[SLCanhead]

...

 

[stuckonsound]

@uelover
 
Thanks for the insight.

 

[Danthrax]

Just got mine for use with q701s. It's pretty amazing compared to my Xonar DX. There is a lot more weight to the music and I am definitely hearing subtle things I didn't hear before, and a lot of recordings are a lot clearer. If you get a chance check out Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence it sounds amazing. I'm still in disbelief that this is so good.

 

[stuckonsound]

Waiting for mine to warm up (cold outside) 

 It shipped from China yesterday and got here the next day, that's awesome.

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

Waiting for mine to warm up (cold outside) 

 It shipped from China yesterday and got here the next day, that's awesome.

I hope you didn't unpack it while it was cold... This is a known way to ruin electronics 

 I know, I've seen many digital cameras scrapped because of this. Is it the type of cold that puts a fog on your glasses when you come back inside? This fog also happens on electronics, and it's worse when the case is made of metal, like the D7 is.

 

[Foxjam]

I'm thinking of buying a powered USB hub for this so it will actually work with Windows 8.  I believe I've read others using powered HUBs to clean up the noise but was wondering if anyone knows if this will make it usable again.  For any Mac users did a powered HUB get rid of the error message?  I'm dying to use my D7 again, it's so much better than the E7.  Any advice (other than going back to Windows 7) is appreciated. 

 

[xxhaxx]

If you have usb port on your monitor try connecting your D7 to that

 

[uelover]

Quote:

I'm thinking of buying a powered USB hub for this so it will actually work with Windows 8.  I believe I've read others using powered HUBs to clean up the noise but was wondering if anyone knows if this will make it usable again.  For any Mac users did a powered HUB get rid of the error message?  I'm dying to use my D7 again, it's so much better than the E7.  Any advice (other than going back to Windows 7) is appreciated. 

The powered USB hub got rid of the error message on my Mac. Didn't sound as clean and pristine as before (the drop is ever so marginal) but it is perfectly functional.
 

 

[Posam]

My USB ports are only 500mA each would it still work?

 

[uelover]

 
Quote:

My USB ports are only 500mA each would it still work?

Care to elaborate a little more?
 
A powered USB hub should have no issue since the USB device's power will be supplied by the wall socket instead of your computer. The USB port on your computer is only used for data transfer.
 
There was once I forgot to turn on the power switch for my USB hub and I suffered intermittent lost and distortion in the sound.

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

My USB ports are only 500mA each would it still work?

All USB ports are 500mA. The USB standards demands it. Actually, some ports can't even supply 500mA, it was a problem a few years ago on most laptops. Today it's not really a problem though. Some laptops have one of their ports that has trouble supplying half an amp, but the other port usually has no trouble.
 
As for USB hubs, it's not a clear fix. Some hubs come with a power supply that can't even power a single port at half an Amp. Sadly, most spec sheets don't tell you how many amps the default wall wart can supply. USB standards demand that every USB port must be able to supply half an amp. That means a 4 ports USB hub must have a power supply over 2 amps, and a 7 ports hub must be fed at least 3.5 amps. In practice though, it is rare that your usb hub need to supply the full half amp to everything connected to it. This is why most usb hub manufacturers don't give you a powerful enough wall wart. For example, the famous D-Link DUB-H7 comes with a 0.4 amp wall wart, which is not even enough to fully power a single usb item. The Rosewill RHUB-300, another 7 ports hub, comes with a 2 amps wall wart, which is barely enough to fully power 4 of it's ports. The GWC HU2G40 is a 4 ports hub that comes with a 2.5 amps adapter, which is perfect.
 
But, if you plan on powering your D7 trough a hub anyways, you might as well replace the stock wall wart with a better power supply, regardless of how many amps the default is rated for. Astrodyne has a bunch of 5v PSU rated at 2amps and up, which should be a good replacement. If you want to go overkill, you could always buy/build a linear power supply. 

 

[uelover]

Quote:

If you want to go overkill, you could always buy/build a linear power supply. 

This is the way to go. 

 

 

[Posam]

I'm not using a hub, So what you guys are saying, is that this is fine? This is not one of those USB 3.0 devices and will suck the power out of my laptop causing it to implode (exaggeration)?

 

[Foxjam]

I think I'll give a powered HUD a shot although I hate to add another link in the chain and I really hate to have additional wires. It seems like it draws more power than it should considering that people are getting that error message. I guess all in all it'll be worth it (if it works) since I can't imagine something sounding better with these features in this price range.

 

[uelover]

It may be curious to question how a peripheral device could draw more power than the source could supply.
 
The USB port could only supply up to 5v (or any other maximum value). So, when the error message says that the USB device is drawing too much power, does it mean that the D7 is drawing more than 5v from a USB port that could only supply up to 5v power?
 
It would only be possible only if the D7 (or any USB device) has the ability to reach into the USB port on our computer and suck out (by an act of force) more power from other components and channel them into the USB port.
 
A better way to make sense off the error message is that the 5V output from our USB port is insufficient to power the D7 fully which might require more than 5V power. Thus, the computer may disable other USB devices just to ensure that a stable 5V of full power is being supplied.
 
But still, that doesn't make sense because all the other devices would still continue to work normally, including the D7.