USB Extender in the Home Studio
Sometimes a home studio could be rather efficient and small and you may not always need to extend USB cables. While if you want to place your audio interface on a certain media rack that is close enough to your instrument but distant from your computer, a USB extender is necessary.
If you are setting up a really professional home studio and have instruments from multiple stances to connect to, long cables are inevitable – not only USB cables but also audio cables. USB extenders are also widely used in churches to help connect the audio interface to the laptop, or the MIDI controller.
USB Extension Considerations
When people are using a USB extender, their most concerns are 1) latency; and 2) unstable data transmission.
- If the data would be processed (for example, compression and decompression) during the transmission, it is possible to cause some latency. In most cases, this latency would be strictly tested and controlled by the manufacturer.
As long as you are not using a bunch of extra high-power USB peripherals altogether, a qualified USB extender can easily handle the signals from a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, and a camera.
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The power supply is a serious problem. USB signals may encounter voltage loss during long-distance travel. Therefore, the voltage the USB hub supported is extremely important if you do use high-power peripherals.
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Another thing is, to keep the cable as short as possible. Don’t take extra length. When using USB extenders, it’s important to ensure that the total length of the cable (including the extender) does not exceed the maximum recommended length for USB connections.
This is because longer cables can cause signal degradation, resulting in low-quality audio and data transfer rates.
Read the full article: USB Extender Runs Your Audio Interface to the Laptop over Distances - AV Access