NPC to PC USB Cable Question

Cables
1

Hi,

I have a new NPC that I am integrating into my system and want to ask questions regarding the best choice of USB cables between the NPC and the PC. Ideally, I need a long cable to move my laptop PC to the position where I do my vinyl ripping and editing using Vinyl Studio.

I have available to me several USB cables ranging in length from 1 meter to about 10 meters (a 33ft active USB cable from Monoprice). All the cables appear to work minimally in that I can record from the NPC with any length cable. My question is will there be any degradation, noticeable or otherwise, from using the long 33ft USB cable with active equalization? My question is probably more technical in nature having to do with possible effects of jitter, data loss or corruption or other anomalies that the USB transmission protocol will allow to happen and destroy the quality of the audio signal.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Joe

2

15 ft is the longest USB cable that will work reliably in all USB environments. There are also active USB cables that basically have a USB hub somewhere in their length and hence can approach 30 ft. There is such a thing as active equalization when talking about data transmission but that doesn’t help to lengthen USB cables. I’ve not heard of active equalization for USB cables, but someone is probably mixed up a little and doesn’t understand that active USB cables are describing a hub in a cable.

Anyway in general the longer a cable the more interference but coming from an A/D the only thing that matters is data integrity and that’s not an issue for certified USB cables…

3

When I experimented with longer cables, including an active cable, I found that the noise level went up when setting needle drop sensitivity in Vinyl Studio. I couldn’t say whether recording quality was affected (you would think it would not be for the reason Ted suggested).

4

Thanks to both Ted and Steve. The “active”, Monoprice, cable I have is probably of the USB hub type because, when I connect it to the computer, the OS detects it as a USB hub. I’ll monitor for noise level changes, i.e. needle drop setting needing changed as well as audible differences in the sound quality, and go from there.

Have a good new year!

5

Let us know how it goes.