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Field report: Lifegoods Powered hub

edited January 2022 in Knowledge Base

hello Forum,

I just got a Lifegoods powered 3.0 USB hub, 7 ports for 40,- euro.

With an Ipad 8th gen, 128GB, I tested my Apogee Jam (1st. gen) with some USB DAC dongles, with THU inside AUM. Input sample rate 48 khz.

The result is the Fiio BTR3K (wired USB mode) and the Chord Mojo give a lot of latency, the smallest buffer (64 in AUM) is not acceptable. In THU stand alone with 32 buffersize it is o.k. But when you know this, it doesn´t feel good.

The Qudelix 5K (wired USB mode) and Audioquest Dragonfly (older v1.2) both work perfect, with a buffer of 512 or more I start feeling and hearing the latency when I play my guitar. Works perfect with the smallest buffer (64).

I didn´t change the order of the inputs on the USB hub, I just plugged in randomly

The sound quality of these devices is more or less the same. Probably on par or a bit better than the build in headphone output.

So my conclusion is with my left over gear and stuff from my high-fi hobby, I have a decent Ipad music rig. Life is good....

About the Apogee Jam, when the 96Khz version came, people reported it did sound the same as the original. And the plus version sounds the same as 96khz version. So I assume my 1st. gen is still a nice interface for a raw and unpolished guitar signal. And THU recommends a maximum sample rate of 48 khz for the IOS version.

Comments

  • edited January 2022

    And I have even better news, my Zoom R8 recorder and interface works flawless with the Ipad. This thing was sitting on my desk anyway without much use (it is a great recorder, time to use it is a problem).

    Pre amp for guitar is decent on the R8, and I can always put my Mackie mixer with Onyx pre amps before the Zoom when needed. I guess because this is one device instead of two, latency is better than the other solution.

  • The zoom r8 works well with Auria as a control surface too

  • okay, that´s interesting, I haven´t thought about that yet. I will check what I can do with the R8 in AUM or Cubasis as a control surface.

    I found out something with the USB DAC devices. In AUM, when fooling around with the audio settings, the latency gets worse at some point. Like high quality on or off, buffer size bigger or smaller, etc. I have to close AUM and restart, than the latency is snappy again. I think for the Fiio and the Chord it doesn´t make a difference because the initial latency is too big, when used in conjunction with an input device.

    And I guess not many people use this kind of devices for IOS music production anyway :-)

  • I also bought a quite expensive powered USB Hub and I have a lot of hum which comes from the hub. How is this hub?

  • I’m about to buy an Elektron Overhub. I’ve tried cheaper ones but I always get audio dropouts.

  • Audio dropouts, and hum, I have not heard it yet, in the few hours I own this hub. I will keep my attention for this, and report it here if this happens.

  • @krassmann said:
    I also bought a quite expensive powered USB Hub and I have a lot of hum which comes from the hub. How is this hub?

    Have you checked for ground loops? If you're using a USB bus powered audio interface, and have some other powered gear connected to it (guitar amp, FX, etc.), there may be differences in the ground voltage, causing current to flow. You might try powering the other stuff from the same outlet, power strip, etc. Switching to balanced audio connections would be a big help here, but tough for guitars, some synths, etc.

  • edited January 2022

    @mistercharlie said:
    I’m about to buy an Elektron Overhub. I’ve tried cheaper ones but I always get audio dropouts.

    I'd love to know how it works out. I was going to do that but on the Elektron boards there was some consensus that it was way overpriced for a very ordinary hub. For what it's worth, I have had zero problems with a Pluggable 7 port usb hub.

  • @ExAsperis99 Whenever I have a connection problem, I can usually trace it back to the hub. I could keep buying more and more, but in the end it’s a hassle, and ends up more expensive.

    I used to have power and noise problems with my guitar pedals. Then I bought a Strymon Zuma. That’s a crazy-expensive power supply. I haven’t had a single pedal noise problem since I got it a few years ago.

    Not saying that the Overhub is Strymon-level quality, but I do expect it to be problem free, and €60 isn’t bad if I can just forget about it.

  • @uncledave said:

    @krassmann said:
    I also bought a quite expensive powered USB Hub and I have a lot of hum which comes from the hub. How is this hub?

    Have you checked for ground loops? If you're using a USB bus powered audio interface, and have some other powered gear connected to it (guitar amp, FX, etc.), there may be differences in the ground voltage, causing current to flow. You might try powering the other stuff from the same outlet, power strip, etc. Switching to balanced audio connections would be a big help here, but tough for guitars, some synths, etc.

    My audio interface is bus powered so I could unplug everything but the hub and the iPad (both in the same power strip). The hub is connected to the iPad and the audio interface. I still have the hum. Maybe I‘ll try an alternative high quality power supply for the hub.

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