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RME User Forum → FireWire & USB series → Maximum USB Cable Length?
I'm just about to order a Fireface UC and was wondering what the maximum USB cable length recommended by RME is? I couldn't find this info anywhere.
Kind regards
Bump....?
As short as possible of cause! It's a digital signal, they really don't work well over distance.
Some crappy engineer with his ears crushed, will probably try to tell you otherwise - trust your own ears!
I just bought a 1200$ 3ft. USB cable, it helped SOO much to perspective, depth, resolution especially, 3D! This has been the biggest upgrade in my system so far!
Locus Design Nucleus USB.
The USB Spec says 4,5 m as far as I know.
You can try to use a USB Hub to achieve longer distances, for example 9 m with 1 hub.
Hubs are cheap, about 10 EUR or so.
I don't know how many hubs can be cascaded.
/Uwe
It's a digital signal - so either it works or it does not work. That's all. Nothing about quality etc.
As it can be also dependent on the USB chipset, it should be hard to come to a general statement. There are also active repeaters which could help to get over a longer distance.
To get a definitive answer you have to try that out with your hardware.
I'm using a 5m USB cable without problems.
Locus design?
Locus Necessitatis rotfl
Does nobody realize he (dude2010) is joking? I liked it...
"I just bought a 1200$ 3ft. USB cable, it helped SOO much to perspective, depth, resolution especially, 3D! This has been the biggest upgrade in my system so far!
Locus Design Nucleus USB."
Phineas T Barnum (sic) said it all ....
I'd like that golden locus cable for birthday please! :-D
Stop crying and drop by Copenhagen I'll give a demo! You can have the whole system, if you can't hear any difference!
Did anyone of you actually try to change the USB cable, and have a listen, before starting to poor crap here?
Did anyone of you actually try to change the USB cable, and have a listen, before starting to poor crap here?
You mean you are serious about this stuff? USB is a data protocol (which happens to carry audio data here), not an audio format. There can be no difference in sound quality...
If you are trying to troll this forum, though, I'll delete your account quicker than you can say "USB"...
EDIT: I think he really is serious... This thing exists: http://www.locus-design.com/interconnect.html :-O
Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME
Dude, it is very easy to test whether the USB cable makes a difference or not: an inversion test! fryingpan
Setup:
Play the same audio-clip on two tracks, one of which is inverted to the other.
Send one track to the Master sum of your DAW.
Send the other track directly to an output of the Fireface UC and route that track back to an input via Totalmix' routing option.
Create a third track that monitors the input of the routed track and compensate for any latency/delay (i.e. in Live 7 I have to manually compensate by 122 samples at 32 samples audio buffer setting).
The resulting sum on the hosts Master bus null *perfectly*, and I don't mean with noise lower than -144 dB, but *completely* (aka no signal present).
By the way: Totalmix' routing does *not* happen in the driver, but in the Fireface UC, so the signal passes out of the host over the USB cable into the UC box, is routed in hardware and then passes back over the USB cable into the host.
PS: Does anyone know why (in Live 7) manual delay compensation has to be set to 58 samples + 2 x audio buffer? Shouldn't that be handled by automatic delay compensation of the host?
EDIT: I think he really is serious... This thing exists: http://www.locus-design.com/interconnect.html :-O
Yep, that was the first thing I searched for when I wasn't sure whether this is just a little internet fun or a serious suggestion. ed:
dude2010 wrote:Did anyone of you actually try to change the USB cable, and have a listen, before starting to poor crap here?
You mean you are serious about this stuff? USB is a data protocol (which happens to carry audio data here), not an audio format. There can be no difference in sound quality...
If you are trying to troll this forum, though, I'll delete your account quicker than you can say "USB"...
EDIT: I think he really is serious... This thing exists: http://www.locus-design.com/interconnect.html :-O
Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME
I just wanted to share my experiences with you guys... Jeeeeez
But forget it, I really don't give a fuck anymore.
?Musical people always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be perfectly deaf?
If you or anyone else can afford to pay $1000 for a digital cable, and it sounds better to you and it makes you feel happy, then that is fine. But what happens between your ears cannot be replicated between mine (see below).
If the digital data put into the cable is the same as the data received at the other (which can be measured), then there is no scientific basis for the claim that the cable is making an improvement over any other cable that transmits the data without error, except the phenomenon of auto-suggestion.
Only when the cable is sufficiently long and lossy that the low signal at the receiving end results in errors that can be measured in the data will the cable have any impact on the audio encoded on that data stream. And the cure is a shorter cable or a lower loss cable. Personally I have used a variety of USB cables of varying cost and have never considered the cable to have a noticeable impact on the transmission of audio data, except when it results in measureable errors in the received data stream, and that is usually due to some mechanical damage.
There are many shortcomings in the audio chain that need attention, but spending $1000 on a USB cable to replace a $5 one, both of which deliver data without measurable data errors, is not one of them.
If the digital data put into the cable is the same as the data received at the other (which can be measured), then there is no scientific basis for the claim that the cable is making an improvement over any other cable that transmits the data without error, except the phenomenon of auto-suggestion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_bias
Only when the cable is sufficiently long and lossy that the low signal at the receiving end results in errors that can be measured in the data will the cable have any impact on the audio encoded on that data stream.
And that "impact" would not likely have to do with "sound quality", but with dropouts etc.
Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME
Well, let's assume that the 1000$ cable *does* make a "better" sound without producing transmission-errors (not possible I know, but let's just assume that here):
1. With my 5$ USB cable I can *perfectly* invert/nullify/cancel a two signals out of which only one has passed the USB cable (twice). So the 5$ cable transmits all data *without* any alteration of the signal.
2. If the 1000$ cable sound "better", or rather "different" then it must be altering the data-stream. While that might lead to a more "pleasing" sound after decoding it still is an *uncontrolable* alteration.
It's a bit like putting analog gear between your digital output/DA and your speakers in order to make the sound more pleasing. It's might sound "better", but it's not the original sound anymore.
So if we assume that these cables work, then they work by *changing* the sound *away* from its original. This may be nice for hi-fi listening, but surely this is not wanted for mixing! fryingpan
Timur / Daniel
For the 1200$ Cable. No one noticed the T&C with 20% restocking fee!! 
:-O
Would the statement (below) also apply for RME? Could we have approved USB cables/ extenders on the ALVA webshop?
http://www.motu.com/techsupport/technot … ble-length
"The maximum cable length MOTU recommends between a USB computer and USB interface is 5 meters (16.5 feet). Longer runs can be achieved through the use of powered USB hubs. For extremely long runs, MOTU has tested this ( http://www.nti1.com/usbc5.html) USB CAT5 extender device, which allows USB runs of up to 100 feet."
Thank you everyone for the responses.
I have an active USB 5M cable and I also have a "USB to cat5 and back again" type extender. My UC has just arrived tonight so I'll try and let you all know...
PN
Well I'm loving my new FF UC. It's sitting on the end of a 5 metre active USB extension cable with a further 2 metres after that and working very very well. Oh, and I love Digicheck. I've waited years to have this on my mac...
Great stuff!
Hello, that is a very interesting acticle, I think I must try that cable:)
But now to another thing:
I am using a Fireface UFX as a livemixer for my band from the stage.
At the soundcheck I tried to get in front of the stage, to hear what the front system is doing.
For that I used two active USB 2 extentions from Lindy with 8m each and a 2m USB cable (=18m)
It worked perfectly for over an hour.
I think RME have done a great job with that USB interfaces!
RME User Forum → FireWire & USB series → Maximum USB Cable Length?
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