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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: Carrera2 on August 22, 2007, 04:30:48 AM

Title: Where should I post this? UA-5 playback capabilities
Post by: Carrera2 on August 22, 2007, 04:30:48 AM
Not sure where to post my question.

A UA-5 can play back at 24/96.  Will a 24/96 signal over the USB (I believe that 24/96 can travel in one direction, but not two simultaneously over a USB 1.1 port) connection be output to the optical outs on the UA-5 (without going through the DAAD chain?  It appears to me from looking at the block diagram on top of the UA-5 that a signal input by USB will output to either an optical or coaxial output directly.

Any experience?  Have I got this right?



Title: Re: Where should I post this? UA-5 playback capabilities
Post by: sunjan on August 22, 2007, 06:16:30 AM
A UA-5 can play back at 24/96.  Will a 24/96 signal over the USB (I believe that 24/96 can travel in one direction, but not two simultaneously over a USB 1.1 port) connection be output to the optical outs on the UA-5 (without going through the DAAD chain?  It appears to me from looking at the block diagram on top of the UA-5 that a signal input by USB will output to either an optical or coaxial output directly.

Any experience?  Have I got this right?

Hey Carrera2,

Can you elaborate? The terminology you use is a bit confusing, since the UA-5 doesn't playback anything on it's own. I guess you're talking about output of sound that it's been fed with.
What are you feeding the UA-5 with? A signal coming from your computer via USB, or from a recording device?
Is this a stock unmodded UA-5? Depending on the mod, some USB functionality is disabled, so it helps to know which version you have.

Read more about the different mods and what they do to USB:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,14389.msg178660.html
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,12028.0.html
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,5203.0.html
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,2845.0.html

/Jan
Title: Re: Where should I post this? UA-5 playback capabilities
Post by: Carrera2 on August 22, 2007, 02:27:06 PM

Thanks, +T for the good work.

I was familiar with the FAQ.  I have the choice of using either my Busman modded UA-5 or a stock UA-5 (I have one of each).  The plan for this setup is to use the stock unit.

I want to play a 24/96 file on my computer and get a digital signal fed to either a coax or optical input on my new (hasn't yet arrived) headphone amp. (Yes, I could go computer > headphone amp via USB directly, but that path is limited to 16/44.1.)  From having read the FAQ, I understand that the UA-5 cannot convert optical > coax or vice versa.  But from the block diagram, it appears to me that the USB will feed its signal directly to either the optical or coax outs on the UA-5.

I also realize that over USB 1.1 that the UA-5 (stock) cannot send and receive signals  simultaneously to and from the computer at 24/96 (for overdubbing) but only at 24/48.  The reason I kept the stock unit of for that functionality in my home "studio." But the USB is capable of transmitting a 24/96 signal in one direction.

I am told that the M-Audio transit could provide this functionality, but I think my existing UA-5 can provide the same functionality.  Can anyone confirm that?

Title: Re: Where should I post this? UA-5 playback capabilities
Post by: willndmb on August 23, 2007, 09:08:35 AM
i can tell you that you will in fact need to use the stock ua-5
once you mod the ua-5 you can record into a comp via usb, but not playback into it

depending on your outputs/soundcard you could go...
optical/coax in > optical/coax out > stereo too

the last thing i know is that the ua-5 does output optical AND coax at the same time
i don't know however if it will convert one signal to another

so really i am not much help :)
but you will need to use the stock ua-5 if you are using usb