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RE: "both USB and Firewire have been over hyped."

96.25.74.167

In Reply to: RE: Others' opinions posted by Tony Lauck on June 28, 2011 at 18:57:44

Although my computer has a FireWire port I've never used it. However USB in it's current state of development is fabulous compared to where we were. To the user it is usually plug and play, these are halcyon days!

I've got perfectly good perherials that I can't use because the SCSI card won't fit in the bus sockets. And it's been quite a while since I've had to figure out what interrupts to use!

I used to design stuff that interfaced via RS-232 or keyboard wedge and in a word both sucked. Neither interface was designed for general usage yet they were the only ones typically available. From a manufacturer's viewpoint there is nothing worse than fleeting interfaces and despite a rocky start USB has been pleasingly long-lived with good support for legacy products.

Obviously the technical problems for audio use are solveable as they largely have been and it could get even easier with a little driver standardization and specialized silicon. For one thing with the higher speed versions it's becoming practical to do large dumps almost instantly allowing the play process to occur completely within the peripheral.

Your belief that adequate isolation should occur at the interface is spot on. There are already some damn good implementations and they wouldn't cost much in volume. It seems inevitable to me that stereos will ultimately cease to exist physically except for speakers as rendering nodes on an RF (or optical) network. At that point, galvanic isolation will be intrinsic.

Rick

Follow Ups:

RE: "both USB and Firewire have been over hyped." - Old Listener 13:57:06 07/02/11 (0)
> It seems inevitable to me that stereos will ultimately cease to exist
> physically except for speakers as rendering nodes on an RF
> (or optical) network.

The AVI ADM 9.1 speakers that Phelonious Ponk uses are pretty far along that road. The DAC, preamp, active crossovers and amps are integrated with speakers. And the speakers come with a remote control. The digital inputs are toslink so isolation from the aduio source is a given.

http://www.avihifi.co.uk/adm9.html

---
The Audioengine A5s I use are powered and have two analog inputs and a stereo volume control. Very handy for a near field office situation.

> There are already some damn good implementations and they wouldn't
> cost much in volume.

Lots of < $ 500 DACs coming out now.

Bill
RE: "both USB and Firewire have been over hyped." - Ryelands 13:32:09 07/02/11 (1)
It's been quite a while since I've had to figure out what interrupts to use!

Remember EISA? That was even more fun than SCSI. The latter was, of course, typically much better on the Mac than the PC. If you had a pocket full of terminating resistors and a prayer book, you could get almost anything to run. Eventually.

Odd things, computers. Normally, if something separates the men from the boys, it's the men wot can do it . . .
- RE: "Men and Boys" - rick_m 15:34:00 07/02/11 (0)
  I thought it was the other-way 'round, if your computer has you pinned to the mat, call for a kid. Maybe that doesn't hold for HW?
  
  Rick

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