Advice re low-cost DAC > audio USB converter OSX

[RogerS]

I bought this device from Keene two years ago.

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/unbra ... b/dac.html

At first it worked fine but now it doesn't. I see that the current spec at Keene says Windows only. It didn't say that when I bought it and as I said, it worked then. But now subtle changes in the OSX means that it no longer works.

I see that Amazon list the same device

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lindy-Digital-A ... escription

and they say it IS OSX compatible. But I'm not going down the route of trying it/finding it doesn't work/sending it back.

So can anyone recommend a reasonable low-cost (ie below £60 preferably) replacement? Don;t mind buying secondhand...low cost is the priority.

TIA

 

[Eric The Viking]

Telling granny about eggs, I suspect, but have you done a bit of Googling to see what's been broken? Might be worth opening it to find out what chipset it is, too.

It is a long time since I had to do this...

... There is/was a freeware USB probing software package that shows what the device returns to an inquiry/identify command (its manufacturer, name, and some things about what it does and how it works), which should be used by the OS either to drive it generically or look it up in the table of devices. I believe OSX has been modified from BSD (wot it's based on, IIRC), so that it doesn't do the generic substitution thing. Only things in Apple's list are permitted.

If it's not in there you should be able to amend the driver table appropriately. What usually works is picking a similar device (by device class) and copying it and renaming it to the id string returned by your device.

Although USB is serial, the protocols seem to be very similar to SCSI, if that means anything to you. I can't confirm it, as USB was only just becoming useful when I left manufacturing, and, as the protocols are commercial ANSI standards, I can no longer get access to the documentation.

It's possible that the ports on current Apples (USB3) have had to drop some element of USB(1) compatibility but the Amazon link indicates it's USB2, which ought to be fine.

The above *might* help, but probably doesn't!

E.

PS: I have/had an M-Audio Transit for PC use, which did a very similar thing (well, USB to SPDIF in/out and analogue outputs). but it only had drivers for a PC and was a bit temperamental. The present motherboard has native SPDIF, so I gave it to my son. Apparently it works natively on Win7. I don't know if they still make something similar, but when it did work, the performance was quite good.

 

[RogerS]

Thanks EtV but it's not worth digging that deep. LITS !

 

[cambournepete]

Try Richer Sounds or Russ Andrews

Customer service from both us good, and the Richer Sounds extended warranty is also good value and refundable!

 

[CHJ]

Quite a few devices that were supposedly USB2 complient will not communicate with USB3 despite USB3 being listed as backward compatible by many. Older TOM TOM's for instance.

Can you try the device on a machine with true USB2 capability?

 

[RogerS]

Quite a few devices that were supposedly USB2 complient will not communicate with USB3 despite USB3 being listed as backward compatible by many. Older TOM TOM's for instance.

Can you try the device on a machine with true USB2 capability?

My Mac is true USB. Certainly not USB 3 !