192kHz sampling over USB 2.0 on an old, old PowerMac G5

[Part-Time Audiophile]

Anybody know if the USB 2.0 on a PowerMac G5 is capable of supporting 192kHz sample rates? I know that it's generally supported as of Snow Leopard (10.6.4), but the PowerMacs got left behind at 10.5.8.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

It should be capable of it, but you may have trouble with the software required. 24/192 is not nearly enough data to saturate the pipe or max the G5 processor.

 

What device are you thinking? I have an old G5 and cans test it possibly.

 

[Part-Time Audiophile]

OS X 10.5.8 is limited, IIRC, to 24/96 over USB -- as are all Mac OS X 10.6.x versions right up to 10.6.4. Which is why all the new async converters are floating out now. Gordon Rankin would be able to confirm, I suspect.

 

It could be that Apple released a patch to 10.5.8 near when 10.6.4 came out, one that fixed the 24/192 support on their USB 2.0 implementation, but if so, I can't remember it. I do know that 10.5.8 came out in August of '09, some 6 months prior to the fix in 10.6.4, so I'm not terribly hopeful that 10.5.8 can pull off the higher sample rates.

 

I suppose if you have a brand-new Ayre QB-9, or one with the new 24/192 board, or a Wavelink, you could hook it to your G5 and see if it can lock on 192kHz source material.

 

[Part-Time Audiophile]

Gordon has a page up, here: http://www.usbdacs.com/hs24192/hs24192.html. Makes the case pretty clearly -- its 10.6.4 or go lower-res.

 

I'm guessing that means you need a custom driver on everything other than 10.6.4. Which means that the old G5s might have seen the light at the end of the tunnel (think: 'oncoming train', not 'sunlight'). Well, at least for the new async USB-based DACs.

 

 

 

[Audio_ELF]

Scott.

 

There are two different "types" of USB2.0 interfaces which support 24/192.

 

The first are proprietary interfaces such as M2Tech and Wyred4Sound DAC2. These use drivers supplied by the manufacturer and can certainly work on older G5 machines so long as the operating system is supported by the manufacturer.

 

Second are Class 2 USB Audio devices such as Wavelength's Wavelink. These generally rely on drivers supplied by the operating system (or could have a third party driver created such as the one for Windows 7). On the Apple side, these are only available for OS X 10.6.4.

 

Hope this makes things clearer.

 

Eloise

 

[Part-Time Audiophile]

Just thought I'd bump this on the off chance someone knows if there are "generic" drivers on offer, or if Apple plans to release drivers, or if they've done so silently ....

 

FWIW, I've gone ahead and bought an EVO as a way around this, so yes, there are solutions -- I was just curious if there were any "native" solutions, or whatnot.

 

The latest DACs all seem to be supporting the native-in-MacOS route instead of providing their own (with only a couple of notable exceptions, like the ARC DAC8 and the Weiss solutions).