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Thunderbolt and Apple compatible audiophile USB cards?


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I got a Sonnet Echo Express SEL  Thunderbolt 3 small desktop expansion chassis and a dual port Sonnet USB C 3.1 card in it. The card has Asmedia controller chip and it seems most of the so called audiophile USB cards using NEC chip. NEC controller USB cards generally not compatible with Apple. I tried a Paul Pang v2 card and it does not work at all. I installed Boot Camp and Win 10 on a MacBook Pro, to try to PP card and does not work with Win 10 in the TB3 chassis. 

 

Does anybody know about any Asmedia controller chip and TB3/Apple compatible audiophile USB card? 

 

It is a pity that I cannot  use PP (can not use JCat Femto either, did not try Pink Faun and others as all of them seem to have the NEC controller) because the ordinary 70 dollar Sonnet dual USB C card sounds very good in the 12V/8A  linear power supply powered TB3 expansion chassis, very similar or even better than an SoTM SMS200 Neo.  This solution could give Apple owners a good and affordable way to get better sound from their systems and getting some flexibility. 

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1 hour ago, Pink Faun said:

The Pink Faun card has an ASMedia controller and can optionally equipped with an OCXO clock. The card can be powered through the standard molex connector (5V only) or A 2,5 mm barrel allows you power the card from an external linear PSU.

 

Thanks a lot, I asked the guys at Magna about it, did not get the answer yet. Do you have any experience with a TB3 expansion chassis and the card compatibility with it? If you do not have any experience I am willing to order one card to try it with the Sonnet TB3 expansion chassis. I just need to check the size of your card if it fits or not. It is a small desktop chassis.

 

I see a very good potential using TB3 expansion chassis by whom are using an Apple or a Windows computer/notebook with TB3 connection and limited internal expansion. I was very much surprised how much better I like my system this way. 

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  • 1 year later...
On 4/15/2019 at 10:25 AM, ferenc said:

I see a very good potential using TB3 expansion chassis by whom are using an Apple or a Windows computer/notebook with TB3 connection and limited internal expansion. I was very much surprised how much better I like my system this way. 

 

Hi @ferenc,

 

a VERY interesting USB card is the new JCAT:

 

https://jcat.eu/featured/usb-card-xe/

 

Will it work with the Sonnet and a new MBP with TB3 output?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

"I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe)

 

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10 hours ago, matthias said:

 

Hi @ferenc,

 

a VERY interesting USB card is the new JCAT:

 

https://jcat.eu/featured/usb-card-xe/

 

Will it work with the Sonnet and a new MBP with TB3 output?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

 

Yes, there is a good chance. The same chip is used by Sonnettech in their latest gen USB C cards, so it should work, it is Thunderbolt compatible after 10.12.6 OS. SO if you have a MacBook Pro now with this card and with a Sonnettech TB3 expansion chassis, you can use them and both the MacBook Pro and the TB3 chassis could be powered from an external linear supply. The mentioned Apple compatibility is wrong on their website (Mac OS (10.16 or later)) as there is not Mac OS X 10.16 yet, it may be a year away :) 

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34 minutes ago, ferenc said:

The same chip is used by Sonnettech in their latest gen USB C cards, so it should work, it is Thunderbolt compatible after 10.12.6 OS.

 

Do you have any info about the SQ of this new Sonnet Allegro USB-C PCIe card?

Do you think it is superior to the direct USB-C out of a MBP?

 

Thanks again

 

Matt

"I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe)

 

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1 hour ago, matthias said:

Do you have any info about the SQ of this new Sonnet Allegro USB-C PCIe card?

Do you think it is superior to the direct USB-C out of a MBP?

 

@ferenc

Sorry for the questions, you provided the info in your first post.

 

So, do you think that the "audiophile" cards are much superior to the Sonnet card?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

"I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe)

 

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On 4/14/2019 at 5:01 PM, ferenc said:

I got a Sonnet Echo Express SEL  Thunderbolt 3 small desktop expansion chassis and a dual port Sonnet USB C 3.1 card in it. 

 

Ferenc,

did you try the Sonnet USB-C card with the new ASM3142 chipset?

Thanks 

 

Matt

"I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe)

 

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On 4/27/2020 at 10:14 PM, matthias said:

 

Ferenc,

did you try the Sonnet USB-C card with the new ASM3142 chipset?

Thanks 

 

Matt

No, I did not have time, and in the meantime I built a Roon Bridge / Hqplayer NAA audio PC endpoint with linear power supply and Pink Faun USB card, so not really interested anymore experimenting with my Macbook. :)

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