When will TechTools usb cables be ready
Hi,
I’m desperate to get my hands on a couple of the TechTools usb cables,
when are they gonna be up for sale again?
Thanks
i have both djtt and normal gold plated usb cables and i myself can not tell the difference
never had any problems with a normal usb cable,as long as its gold plated you are fine
Yeah you could be right, but I like the size of DJTT cables
and I like to support DJTT as much as possible
oh i agree support DJTT always,but they are nothing special in terms of usb cables.
Why ‘as long as it’s gold plated’. TBH I’d be more concerned about ferrites and (realatively) short length …
Yeah good point,
Thats what’s good about em
why would the length make a difference?
Longer cables are more prone to interference … ferrites help, but don’t totally guarantee to remove the problem. It’s generally a good idea to use the shortest cable you can get away with …
shorter the better.
usb cables are digital, theres no such thing as interference, they either work or they dont.
Bullshit. They are a piece of wire. Just like a radio antenna.
When the weather’s crap I can’t get digital TV. “But it’s digitial - there’s no such thing as interference!”
If your USB cables have crap shielding or are long enough to pick up substantial EMI then you will cause data errors that exceed the error correction checksums in the USB standard.
…lol
What this man said.
(I suppose your statement of ‘they either work or they don’t’ does have a grain of truth in it, as when the signal gets so corrupt error correction fails it does just stop working … no degradation of sound, just on to off.)
i have 2 5ft techtools cables. dont leave home without them 
Degradation of sound can of course due to the digital nature only occur at a quantized level, but as an analogy, everything we perceive as analog, even our surroundings is by physics quantized. Rather, usb cables can introduce jitter and minor drop outs from interference for audio due to the lack of a QoS service, host dependence and isochronous data as only a few examples.
As a further notice, even the USB.org briefly mentions the issues that can arise with ferrite beads.
http://www.usb.org/developers/usbfaq#sig4
USB’s differential signaling implementation helps against interference somewhat (but other than this there is no real error check, as the lost packets aren’t properly compensated drop out occurs), but I still believe audio interference over USB can be a very real thing which is most often that not noticed until you get major drop outs; this said, it’s nothing like what we consider analog interference, it is in essence a matter of 1’s and 0’s getting from A to B at a micro level, but it can end up being strikingly similar to analog interference if your cable is insufficient. If it is, it is. If it isn’t, it isn’t - there’s no more magic to it than that.
I’d advise anyone to get a proper cable (and they don’t have to be expensive).
Hmmm, this sentence confuses me. A digital signal sent over a USB cable is a string of ones and zeros. If you look at the line level voltages these are implemented at a physical level at (depending on the speed rate you’re running at) 0.0–0.3 volts for low and 2.8–3.6 volts for high rate so an issue occurs where the signal attenuation/induced currents blur these - USB signaling is half duplex and uses a toggling of J&K pins to signal one and zeros, so all you need to do is attenuate one pin and induce a creent in the other and you’ve got your corruption.
What do you mean by “everything we perceive as analog, even our surroundings is by physics quantized” I suppose if you go to the Plato’s cave analogy then ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ may be considered quantised rather than true analogue (i think - but then IANANeurologist), but I’m (genuinely) don’t understand the point you’re making?
Wonder if there’s an application level FEC or something being implemented by either the midi (for controller to software signals) or the audio stream (for soundcard to laptop) …
Wonder why that is? people seem to assume ferrites = good, and the developers FAQ states that sometimes they can occasionally make things worse …
Is the implication here that the degradation in audio is caused by the application layer introduing extra latency to ‘fix’ a corrupt signal recieved over USB, which can sound like jitter?
Ultimately - this ^
Oh and this isn’t a pop at you, I’m just interested in your statement, and am by no means an expert in this area.
I’ll answer each quote with a separate paragraph.
What I meant with the first quote you used was merely that quantum physics kicks in sooner or later. I wanted to bring some light to the fact that even if minor drop outs or other discrepancy from intended occur, we might not be able to perceive them. You might hold a sphere which to you would be considered a perfect, smooth sphere. In fact, a perfect sphere is only an abstract concept.
First off, I now notice I wrote asynchronous but obviously meant isochronous, I was going off to have lunch so I was in a hurry (asynchronous data transfer for usb audio has got a feedback loop, reducing jitter with an external clock). FEC is not supported by the midi standard specifications (if I remember correctly) but can be implemented over USB, and USB in itself is capable of it, and required for isochronous data transfer for audio to fill up the buffer if necessary, but not for error correction.
Probably because at some point in time someone thought it would be cool marketing, or some engineer drew the wrong conclusion from some other application where ferrite beads were useful. In fact they function as low pass filters and reduce the bandwidth. Which to be frank is something USB needs.
With isochronous data there is no error checking and thus no compensation. Instead I was focusing on how the issues interference imposed on the cable could show themselves, while relating to the previous analogy - even if you can’t perceive any drop outs, there may very well be several every second. But if you can’t perceive them, they don’t really matter in this case. My comparison with analog audio was admittedly not developed well enough; what I was trying to convey was the idea of smaller digital drop outs being a lot like something like turning electric appliances on and off in your home related to your audio equipment. Cracks, pops and other short term problems can occur, Not necessarily something you automatically think of. Major drop outs may be more like a loud 50/60Hz mains hum, more noticeable and problematic.
I didn’t take it as a pop either, and I’m no expert either. I’m a huge nerd and (somewhat sensible) audiophile though who takes every chance to read up on stuff haha.
I’m very happy with the DJTT cable I have, so I’m happy to shell out for a couple more.
Even tho the cable I got with my most recent MidiFighter did not come with one
Hey,
Can Midifidler and co have any idea’s when the usb cable will be up for sale?
Thanks
Spend buckets on Monster crap, then buy DJTT - they WORK!