Acoustica User Forums

I'm considering upgrading to a firewire interface from the (Audiobox) USB interface that I have now. Is firewire a common format with some resilience as a choice or is there something I'm not aware of that's happening industry wide? I've been doing more video lately and am thinking it would be a good match with that as well. Thanks. -h

Firewire will be around for awhile, especially for audio/video, but it's becoming less and less common. Here's a link to some basic info.

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/compute ... net-speed/

M

Thank you.

I use trailing edge hardware that I get for cheap or even free, so I tend to favor what some would consider outdated solutions, so keep that in mind.

At this point, the only USB audio interface setup that would interest me would be one that uses USB 3.0 or higher at each end of the connection.

The reason for this is that data in Firewire can go both ways at once, whereas USB prior to 3.0 is limited to sending data in one direction at a time. This is something that those who tout USB seldom mention. I don't know if the current USB audio interfaces have USB 3.0 connectivity or take advantage of the full-duplex if they do.

Means little for thumb drives, printers, and the like, but means a LOT for audio interfaces trying to do things like software monitoring. Firewire probably has some legs in the video realm for the same reason.

As far as concerns about longevity, I figure that there will at least be Firewire add-on cards for Windows systems for long enough that I don't worry about my Firewire peripherals becoming unusable. It's more likely they will lose driver support before they lose hardware support.

Hmm, once again we come back to the difference between USB 3.0 compatible and actual USB 3.0 functionality......

I fully expected that by now we would see wide implementation of 3.0 gear, but it just hasn't happened. Probably in part because firewire has been getting the job done and companies haven't been keen on investing in new territory.
3.0 "in theory" should be capable and affordable technology and make gains into the market, but only a few pieces seem to have really been presented. I really expected that by now 2.0 would be phasing out of all but the very lower end of the interface market. I was wrong.

The open question is what one expects to gain from switching from an economical USB 2 interface to going the Firewire route. Personally I have little need for high channel counts, but evan at low counts, extremely low latency and the possibility of DSP plug in integration looks attractive.

How does this relate to "doing more in video" Harry? Not sure what the gain there is honestly.

And that brings me to a question.
My new computer supports "USB C" (And that isn't referring to a connector configuration. ) I am not finding much info on this, but I am told by some sources it is supposed to have capability of bandwidth/communication speeds that even surpass USB 3 or Firewire, Thunderbolt, etc.
Anybody know anything factual about this?

Here's an intro video from Cnet about the USB C. Seems like this is going to leapfrog USB 3/3.1

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/usb-type-c- ... -them-all/

M

There's a big difference between USB 3.0 and 3.1 (and it makes me wonder why some audio hardware peripherals don't have a combination of inputs, e.g., Firewire and USB 3. I can get a 3.1 card for expansion all right but the audio hardware just isn't there to support that format.

I do the market lag thing too and I'm seriously considering the fact that even though firewire is an aging format, thunderbolt peripherals at 3-4 times the price are just too unsettled as far as a stable market share is likely to show at some point. Money is not the problem. I don't want to be left hanging (like those M-Audio customers) with a daisy chain of boat anchors.

I'm also hearing that as firewire expansion goes, having that Texas Instrument chip on board, is doing it right as there are no data drop outs with it. Plus, a latency of <2ms is attractive as well. I believe I've pretty much decided already and I'm waiting for the bidding to commence on that EBay find. If that lasts a couple of years I'll be happy.

(I do like the on-board DSP of the Presonus 192) -h

Well, still seems the biggest problem is that the market itself is lagging if you ask me.......

But, if I understand this correctly, I could conceivably use USB 3 or Thunderbolt 2 and hit 20 Gbps, that is, hardware availability and affordability aside......

I believe USB 3.0 ticks on about 5 gHz but it's USB 3.1 that's 10gHz.

Clear as mud to me which is why I'm just skipping over it.

But, did you notice anything? There's interference with the 5 gHz broadband frequency which REALLY makes things fun. -h