PCIe USB 3.0 host card

[PeterSt]

Thanks Nick;

re reading this it has me asking if the NOS could actually by connecting as a USB3 device. Is this possible Peter ?

Nope. Oh, later maybe (an USB3 driver which will be there at some stage).

Whether this is dealt with as USB2 is not the problem and is as expected by me, but travelling a route to a complete different chip is what not suits be much. That doesn't seem to happen in your case ...
(but what happens if you shut off USB2 ? most probably then it doesn't run anymore either ??)

Regards,
Peter

[manisandher]

I'm not sure if I can add anything useful to this thread, but using a standard USB2.0 cable, I hear a big difference between the USB2.0 and USB3.0 ports on my mobo. Unfortunately, I have no USB3.0 devices so I can't test if these ports are dedicated to USB3.0 only. But they are 'blue' and only have 'USB3' written on the mobo next to them (not USB3/USB2).

The USB3.0 ports sound much cleaner than the USB2.0 ports. They don't sound as if they're 'filtering' the sound at all. Quite the opposite - the USB2.0 ports sound thick and filtered in comparison. One thought I have is that the two ports may actually require different SFS settings. It might just be that my current SFS of 475 suits the USB3.0 ports but is simply too high for the USB2.0 ports. (I long for the day that the SFS no longer makes a difference. Until then, we just haven't cracked computer audio.)

Mani.

[Nick]

Thanks Nick;

re reading this it has me asking if the NOS could actually by connecting as a USB3 device. Is this possible Peter ?

Nope. Oh, later maybe (an USB3 driver which will be there at some stage).

Whether this is dealt with as USB2 is not the problem and is as expected by me, but travelling a route to a complete different chip is what not suits be much. That doesn't seem to happen in your case ...
(but what happens if you shut off USB2 ? most probably then it doesn't run anymore either ??)

Regards,
Peter

Peter hi,

I have all other physical USB 2 devices switched off, so the pc only has two USB ports running. When you say what happens when you shut of USB 2 do you means stop a software service ?

Mani,

I agree with your observation my ears also tell me that the filtering is with USB 2 it just does not sound as right. Do you have any general specs on the le monster pc ? What motherboard cpu and socket type did you go with ?

Cheers,

Nick.

[xp9433]

Nick
In Mani's signature
Frank

[PeterSt]

I have all other physical USB 2 devices switched off, so the pc only has two USB ports running. When you say what happens when you shut of USB 2 do you means stop a software service ?

Hi Nick - Shut off USB support in the BIOS. This is not specifically USB2, but I think it is anyway. USB3 is another section (to shut off).
Not sure what happens to the general "USB system" when the first is shut off, but at least the USB3 part keeps on running if you do.

And otherwise you can uninstall the USB2 hubs in Device Manager. Functionally that comes down to the same I think. So when that is out, you can be sure (??) your PCIe card is doing the whole of the job.

Peter

[Nick]

Nick
In Mani's signature
Frank

Ahh, thanks frank !

Mani's spec is exactly what I have been looking into for a few weeks. Asus X97 with a 3930 CPU. Lots of stuff in this architectre that I think may end up helping music, and the USB 3 port sounds like it works fine also. I will have to compare notes with Mani. But his initial comments seem promising.

Best,

Nick.

[manisandher]

Hey Nick, just let me know if you'd like some details specs of Le Monster's build.

Mani.

[Scroobius]

Hi All - eventually got round to this but in my BIOS setup I can disable NEC USB3 and/or USB 2 controller. So I have disabled the USB2 controller leaving the NEC USB3 controller running. I am now listening to music with USB2 disabled. No problems and I have not experienced any cracking at all at any time.

It does seem to me that the sound quality is even better with USB2 disabled but further listening is needed to be sure.

USB3 is on the mobo which is ASUS P6X58D-E as stated earlier in the thread

[UPDATE: OK I can say certainly there is a very significant improvement in sound quality with USB2 turned off - no question about it]

Peter mentioned earlier that dynamics sounded reduced with USB3 well that is not my experience. When I first connected to USB3 the improvement was a smoother fuller more analogue even softer sound and I can see how that might appear to sound less dynamic. But that is not my experience - my system has a very dynamic detailed sound and I would say that particularly with USB2 disabled the sound is very dynamic - no complaints at all and sounding by some margin the best it has ever done.

All the best

Paul

[PeterSt]

When I first connected to USB3 the improvement was a smoother fuller more analogue even softer sound and I can see how that might appear to sound less dynamic.

That is exactly how I experienced it. There's a somewhat less "byte" now in my case. But I'm not saying this is particularly bad ...

But personally I have learned something new : explicitly listen for distortion in the highs.

People may say "wow, good for you but I could do that ages ago", and they may be right. But still I wonder ...
The XXHE tweak allows for such a pure sound, that from there it is quite easy to see where the not-so-pure sound is coming from. So, the general perception of "pure" may be in voices, but since this will be everywhere (I know ) it can be reversely mapped from the highs just the same. And there you hear it;

"Dynamics" expressed in the attacks of nearly everything come from distortion;
It is just that minuscule edge which is audible in e.g. cymbal attacks.
But what about my elsewhere expressed now satin-like synthesized drums (think Enigma) ? here it is even far more clear, once you know what is going on.
Btw, earlier I said silk. Haha, I just noticed myself that I chaged that to satin (do you feel the difference ?).

But don't let me confuse you, when I talk about the XXHE tweak which I did above. The trick is in the combination with this USB3 connection, which I even hardly have (and others do, like Nick and now Paul). It fills up something which the tweak made lacking. How the combination can work ? I don't know yet. I guess it needs measuring deep down in the DAC to find out (so not at the outputs I mean). It must be a noise (signature) thing. No matter how small.

Peter

[Scroobius]

I find it crazy just how good these old recordings sound with NOS1. And now with USB3 even better not in any subtle way but in a very obvious "my wife can hear it" kind of way - Right now I am listening to old mono recordings of Billie Holiday - Original Masters and the sound quality is silly - as in silly good - no dynamic range old mono and it just sounds great I mean really great - it really should not but it does. There is depth and space and ambience - Billie's voice just sounds so real - what I really mean is that her voice sounds like a personal performance just for me. She is in my room singing for me. All the emotion and inflection in the voice is there - just for me. How this is possible? I just do not know but oh boy is it great listening.

So rather than putting up with poor sound quality to listen to one of the all time greats - I actually look forward to listening to the performance.

Crazy as I said before but in the best possible way.

Regards

Paul

[juanpmar]

Finally I could connect the NOS1 using an USB 3.0 cable. It was the previous cable that was defective because with a couple of new cables from a different seller and other cable brands it was working perfectly since the first moment.

I appreciate minor differences in relation with the USB 2.0 cable in the USB 3.0 port, maybe a subtle improvement in the sound scape size. I also can tell some difference, minor again, using the blue adapter with the proper cable seen in the pic in place of the other one. There is some more presence and bigger sound stage with the blue adapter. It lets me think again that there is some kind of influence of the cables.

Anyway, I still think that the sound is better coming from the USB 3.0 port than from the USB 2.0 port. It doesn´t seem to me that this is a distorted sound.

http://www.cablematic.com/Cable-y-adaptador-USB-3_dot_0/Adaptador-USB-3_dot_0-a-USB-2_dot_0-_open_parenthesis_B-Hembra-a-B-Macho_close_parenthesis_/?pag=83

http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B004Z56TSS/ref=oh_o00_s01_i00_details

Best regards,
Juan

[CoenP]

Hi all,

I don't share your enthousiasm for this route. In someway I can't reconcile with USB3 and its sound. Dispite cracking issues that seem (hopefully more than temporarily) to be solved after a driver update, I think the sound lacks something that I like and is there on my USB2 ports.

It occurred to me that, even with the latest driver (NEC/Renesas 720200F1 to 2.0.30.0) the CPU isn't loaded as tidy on USB3 than it is on USB2. The latter has a very nice repetitive pattern with the SFS controlled loading peaks, but playing on USB3 it looks messy, with more cpu load on activity. Probably you are able to reproduce this yourself.

I am using a OEM Western Digital USB3 PCIe card with abovementioned NEC chip.

I'm back to USB2 for now.

regards, Coen

[Scroobius]

Hi Coen - very interesting are you monitoring CPU usage with Task Manager?

[PeterSt]

FYI :

A week back or so, I uninstalled the Phasure driver and reinstalled it USB3 connected. I never heard one "crack" since. So there something matters too.

But notice what I said earlier : after connecting to USB3 the first time, nothing auto-installed on that port, and possibly this is not right.

Regards,
Peter


PS: Still liking it.
In my case I don't see different CPU behaviour.

[CoenP]

Hi Coen - very interesting are you monitoring CPU usage with Task Manager?

Yep.

Regards, Coen