USB2 DAC on USB2 vs USB3.2 Gen1/2 Port?

[Quexos]

Curious if there is any benefit, drawback, or no difference at all if I run my USB2 DAC on different speed/power ports? If I run it in USB2, it frees up a USB3 slot for something else, of course.

Using this little SybaSonic DAC SD-DAC63118, DAC/ADC: C-Media CM6533, Op-Amp: TI-LM4562, I have the option of USB2, USB3.2 Gen 1 or 2 ports. I know USB3 delivers more amperage and speed, but could that be a bad thing to a USB2 audio device?

Observations I've noticed:
1. It behaves and sounds exactly the same to me on USB 2 or 3.
2. My backlit keyboard goes through the whole startup, blink blink flash flash light show when I boot on USB2, but on USB3 it just goes from lights off to on with no full display cycle, which tells me USB2 shuts completely down with power off, where USB3 stays in some powered standby state? Is that good or bad for the USB2 DAC?

Thanks.

 

[DVDdoug]

Everything should be compatible and the slowest device (USB-2) should limit the speed. USB-2 is plenty-fast enough for "regular audio". If you were multi-track recording you might need a faster audio interface.

[qutoe]
I know USB3 delivers more amperage and speed, but could that be a bad thing to a USB2 audio device?
[/quote]
Current depends on the load (your DAC).

With nothing plugged-into your wall outlet, the voltage is present but no current flows. If you are in the U.S. (120VAC) a 100W light bulb "pulls" a little less than one Amp (when turned on). If you plug-in a toaster or hair drier you might pull 12 Amps, and if you plug in a toaster and hair drier into the same circuit you get excess current and blow the circuit breaker (usually rated at 15A) and then voltage drops to zero.

 

[pierre]

Sound wise usb 2 vs 3 should not make a difference.

There is more limited bandwidth on usb2 but you can still use 40 channels.

Power wise, you can get more from usb3 but it depends on the implementation.

Since there are widely different implementation of USB ports some can be noisy for whatever reason but that less common than it used to be from my experience.

 

[threni]

I'm no expert but I've read a few things about usb 3 causing interference with WiFi/Bluetooth. So if there's no reason to use USB 3 on a device - especially devices with weak-ass WiFi such as the pi - I don't.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Most likely your DAC is UAC2 compatible so runs at High Speed (480 Mb/s). This is what USB2 supplies and of course USB3 will fall back to this speed.

 

[Quexos]

I've had it running on USB2 for a few hours now and don't see any drawbacks. It's just a simple, low end DAC and it is powered by the USB port alone, no wall wart. I figure if it's a USB2 device, stick it in a USB2 slot, unless there would be a benefit to USB3, but I am not seeing any.