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Computer Audio - To USB or Not to USB?

Posted by Cliff on from the bussing-your-notes-to-the-speakers dept.

Tom asks: "The time has come for me to upgrade the audio on my computer. This was last discussed, here.My specific area of interest, is the sound card, in its various embodiments. Two cards that I am considering are Creative Labs' Audigy2, and M-Audio's Revolution 7.1. These companies also have USB counterparts to their products - the Extigy and the Sonica Theatre - and I can't decide if USB's portability and other various advantages justify its shortcomings. Experiences, anyone?"

3 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Things to consider by chrisd · · Score: 3, Insightful
    First off, one of my friends has the m-audio and it's just amazing. Secondly, don't let the sound quality inside computers throw you off, it's got a digital output after all.

    The creative is nice, but it's been my experience that creative has a hard time supporting thier products (with the exception of their cambridge soundworks stores).

    Chrisd

    --
    Co-Editor, Open Sources
    Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
  2. Re:I wouldn't by AvitarX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    how many channels does he want for his 7.1 system?

    I am assuming 7+ the bass being sucked off all of them. It is at least 4 channels with the others interpalated so that is about half of your USB bandwidth at a minimum 7 * 2.8 and you can't fit it all and yes, I want CD quality sould if I am watching a DVD on my $150.00 sound card.

    Also USB may be doing other things. Can you watch a DVD while you print stuff out? How about the line in, for say voice chat in a game.

    I don't think that USB 1.1 has the bandwidth to support a full sound system without some crazy stuff happening (for example a driver could be setup that sends three channels (triangulate) and the card could split it up, but sounds very costly to the CPU).

    If I am totally wrong here speakup.

    --
    Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  3. Latency... by yabHuj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...is (~an order of magnitude) bigger with USB. This can be a real issue if you're doing (many) multitracks, where latencies add up.

    Higher CPU usage and bandwidth limitation (recording standard 24/96 will "max out" USB-1 at full duplex) are other issues you (usually) don't face with PCI cards or Firewire stuff.

    Price difference is not an issue usually - better ADC/DAC are expensive in every packing (PCI/USB/Firewire).

    Yes, it is advantagous to have the ADC/DAC remote from the EM-noisy PC enclosure - but the max. (specified) cable length of ~1m (correct me here please if my memory is not right - yes, I know that usually longer cables beyond the max. specification still work with a number of devices) is a bit short for nice usage above the desk.