[mathgeek97]

I'm trying to use my old (2006, Core Duo, Snow Leopard, 2GB RAM - that is maxed out) MacBook Pro as a music server.  The good news is that it has USB 2.0.  The bad news is that the USB ports are both shared with the built-in iSight camera, and one of the ports is too underpowered to use my USB-powered hard drive with my music library.
I have an m2tech hiFace2 on its way to my house, but am now worried about performance with my underpowered, shared USB ports!
So, does anybody have experience with any powered expresscard USB ports?  I see quite a few for sale at around $30, but I don't really understand the whole expresscard thing.  Are these driverless?  Would these add a truly non-shared USB port (I'm thinking super-cheap Mac solution ala SotM USB card if I was building a C.A.P.S.v2 PC). I would appreciate any thoughts/solutions you all had to share.

Thanks!

[JohnR]

When you say "underpowered" you mean exclusively amps/current right? How about one of those USB power supply isolator things. You can get boards on ebay for around $25 IIRC, let me know if it's seriously of interest and I'll try to dig up a link.

[wilsynet]

Yes, you could use an ExpressCard USB 3.0 card.  They are not driverless.  Having said that, it looks like the LaCie one has drivers for Mac OS 10.6.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10535

But ... both ports are shared with the iSight camera?  You want to double check that?  There really should be one powered, and unshared / exclusive USB port.  The unpowered one you could just augment with a powered USB hub and plug your external drive into it, although you might be better off with a self powered external drive rather than rely on USB power.

[WC]

Why not use firewire instead? Or use a NAS drive (which is what I use)?

[mathgeek97]

Why not use firewire instead? Or use a NAS drive (which is what I use)?

I could use FireWire for the drive, but the hiFace2 is still stuck on the shared USB.  Right now, it's iSight, hiFace2, and a hard drive on the same shared USB. I'm trying to isolate the hiFace2 on its own USB.

[mathgeek97]

But ... both ports are shared with the iSight camera?  You want to double check that?  There really should be one powered, and unshared / exclusive USB port.  The unpowered one you could just augment with a powered USB hub and plug your external drive into it, although you might be better off with a self powered external drive rather than rely on USB power.

Here's why I'm saying they are shared.  I plugged in the hard drive and a flash drive into the two USB ports, and this is what I see:



So, the question of how to get the best USB-based audio out of this laptop is still open...
Having to have drivers for the ExpressCard USB add-on makes me very suspicious with regards to getting a minimally corrupted digital audio stream.  This laptop is already very underpowered compared to the Mac Minis that seem to be in favor around here, and I'm trying to not throw in the towel.  Really, I suppose that if the laptop -> hiFace2 -> my DAC, as is, can significantly outperform streaming via an Airport Express, I'll be happyish.

[wilsynet]

Yup, the USB 2.0 controller looks shared to me.

Off hand, I would say the built-in iSight camera that is not in use should not materially affect audio quality.  If we are to believe the claim that async USB is better because the USB audio device only receives the data when the device (and not the host) is ready, then contention for the USB bus becomes a non-issue in the common case.

Whether it outperforms your Airport Express or not, it may very well have nothing to do with whether the USB controller is shared or not.  Personally, I have found that bigger differences are found in quality of USB to SPDIF converter, quality of DAC, the audio player (iTunes, PureMusic, Audirvana+), etc.

In other words, in terms of priority, if you find you aren't happy, perhaps spending $700 on a new Mac Mini would be less effective than, say, trying Audirvana+, upgrading the DAC, or replacing the Hiface.  But, to be honest, I'm somewhat blind here because I don't know what the rest of your audio system looks like.

Having said all that, I would try to locate the drive on a different USB bus than the Hiface.  Given that all of your external high speed USB ports are all sharing the same bus, the ExpressCard option is still a good one.  But yes, you have to have some confidence that the drivers are good.

[mathgeek97]

Whether it outperforms your Airport Express or not, it may very well have nothing to do with whether the USB controller is shared or not.  Personally, I have found that bigger differences are found in quality of USB to SPDIF converter, quality of DAC, the audio player (iTunes, PureMusic, Audirvana+), etc.

I was also thinking that the iSight, since it's off, would minimally affect the USB situation.  I guess I'll try with the hard drive sharing the USB as well as with a (noisey) FireWire drive that I have.

In other words, in terms of priority, if you find you aren't happy, perhaps spending $700 on a new Mac Mini would be less effective than, say, trying Audirvana+, upgrading the DAC, or replacing the Hiface.  But, to be honest, I'm somewhat blind here because I don't know what the rest of your audio system looks like.

My system looks like this:
FLAC/ALAC files -> Audirvana+ -> m2tech hiFace2 -> AVA Vision EC DAC -> AVA T8+ -> AVA Insight+ 260 -> Salk HT2-TL
I think the wife would have to hurt me if I bought a Mac Mini, which was the main motivation for recycling an old computer that I already own.
I've been very happy with my DAC, which is being fed by a number of devices.  That being said, the Airport Express has a pretty high jitter rate (and is stuck playing 16-bit/44.1kHz files).  I'm hoping that the hiFace2 will be better with regards to that particular issue.

[mathgeek97]

Got the m2tech hiFace2 today.  It will not run off the lower powered of the two USB 2.0 ports on my super-old MacBook Pro.  Copying music to a FireWire drive as I type this...

[wilsynet]

You can also get a powered USB hub to make the hard drive work.  Anyway, would be great to hear your impressions after you get everything up and running.

[mathgeek97]

After playing around with my set-up for a while, here's what I've figured out.
I can get the hiFace2 to run on the lowered powered USB port, but it's a little flakey.  However, the flakiness was just as bad using the better USB port and the FireWire drive.
My solution is to use the nearly silent USB powered hard drive in the higher powered port and the hiFace2 connected via the other USB port.
Once OS X sees the hiFace2, I'm able to get the whole thing working nicely.  Occasionally, Audirvana+ doesn't behave nicely, but I am running one of the beta versions rather the the stable, release version.
Even with all of those negatives, it sounds better than
1) the OPPO BDP-83 via coax playing a CD or streaming a file over the network.
2) Apple AirPort Express streaming from my PC elsewhere in the house and connected to the DAC via optical output.
3) Playing directly from the MacBook Pro via the optical output.
Plus, I can now play higher resolution files and still control the whole thing using the Remote app on an iPhone or iPad.
For now I am a happy camper.  Everything is sounding better and it works (sometimes after a bit of restarting/rebooting).
Theoretically, a MacMini, which has an USB 2.0 port that isn't shared, more memory and a newer, faster processor/motherboard would sound even better.  Maybe the next time Apple takes more of my money...