Correct Hierarchy of Connection Speeds

  • Thread starter Thread starter rimisrandma
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rimisrandma

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Is this correct in terms of connection speed, starting with the slowest and ending with the fastest??;

Firewire 400
USB 2.0
Firewire 800
eSATA
USB 3.0
Thunderbolt (Light Peak)

Also, feel free to add and I will update
 
IDK looks right but I am too lazy to check. The slowest one there is plenty fast enough to do multi-track recording so I don't think it makes much difference. :confused:
 
I feel that USB2 should be the slowest. Firewire always runs faster than USB2 because of how the computer handles the data. I don't know the technical aspects of it all though.
 
USB Speeds are quoted at maximum burst speed, FW is quoted as sustained throughput speed. So while the maximum burst speed of USB is faster the sustained through put is much much lower than that of FW. For uninterrupted audio you want continuous throughput, not packets of data bursts.
USB is handled by the CPU which takes cycles away from you for other processing while FW has it's own dedicated controller.
To further add to the USB woes, your system will generally set aside bandwidth for all of the USB ports active on the system even if there is nothing plugged into them which will further reduce the performance of your audio interface. This is why USB interfaces typically have less inputs than FW and even the best executed ones top out at 8 and will be dependent on the implementation of your system, USB busses and CPU as to whether you will be able to get low latency, pop and crackle free recording out of them

I'd change the order of your list to
USB 1.1
USB 2
USB 3 (maybe switchable with FW 400)
FW 400 (Maybe switchable with USB 3)
FW 800
ESATA
Thunderbolt

Not 100% sure about the USB 3 as there is really not a lot of gear made for it so have not had a chance to do any kind of tests
 
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