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Does using USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 make a big difference with a USB DAC?

post #1 of 12
5/17/05 at 3:44am
Thread Starter 
My laptop has 1.1 USB ports, so I don't think I can upgrade them to USB 2.0 ports without replacing a lot of expensive parts. Would this limitation significantly affect the sound quality of an M-audiophile or U-24 waveterminal type USC DAC?
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post #2 of 12
5/17/05 at 4:17am
why should it does so? of course not..
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post #3 of 12
5/17/05 at 6:06am
Getting a signal out will not be affected. I have a usb ap2496 which works fine on my usb 1.1 laptop. I think that if you anticipate using your device for production, you might run into bandwidth limitations when using many inputs/outputs at once.
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post #4 of 12
5/17/05 at 9:09am
if your laptop has a pcmcia slot you could use the following:
http://www.adaptecstore.com/index.cf...lang=US&bhcp=1

It is a pcmcia usb 2.0 adapter for $49 direct from adaptec.
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post #5 of 12
5/17/05 at 10:01pm
Thread Starter 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think those PC card slot 2.0 USB devices work at 2.0 speed if your laptop is geared for 1.1 USB. The reason being is that I bought that same 2.0 card and tried to install it, spending several hours and calling the Dell support people (I bought from Dell). It did not work at 2.0 speed, no matter what I did. I am sure that the devices I connected to it are 2.0 high speed devices. Was there something I missed? Does anyone with a 1.1 USB laptop have such a card bus working at 2.0 speed?
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post #6 of 12
5/17/05 at 10:16pm
my pcmcia usb 2 card works at usb 2 speeds on a thinkpad T30 running xp pro
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post #7 of 12
5/18/05 at 4:39am
Thread Starter 
eastein,
Are the regular USB ports on your laptop USB 2 ones? I am under the impression that some laptop hardware is just not USB 2 compatible, regardless of the cardbus. Is this true, or was I just not able to figure the USB 2 cardbus out?
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post #8 of 12
5/18/05 at 9:49am
My work laptop has only usb 1.0 ports so I use the adaptec usb 2.0 pcmcia card and things work at 480mbs with no problem.
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post #9 of 12
8/5/05 at 6:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MKAL
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think those PC card slot 2.0 USB devices work at 2.0 speed if your laptop is geared for 1.1 USB. The reason being is that I bought that same 2.0 card and tried to install it, spending several hours and calling the Dell support people (I bought from Dell). It did not work at 2.0 speed, no matter what I did. I am sure that the devices I connected to it are 2.0 high speed devices. Was there something I missed? Does anyone with a 1.1 USB laptop have such a card bus working at 2.0 speed?
While its not impossible that theres a hardware and/or software problem conflict causing you problems. As a general rule, a USB2 Card PCMCIA card or PC Card should run at USB2 speeds, even if the laptop has only USB1.1 ports.
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post #10 of 12
4/3/09 at 2:10pm
Wait, wait, wait... are there good DAC's that run over USB1? I have a couple old servers with USB1 and only one PCI slot. I wanted to put a real video card in it's PCI slot and run a USB sound card on it, but was worried that the USB sound card would not work on the USB1 port. Or is the difference that I was looking at USB sound cards and should actually be looking at USB DAC's? I wanted to be able to play games on them. Ideas?
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post #11 of 12
4/3/09 at 2:35pm
In my EMU 0404 usb DAC it says connecting the device to USB 1.0 will degrade audio quality and distortions will be heard
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post #12 of 12
4/3/09 at 3:08pm
Most USB dacs run USB 1.0. One of the few exceptions is the EMU 0404, which is USB 2.0 I believe. If your DAC doesn't support higher than 16bit 48KHz over USB, then it's definitely not USB 2.0. If your dac doesn't support USB 2.0 anyway, then even if you had a USB 2.0 controller, the DAC would still operate at USB 1.0. One easy way to tell if your dac uses USB 2.0, is that all usb 2.0 dacs require you to install drivers beyond what comes with Windows because the default Windows USB audio driver is USB 1.0 only.
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