USB Audio Not working with Ayon CD5S DAC

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I am trying to resolve an issue connecting either my 2011 MacbookPro or Macoro with a high end DAC within my Ayon CD5S CD player.

The CD5s works flawlessly with my Windows 10 machine and used to work with my Macs but following an OS version change To 10.13.6 (both Macs) the USB connection no longer works.

Observations:
The Mac correctly recognises the CD player as a digital output device when connected via USB as before
But the sound output is gibberish (unintelligible chopped audio).
No amount of fiddling with bit rates or sampling via the midi improves the sound.

I am sure there is a simple fix for this and it may be a driver incompatibility issue.
Advice welcome!
 

chscag

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I am sure there is a simple fix for this and it may be a driver incompatibility issue.

You state that the USB connection no longer works with 10.13.6 (High Sierra), however, if your Mac recognizes the CD player as before, then the USB connection is working okay. There must be something else that's not lining up correctly with High Sierra. Perhaps a driver problem for your high end DAC as you suspect. Have you checked for driver updates?
 
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Hi Thanks for confirming my suspicion.
Isn’t it up to Apple to maintain compatibility with existing hardware rather than the other way round?
I make this comment since the Ayon CD5s is no longer in production and I am unaware whether the firmware can be updated.

If it works with lousy Windows 10 surely it should work with a Mac(!)

Brian
 
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No. In the audio world, none of us update our macs until we’re completely sure (and then some) that driver issues hardware compatibility is 100%, and most of us are consistently at least one, or three OSs behind. That’s because audio hardware is notorious for slow driver updates and sometimes even EOLing some stuff. Windows 10 has be out a while now so it isn’t surprising it’s still compatible, high Seirra is newer and I’m certain not a pro soul will go near Catalina most likely, ever.

I have about 15k invested in serious audio hardware (just the 3 uad racks) , and I operate under the ‘if it ain’t broke’... rule. Apple can’t chase down all manner of audio hardware past and present and rewrite their drivers for them. That would be insanely expensive for Apple.
 
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No. In the audio world, none of us update our macs until we’re completely sure (and then some) that driver issues hardware compatibility is 100%, and most of us are consistently at least one, or three OSs behind. That’s because audio hardware is notorious for slow driver updates and sometimes even EOLing some stuff. Windows 10 has be out a while now so it isn’t surprising it’s still compatible, high Seirra is newer and I’m certain not a pro soul will go near Catalina most likely, ever.

I have about 15k invested in serious audio hardware (just the 3 uad racks) , and I operate under the ‘if it ain’t broke’... rule. Apple can’t chase down all manner of audio hardware past and present and rewrite their drivers for them. That would be insanely expensive for Apple.

Hi Groovetube, thanks for the above advice.
I should have known better - I did double check that the CD player is not faulty
I booted to old Mac Pro with Mavericks and it worked flawlessly streaming audio to the Ayon which seems to use a USB Digital Hub connection(fully recognised by the PC)
What a PITA - the love hate relationship with Apple continues!
They are very quick to make peripheral hardware products obsolete - remember firewire for external drives???
 

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