Should I hold out for a Thunderbolt DAC?

neekomax · « **on:** 9 Aug 2011, 02:53 pm »

Thoughts on Apple's latest data transfer technology as it relates to Audio? Are we going to see new DACs with Thunderbolt, or is it way too early? Since it's proprietary (I think), are manufacturers going to be able to sell enough of them?

wgscott · « **Reply #1 on:** 9 Aug 2011, 02:55 pm »

Apogee is supposedly going to make one

JohnR · « **Reply #2 on:** 9 Aug 2011, 02:58 pm »

Is there any theoretical advantage? I would have thought that if you were running a mixer (say) on your computer and wanted to up the bandwidth, OK, but for two-channel audio - ?

I ask this because I have been looking at an 8-channel mixer/DAC (for a while). It works with USB2, 8ch up to 96k, 4 channels up to 192 k.

neekomax · « **Reply #3 on:** 9 Aug 2011, 03:01 pm »

Cool. Apogee makes great stuff.

I could then put a new Mini in my component rack, then figure out a way to rip my SACDs to high rez files playable (I hope) by iTunes.

neekomax · « **Reply #4 on:** 9 Aug 2011, 03:06 pm »

Quote from: JohnR on 9 Aug 2011, 02:58 pm

Is there any theoretical advantage? I would have thought that if you were running a mixer (say) on your computer and wanted to up the bandwidth, OK, but for two-channel audio - ?

I ask this because I have been looking at an 8-channel mixer/DAC (for a while). It works with USB2, 8ch up to 96k, 4 channels up to 192 k.

I would think the advantage would be SQ more along the lines of S/PDIF, as USB is not always well implemented, and many prefer other coax/optical.

wilsynet · « **Reply #5 on:** 9 Aug 2011, 06:01 pm »

Thunderbolt is not proprietary to Apple. It's an Intel + Apple thing, which I assume Intel will be marketing heavily and building into their motherboard reference designs. It shouldn't be too hard for Intel to get this into, for example, a Dell computer in the foreseable future.

Having said that, I would guess that it'll be at least a couple of years before many DACs are made with Thunderbolt instead of USB. 6moons reviewed the Wavelength Brick in 2005, and I'd guess it was around 2008 that we started to see an explosion of USB DACs out there, often with inferior USB implementations, and only in 2010 did we see a lot of better USB implementations. That's about 5 years between early adopter and larger product/market fit and acceptance.

Things have accelerated, so I'll peg it at 2 years minimum. And any manufacturer that chooses to go the Thunderbolt route will wonder if there are enough Thunderbolt equipped computers out there right now to make the investment worthwhile in the short term. Assuming that an average computer buyer replaces their computer no more frequently than once every 3 years, we're talking 3 years before there are sufficiently numerous computers out there with Thunderbolt.

Apogee is making the bet now because many of their pro customers are already on Macs, ready to adopt the latest Thunderbolt technology. I don't think we can say that's true for the broader audiophile community.