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Looking for afforadble USB Interface with good connectivity

D

Deleted member 49004

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Hey, I currently having issues with my setup Audient EVO 4 + Fiio K5 Pro. It picks up noise from the USB and outputs it over the Cinch to my Swissonic A306 Monitors. Thomann told me this is caused because I use unbalanced outputs. While trying to fix this I found that using the Toslink of my PC to connec my Fiio would fix this issue, but there are some very stupid driver issues with that solution. Because all of this annoys me so much, I would sell the Fiio and the EVO 4 and buy an all in one interface, if you think that this would be a good idea?

So what I need in an audio interface would be:
- SPDIF (Toslink) input for my Apple TV, to watch movies on the Monitor.
- Dual XLR or dual Line out for my Swissonic A306

- XLR in for my Synco D2 Microphone
- Headphone output that can drive my Sennheiser HD 650

Budget would be around 400€
 
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Blumlein 88

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Welcome to ASR as this appears to be your first post.

I would caution you that while they use the same Toslink cable optical SPDIF and ADAT are two different formats. Some interfaces support both, some are ADAT only. I believe your Apple TV would be SPDIF optical. So whatever interface you consider, check the owner's manual to confirm it supports both SPDIF and ADAT over optical.
 
OP
D

Deleted member 49004

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Welcome to ASR as this appears to be your first post.

I would caution you that while they use the same Toslink cable optical SPDIF and ADAT are two different formats. Some interfaces support both, some are ADAT only. I believe your Apple TV would be SPDIF optical.
Yes, looks like this is the case. Thanks for noticing that. :)
 

AnalogSteph

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Here's a really dumb question: Why aren't you using the EVO 4's line-out to feed the monitors? Then feed the EVO 4 headphone output into the FiiO's line-in, so the headphone department is taken care of as well. Shouldn't cost you more than some cabling (2x 1/4" TRS to XLR male, stereo 1/4" to 2x RCA).

Looking for a Toslink input just so you can watch movies on the computer monitor via an Apple TV indicates that you need to go back to the drawing board for this particular problem. It seems a needlessly complex and error-prone solution. Why would you stream movies only to send them through a PC that might just as well do the playback all by itself?
 
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D

Deleted member 49004

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Here's a really dumb question: Why aren't you using the EVO 4's line-out to feed the monitors? Then feed the EVO 4 headphone output into the FiiO's line-in, so the headphone department is taken care of as well. Shouldn't cost you more than some cabling (2x 1/4" TRS to XLR male, stereo 1/4" to 2x RCA).

I actually dont think that this would work, after some thinking. I would need the toslink as an input for the Apple TV. The RCA would not send the output of the Toslink to the EVO 4, so it wont work.

Looking for a Toslink input just so you can watch movies on the computer monitor via an Apple TV indicates that you need to go back to the drawing board for this particular problem. It seems a needlessly complex and error-prone solution. Why would you stream movies only to send them through a PC that might just as well do the playback all by itself?
The issue with Apple TV is that the bitrate in the browser is literally unwatchable. It plays the media with around 360 to 480p, because Windows browsers are currently all missing h.265 and HLS. Thats why it needs to be played via a real Apple TV device instead of the browser.
 
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AnalogSteph

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I actually dont think that this would work, after some thinking. I would need the toslink as an input for the Apple TV. The RCA would not send the output of the Toslink to the EVO 4, so it wont work.
If you really, really need a Toslink input, you might consider upgrading to an iD14, which has one...
The issue with Apple TV is that the bitrate in the browser is literally unwatchable. It plays the media with around 360 to 480p, because Windows browsers are currently all missing h.265 and HLS. Thats why it needs to be played via a real Apple TV device instead of the browser.
According to this, you could try giving Edge a shot if you have hardware HEVC decoding available. Browser manufacturers generally shy away from it due to associated patents and licensing fees. Apple apparently considered the issue important enough to throw money at the problem, so Safari 11+ does support it (but is not available for Windows).
 
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Deleted member 49004

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If you really, really need a Toslink input, you might consider upgrading to an iD14, which has one...

According to this, you could try giving Edge a shot if you have hardware HEVC decoding available. Browser manufacturers generally shy away from it due to associated patents and licensing fees. Apple apparently considered the issue important enough to throw money at the problem, so Safari 11+ does support it (but is not available for Windows).
Yeah, I considered the iD 14 but saw some reports that the drivers are not that great. I also already tried Edge with the HEVC Codec installed + an extension that enables the h.265 https://github.com/jlnsrk/h265ify

I ordered an Topping EX5, that has the balanced XLR Outputs and a Toslink Input. Hopefully that will fix my issues.
 
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