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Amps/DAC's and USB

post #1 of 5
11/7/12 at 4:36pm
Thread Starter 

Still a noob and starting to look for my first amp/DAC (other than my E6 on my gym rig)  to connect to my laptop and started to wonder about the whole USB 2.0 vs. 3.0 thing. Any issues with compatibility or is everything pretty much backwards compatible?

TIA

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post #2 of 5
11/7/12 at 4:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shockdoc View Post

Still a noob and starting to look for my first amp/DAC (other than my E6 on my gym rig)  to connect to my laptop and started to wonder about the whole USB 2.0 vs. 3.0 thing. Any issues with compatibility or is everything pretty much backwards compatible?

TIA

The Fiio E10 is a USB-DAC-Headphone amplifier that's a fairly good value at $66.

Connects to a Laptop's (or computer) USB connector, comes with a nice DAC chip (WM8740) and a headphone amplifier with a low impedance output :).

I myself have never heard of USB 3.0 offering any benefits over USB 2.0 when is comes to audio.

But who knows what new products will come out tomorrow.

I believe USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices and USB connections will work with one or the other, but it will default to max speed of the slowest.

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post #3 of 5
11/7/12 at 5:17pm
Thread Starter 

Looking at the E10 and possibly the E17 as starter amps/DACS to pair with my ancient Senn HD580 Precisions. But my laptop has USB 3.0 and wondered about any possible issues or advantages over USB 2.0. Thanks for the feedback, though.

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post #4 of 5
11/7/12 at 6:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shockdoc View Post

Looking at the E10 and possibly the E17 as starter amps/DACS to pair with my ancient Senn HD580 Precisions. But my laptop has USB 3.0 and wondered about any possible issues or advantages over USB 2.0. Thanks for the feedback, though.

 

Your USB3 ports will attach USB2 devices. For an external DAC, USB2 is more than sufficient.

 

(Are there any USB3-only DAC's? I'm not aware of any, not that I've ever looked.)

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post #5 of 5
11/7/12 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HamilcarBarca View Post

 

Your USB3 ports will attach USB2 devices. For an external DAC, USB2 is more than sufficient.

 

(Are there any USB3-only DAC's? I'm not aware of any, not that I've ever looked.)

 

USB 3 is backwards compatible with USB 2.

 

There are no USB3 DACs. And it seems unlikely atleast for the near future. USB2 meets the bandwidth requirements for audio sufficiently. 

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