I have Roon core set up on my iMac Pro. I ordered a Nucleus + early last month. Mine won’t ship until 9/20. In the interim, I would like to use my iMac Pro with Roon Core on it and take a USB output on a dock connected to the Mac to a Chord Hugo TT 2 which will be about 25’ away in a rack with my audio system. There are USB 2.0 A to B printer cables that look like they will work, but they are generally pretty low computer quality cables. This is a short term idea I can use to get some music through my system and burn the TT 2 in. Anyone ever tried anything this long? Is this basically a bad idea?
I wouldnt in general. Excessively long USB cables are often a source of problems. I have a couple of audio devices that I do habitually use with 5m USB cables without problems (one of which is regular carrying many channels of audio upto 192K/24), but they are high quality cables intended for this kind of abuse. I think 7.5-8m is going to be too much however.
Try it, you might get away with or you might not - see if you get glitches/dropouts etc. At least you will be aware that it can cause problems and so if you get such problems, you know what to do about them (network adapter, or better/shorter cable or move stuff).
It can be done at a price. Long USB Cables that incorporate fibre optic technology can be had but they are not cheap.
5m max is the spec for usb-2. Perhaps using an active repeater extension cable?
Thanks everyone. I knew it was a long shot. It was intended as a temporary measure until the Nucleus + arrives. I think it will be more bother (and frustration with the sound) to set this up than to wait a month.
I’ve successfully used this -
It has a signal repeater built in.
An alternative would be to use either an AirPort Express or a Chromecast Audio connected to the DAC optical input. Either should work over WiFi, or the AE may be used with wired Ethernet.
The Plugable USB example above looks like an interesting option without too much cost. The only problem is I need an A to B cable. I could not find any in that configuration. I do have a short A/B cable that “should” work I suppose.
It’s an extension. You plug a USB cable into it.
Thanks, I am going to try it. I will only use it for a month or so.
One additional question. I assume that Roon will detect when I have the USB cable plugged into the iMac and connected to the Chord DAC and this will offer it as an output option. Right now, I only have three including the thunderbolt dock.
It has a powered USB port - will that work?
I tired this connected to one of the USB ports on my iMac Pro. It works great. In spite of the 10 meter cable and cable that connects to that to the Hugo TT2 the sound is great. This will do nicely until the Nucleus + arrives. The improvement using this DAC over what it replaced is amazing.
I noticed some static when controlling Roon with my iPhone, and changed to a different wireless network in the house and the static was gone. Very strange.
I spoke too soon. It seems when I use the system which has roon core on it, the sound is pretty good. When I use a wireless device, and I have tired an iPhone 6s, a MacBook pro, and a newer iPad Pro, all of them produce static in playback. If I toggle the pause play a bit in the iMac Pro, I can get a bit of static that goes away if I wait a bit.
I am going to mark this up to the 30 + feet of USB, that must be acting as an antenna. Anyone else have trouble like this?