there are differences b/w 'high' and 'low' quality USB ports on a computer?

This is especially interesting because I know a company that modifies cameras to output an uncompressed video signal via USB. They chose to write their software specifically for Macs because they knew the quality of their USB ports would be consistent where as with PCs they are outsourced everywhere and made my many different manufacturers with varying quality... apparently. Is this room for concern?

I am planning on picking up a laptop at this point, so cable length of a standard USB line isn't an issue now... but whether I should buy an ibook or not is the question now. I would in a second, but I heard 'tiger' is sonically inferior to 'leopard' osx... and any ibook with leopard seems more expensive than what I want to pay... which makes me just want a PC with Vista to avoid worrying about it.

Hmm, many considerations.

Gmood1- Aw, great... thats good to hear another positive input about the paradisea.

I am especially interested in the Audio Sector you mentioned. Do you have any idea how this would perform side-by-side to a paradisea?

I've owned both. I didn't have the USB version of the AS Dac however. The one in the photo was actually mine. They sound very similar. I thought the Paradisea was a tad more immediate and dynamic. The AS Dac was more laid back. Both are good. Look for a review on 6moons under Audio Zone System: DAC1, PRE-T1, AMP-2. the reviewer does a good job describing the Dac. The Audio Zone Dac-1 is the commercial version of the Audio Sector Dac..built by the same man.

I'm the guy that told the reviewer he needed a dejitter device while using the Audio Zone Dac..since he used a basic cd player as a transport. These NON OS Dacs are VERY sensitive to jitter.

First USB is ubiquitous. Meaning that it is friggin everywhere on everything. Billions of USB ports and devices out there. Obviously implementation is a concern but at the end of the day it either works or it doesn't work.

When you start to think about all this, you need to get your head around this idea of a world market that is all based on standards - no one can sell crap that doesn't work... and outsourcing and out assembly is the name of the game - not just for price but for speed and flexibility and shipping considerations...

As far as why people develop for a Mac it is most likely not because of the USB implementation. Developing for Mac means walking on about 95% of the market. Unless the application is so specialized that the customer is going to buy a computer just to run it.

Much more likely that the Mac OS offers other benefits as a platform, certain APIs etc. You need to take that kind of stuff with a big grain of salt - the Blue Side is filled with misinformation and urban myths.

Don't know about hi and lo quality ports. There are two standards USB1.1 and USB2.0 Difference is in bandwidth and rate. For audio 1.1 is fine

The other difference I am aware of is that not all USB ports have sufficient power for all units. For instance the Mac keyboard has USB ports but they won't run everything - you get a warning and then you move back to the tower.

Hard to say if Leopard will deliver better audio then Tiger. You'll do just fine with Tiger.

From what I have read, though it handles the drivers differently, Vista is not a particular improvement on XP in the audio space. But its all what you're used to - and what else you want to do with the machine.

Audio playback doesn't take much computational power, lots of people use their oldest machine as a music server and save the horsepower for where they need it.

GMood- Hmm, tough choice b/w the two then. Thanks for the info.

Ckorody- I went and checked my source about what the developer of that camera mod said about PC USB vs Mac USB. Here is an excerpt:

"To elaborate on the PC support issues in the past, our current Andromeda system for the DVX works over USB2.0. This is one of the main reasons why we could bring this system to market for such a low cost. The main 'PC' problem with USB2.0 however, is that there is no minimum required data bandwidth to be supported by USB2.0 hardware manufacturers(the 480Mbps number is just marketing).

Apple machines(with a few older exceptions) have a fast enough USB2.0 bus to support Andromeda. PC's, on the other hand, have all sorts of varying performance and the only way to find out if a system performs fast enough is to test it. It then becomes a significant problem if we need to test even a few of the hundreds(and ever-changing) PC models out there for compatibility."

But, of course, this is just one person and one subjective opinion. Also, this is in reguards to uncompressed video... which needs a much fatter pipeline as the datastream is much larger. With audio, even if there is more "varying performance" on a PC, it may not be an issue as having the maximum data potential may not be as crucial. But, you know, I'm sort of just shootin' fish in a barrel here.

Also, this application is so specialized that someone would buy a computer to run it.

I'm thinking I might try a used mac whether the USBs are superior or not... partly because I am entertaining the idea of picking up the camera mod being described in the quote... partly because people seem to really like the audio quality on them... partly because they are cheap on Ebay... and partly because I have never used one and it could be fun to try :).

If I upgraded to leopard from tiger, what is the install process like for a Mac OS. I know and have done many windows installs from scratch... is it the same process? Or is it like trying to understand another language completely...

Ok, I have another question too... this is shifting gears quite a bit, but here we go. After the Dac, I will only have about $400 to spend on an amp. Do you think my best move would be to buy an integrated or go with just a power amp?

Just running a power amp raises a few concerns for me. First and foremost, it seems kind of dangerous, doesn't it? I mean, if you have a sudden system error and the OS plays an 'error' sound... it could come through your speakers at full power and damage... something... right? Another concern is not having any other hookups to run a DVD player or something into the amp. Also, I heard if you lower the volume on digital audio, the resolution it's self is decreased, is this true? That would mean that if I used a laptop not at full volume, I would get sub-quality sound from what I could when all the way turned up, right?

Man, a lot to know with this stuff. I appreciate all the help guys.

Cheers-