SOTM tX-USBexp Question with Mytek Brooklyn DAC+

[ID_Guy]

Hi Everyone - just putting this one out there.

 

Acquired a SOTM USB PCIE card for use with my Mytek DAC as an upgrade. Once installed - it sees Audioquest Dragonfly DAC, Flash Drives etc. Doesn't see the Mytek. I've checked firmware and USB drivers for the Mytek and everything is up to date. Also checked the right drivers are installed for the PCIe card - all good according to SOTM themselves.

 

Can anyone explain why the SOTM card sees everything except the Mytek? By the way the vendor I bought the SOTM card from is using it in a server connected to a Mytek Brooklyn DAC in their showroom, so it should work.

 

The mytek works on every USB port on my PC except through the SOTM card. I think I need someone more savvy than me to explain this...

[The Computer Audiophile]

Is the Mytek the only device using a USB cable?

[ID_Guy]

No there are several. keyboard, Mouse. The Odd back up drive - usually off for 99% of the time. Actually that's about it. No cameras etc.

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, ID_Guy said:

No there are several. keyboard, Mouse. The Odd back up drive - usually off for 99% of the time. Actually that's about it. No cameras etc.

Is the Mytek the only device using a USB cable that's connected to the SOtM card? Do you have another DAC that can use the same USB cable to test?

[ID_Guy]

Yes the USB card only has one port. So the Mytek is the only device that is connected. Its not sharing any resource through the card. The USB cable in use to the Mytek is a vertere USb USB A to B cable. No other device i use has that connections so it's hard to replicate -  but I had another cable with these connectors and that does exactly the same. 

 

What is really confusing me is that if I use the same card port with other devices its absolutely fine,

 

What I probably should have mentioned is that before I had the SOTM card I had another USB PCie card which worked fine with all the same cables. This should have been a straight swap.

[The Computer Audiophile]

24 minutes ago, ID_Guy said:

Yes the USB card only has one port. So the Mytek is the only device that is connected. Its not sharing any resource through the card. The USB cable in use to the Mytek is a vertere USb USB A to B cable. No other device i use has that connections so it's hard to replicate -  but I had another cable with these connectors and that does exactly the same. 

 

What is really confusing me is that if I use the same card port with other devices its absolutely fine,

 

What I probably should have mentioned is that before I had the SOTM card I had another USB PCie card which worked fine with all the same cables. This should have been a straight swap.

Is the SOtM card powered by the internal molex connector or external supply?

[ID_Guy]

Internal molex

[mtan002]

Is there a driver that came with your USB card?

If the USB card is not working, you wont see anything attached to it.

 

Worth checking.

[ID_Guy]

Thanks, Yes I have checked - windows drivers installed automatically. And other devices connect through it without issue. It's just my Mytek that does not work through it. Mytek DAC works when connected to other PC USB ports on my machine - just not the SOTM card.

[The Computer Audiophile]

You've unplugged the USB from the Mytek, rebooted the Mytek and your computer, then reconnected the Mytek (all in this order)?

[ID_Guy]

Correct. The usual kind of approach one would take when faced with this situation. However this time it didn't make any difference.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, ID_Guy said:

Correct. The usual kind of approach one would take when faced with this situation. However this time it didn't make any difference.

Wow. Usually it's a strange usb receiver ship power thing. Rebooting the audio device still doesn't cut power to the usb receiver, so rebooting it doesn't always fix the issue. 

 

I'd try uninstalling the SOtM device via software (device manager) if on Windows and letting Windows re-find it. it's really down to trying things that shouldn't matter, but they might. Very strange. 

 

Could also check for errors/warnings in the Event Viewer when the Mytek is connected. 

[ID_Guy]

Now we're getting into the nitty gritty with windows....

 

Regards the card - it doesnt appear as a device itself it only installs the texas USB 3.0 drivers automatically for the USB hub. And I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the card and drivers at least 3 times now.

 

What i can't understand is the event viewer messages; some messages say "device not migrated"

Whilst it later says "device started" 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I wonder if anyone from SOtM has seen this @SOtM-USA @MayfromSOtM @sotm.kim

[ID_Guy]

Although  i have asked for support from the vendor who I bought from - it is literally one email a day on the subject so progress is slow. But I do believe that SOTM are aware of my issues.

[ID_Guy]

Just for the record I'm based in UK. Not that it should make much of a difference to this issue. My profile says UK but that isn't shown here. Apologies for the digression.

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, ID_Guy said:

Just for the record I'm based in UK. Not that it should make much of a difference to this issue. My profile says UK but that isn't shown here. Apologies for the digression.

Code bug on the flags currently :~)

[seeteeyou]

Sometimes Device Manager might contain too many inactive USB devices and then things could get quite tricky, usually I would simply clean things up and then it's good to go.

 

Unplug everything from all USB ports except for keyboard / mouse, then launch Device Manager and do this

 

 

Go through every single category and find all "grayed out" or "dimmed" items that are related to USB, just highlight each and every item (yes, only one item at a time and it's a PITA) and delete those USB-related items one by one. Make sure that you'll untick / uncheck the box whenever you're prompted to "Delete the driver software for this device"

 

 

Finally you should be left with no more "grayed out" or "dimmed" stuff like USB audio / drives / peripherals etc. after verifying the entire list of items, then remember to reboot before you plug Mytek Brooklyn back into your SOtM card.

 

If that were no dice, your "Event 442" should look pretty much like this one and therefore you might have to give this a shot

 

https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/138801-winows-10-updated-my-usb-dac-no-longer-recognized.html

https://www.psaudio.com/ps_how/how-to-fix-usb-connectivity-issues-with-dacs/

 

Could this do the trick or what? 

 

 

BTW, perhaps you could also check this out and see if either / both tools were able to show you a better picture

 

WWShowUsbDeviceTree

https://sourceforge.net/projects/playpcmwin/files/others/WWShowUsbDeviceTree109.zip

https://sourceforge.net/p/playpcmwin/wiki/WWShowUsbDeviceTree/

 

USBDeview

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

 

I guess that maybe trying another cable with USB-IF cable certification might make a difference but not sure about that one, or even trying a different PCIe slot?

[seeteeyou]

Now that I've read your own post on Head-Fi in addition to another older one on this site, most likely it's more about the initial handshaking between SOtM (as well as Matrix) and Mytek

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/audiophile-usb-pcie-cards.944897/

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/25353-mytek-new-dac-brooklyn/page/62/?tab=comments#comment-556254

On 7/8/2016 at 11:31 PM, BigGuy said:

Unless Mytek has changed the USB configuration implemented with the Brooklyn vs the Manhattan, it may not be the Brooklyn that "doesn't eat it". I have used the VBus and VBus2 successfully with the Manhattan. A friend who has the Brooklyn cannot use the VBus Isolator. Others with DACs other than those made by Mytek also cannot use the VBus (or USB cables with 5V defeated). The one commonality is that all these other owners are running iOS-based music servers. (NOTE: I have never tried connecting the Manhattan to an iOS source to see if too is affected.)

 

The systems in question apparently need to see a 5V "handshake" between source and DAC which may or may not be related to iOS.

 

While Elfidelity might look similar to those PCIe cards, it's actually going through the onboard USB header (does it sound more like a direct path of some sort?) and perhaps the handshake could be more consistent or something like that.

 

Audioquest DragonFly itself might be less picky about the handshake part, and then it's constantly drawing power via the USB port and not sure if that were making a difference in terms of consistency.

 

---

 

If you're trying everything I suggested in my previous reply while nothing is able to help at all, potential issues related to handshake might seem to be closer to what's happening to Innuos before

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/38110-innuos-zenith-se-mkii/page/14/?tab=comments#comment-838015

On 6/26/2018 at 6:45 AM, JFThibault said:

So I just want to pass the information for those frustrated to have to buy an IFi IPurifier2 (over 100$...) to make the connection work, instead just use the really cheap Monoprice Aquamini USB Hub (3.26 $ !) plugged in the Innuos and then plug your USB Cable in it to the Mutec. Perfect solution at a cheap price. Probably other USB hub are working fine. Hope it helps!

 

---

 

Other than that, just wondering if you're powering either Matrix / SOtM (internally) via the same PCIe slot or an external power source is provided. Of course there's also the 3rd option to disable USB bus-power altogether and I hope that at least one of them could help with the handshake.

[ID_Guy]

Thanks for the comments - lot to digest here. I will play around and see what results I get. By the way the power option I already tried back in May time when I had the matrix card and that didnt make a difference so all power options are unchecked where applicable.

[ID_Guy]

OK so no Joy so far.

 

Cleared all USB greyed out hidden devices. Disconnected mytek - removed mytek drivers - rebooted - let device drivers reload - reboot- add mytek drivers - connect Mytek - still nothing. Also tried the above with USB power on and off and makes no difference.

 

Also tried a different PCIe slot - again makes no difference. The only issue with the second PCIe slot was it was squeezed between my graphic card and the CPU heatsink without much space.  GPU was blowing straight onto it which wasn't ideal. If it had worked I would have considered leaving it there. As it didn't make any difference I've placed it back into its original slot.

[The Computer Audiophile]

@mytek @Mytek_Support Do you guys have any idea about this one? 

[Foggie]

Did you oil the connectors?  😁  Probably a long shot but ..... One thing to try is to prevent drivers to auto install after removing them once removed (e.g. uninstall drivers + remove device in device mgr > reboot) and to only install the Mytek driver upon next login (reboot after install).  Again prob a very long shot.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Did you install the Mytek official drivers and the Mytek Control Panel?

[ID_Guy]

Yes the official drivers and control panel were all installed as part of the process.