Stellar Gain Cell DAC and USB DAC-UP

Audio Components DACs
1

I own a Stellar Gain Cell DAC, and I’ve been discussing on another forum, different methods to place my music server in a remote room of the house.

So, now I’d like to lay out one plan or thought and see 1) If you think it’ll work and 2) if it seems like a good plan. (The other thought is to place the music server local to the Gain Cell, using a short USB cable.)

  1. First, I believe that the USB port on the Gain Cell is USB 2.0, as it indicated this in the manual.
  2. On the remote server I would use a Gigabyte mother board, which has a USB DAC-UP port. I believe it to be a USB 3.2, based on this quote from their website: “GIGABYTE USB DAC-UP 2 allows you to increase the output voltage of the USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the front or back panel to strengthen the stability of your USB device(s).”
  3. I would be utilizing USB over Cat5/6 (no ethernet, no IP, just USB signal.)
    1 Port USB 2.0 over Cat5 / Cat6 Extender - USB Extenders

The Startech USB over Cat5/6 adapters states that they are USB 2.0

Any ideas or thoughts on this? Will it work?

2
  1. Yes, it’s definitely USB 2.0.
  2. I’m wondering why you would need something like this.
  3. Kind of reminds me of the old Lanrover. As far as the GDAC goes, it shouldn’t really care.
1 Like
3

OK James, thanks for responding and let me step back a bit. I am trying to research how I might locate a music server in another room, remote from where my Gain Cell DAC is located. The only available port on the DAC is USB. Obviously I can’t run a direct USB cable for the 30 feet between the two. Right now I think that I might have two options to accomplish this.

  1. Run a cable, which I have, which is a Sewell Direct Light-Link USB, USB 3.0 over Fiber. The possible issue here is that it requires USB 3.0. So it might not work with the DAC.
  2. The other option is, the one that I had described above. Basically running a cat5/6 cable between them and then adapters to convert Cat5/6 to and from USB. This is fine for the DAC and adapters (USB 2.0). The issue here is will this work with a DAC-UP port (USB 3.1)?

Can you verify that one or both of these options will work. Or might you have another idea?

4

:grimacing: Ehh, to be honest, I think this is one of those situations that you’ll have to try it first. I’m doubtful option 1. will work, but it’s certainly possible that option 2 will. I asked around a little and know one was certain.