Well thanks for this thread. When I bought a Vista box I couldn't get a driver for my old external Soundblaster so I just plugged the jack from the amp into the headphone socket, with the results you'd expect. This thread inspired me to check for a Vista compatible driver and I found one. 8)
I have an arcam rpac and am very impressed with the results, I am no expert but it was comparible to my marantz ki signature mk2 cd player (pretty reasonable device held in pretty good regard.) I did a few blind tests on family and a lot of considered listening to see if I had made the right choice or if I will use it as a stepping stone until I could afford a audiolab m-dac, for the price and the application I am using it for I am very happy.
slightly off topic, but one of the first things I would do is get the music off your laptop & on to a raided hard drive.
Sooner or later your laptop will either have a hard drive fail, go up in smoke or get nicked.
I've seen a "High speed USB2 15M active repeater extension cable" but with a warning that some isoch devices won't work. Does that mean I'll be losing sound quality?
And because I'm old & dull I tend to back my stuff up. Music files etc synced between laptop, desktop, phone and external hard drive.
I've seen a "High speed USB2 15M active repeater extension cable" but with a warning that some isoch devices won't work. Does that mean I'll be losing sound quality?
No, you won't lose sound quality by using a usb extension, not in an audio sense as in the audio will sound worse. However with cheap USB extensions, it maybe just won't work at all. You may get complete gaps in your audio or similar rubbish. Isochronous devices means audio and video devices, ie. exactly what you're trying to plug into it, so it may well not work.
Having said that you're only bunging out one channel and don't have anything else on the USB extension like a hub, so you might be lucky.
Stupid question, but I think no one has asked it - I take it your amp doesn't have optical or spdif inputs, as that'd be a much better way to deal with this situation than running big USB cables, and a USB soundcard supporting it would be dirt cheap.
USB 2.0 provides for a maximum cable length of 5 meters for devices running at Hi Speed (480 Mbit/s). So be prepared for more expense as you pay for the necessary amplification , and the subsequent drop in sound quality!
USB is a digital signal - if you use an extender that supports high speed devices, there will be no drop in sound quality, as the digital to audio conversion happens after the USB lead. If you use an extender that doesn't fully support high speed devices, all hell will break loose and you'll get no sound or gaps, pops and horrible noises. You're unlikely to get any situation in between.
