Hello,

Tried my USB input for the 1st time last weekend and was wondering about others experience with it. I hooked up my few year old Dell laptop USB 1.1 and RR2150 started to hum. Played a few songs to make sure it did work and it did, but the hum persisted. Even when I powered down the laptop it continued to hum, even on other inputs, until I removed the USB cable.

Should I be looking at the cable to be suspect or the laptop, or god forbid the RR2150

Thanks,

Ranj

I have tried the USB connector, but did not run into the hum issue. I must say that I was not terribly pleased with the sound produced throught the USB, though. I was actually hoping that using the RR2150s DAC vs. the PC's would produce better sound, but it didn't work out that way. Anyway, I gave it up and went back to an analog connection from the PC to the Video ports on the 2150.

I use my RR2150 almost exclusively with the USB input (my G5 iMac is the principle source in the RR2150 system) and have had no problems whatsoever. Worked automatically, without any configuration (Mac sees it as an external sound card).

Unlike the previous poster, I think quite highly of the sound produced by the USB input. To get a handle on it's quality, I used the RR2150 for a short while in my "main rig", where the USB input was compared to my Mark Levinson 390S, both fed from iTunes running on a Powerbook. The RR2150 acquitted itself quite well.

No, it didn't have the bass slam of the Levinson, and was less musical overall, but plenty enjoyable. And, as I said above, I use the USB input every day, although not in a "critical listening" application. It beats the sound from the iMac's own soundcard.

Hey, Guys:

I just today received my 2150, so I have no feedback yet - but I do have a question: Is the "USB Port" for audio input /only/ from my computer, or will it do output as well so I can record stuff with my computer?

Bill

My understanding is that the USB port is an input only.

The USB appears to be for output from the computer only.

I just checked the "Sounds and Audio Devices" in Control Panel. The default UAC3553B USB-DAC (the RR2150 as seen by the PC) offered settings for playback only, whereas the internal sound card offered options for recording as well.

I wonder what format it the USB-DAC decodes, since it is dependent on having a player on the PC to decode the original file, whether it is cd-audio, wav, wma, flac, shn, mp3, etc.

Thanks for the response gonk and cruise. If the port is for playback only (which makes sense, actually), then I have a problem. I have a device that connects to my computer to input and output RCA jacks in the back of the receiver so that the computer can behave just like a cassette player. The problem with the 2150 is then, of course, the fact that it only can accommodate one such recording device. I'll need to either choose between my computer or cassette player, swap the cords when I want to switch, or rig-up some workaround to allow me to switch on the fly.

If I'm completely honest, though, it's very unlikely I'll be recording cassettes any time soon. I'll probably just hook the computer up to the tape input/output jacks and run the output from the cassette into one of the other inputs.

Can't the external processor output double as a second record loop?

I know that most record outputs are not affected by volume level changes on a receiver. Depending on the unit, volume level changes would likely affect either the output to or the return from outboard processing. If the output meant for an external processor is affected by volume level changes on the receiver, then the receiver's volume level would likely need to remain unchanged during any recording session.

From the RR2150 manual, "The external processor loop is a "fixed level" loop. It is not affected by the RR 2150's Master Volume Control." You'd need to enable the External Loop on the front panel and you'd need to have the desired source active (unlike the tape loop, which gets whatever source is selected at the "Record" knob on the front panel), but it should work - assuming you don't need the external processor loop for something else...