Sound through USB?

(OK, this may be to "high" a wish, but I'd love it)

The possibility of having audio-out through the USB cable,
so that I could just plug the empeg into my laptop at work, and play music through the laptop-speakers. I guess this could be done with an extra cable, but... this is a wish list.

An even higher wish would be the possibility of powering the empeg player through USB, but I guess that would require hardware... and I don't know how much current my laptop will supply... (maybe I should look it up in the standard)

MArius (Escort Cab + Mark II)

What SW do you plan to use on platop side to play music that 'came through USB'? Do you have any particular program and/or protocol in mind?

I don't think USB can supply at least 1A@12V (IIRC) needed by empeg, probably more during disk spin-up.

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

The USB standard contains a protocol for sending audio over
USB. I don't know if the Linux USB drivers support this, though. I don't know what sort of PC drivers are needed either...

My slow memory tries to tell me that the minimal requirement for a USB host is to supply 0.5A... but I'm not sure of this. I've got the USB standard at home, I'll have a look.

Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II)

So, we might be closer than I thought. Still, no cigar, I am affraid .

I admit, though, that it would be nice... Do check that standard, just in case.

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

What SW do you plan to use on platop side to play music that 'came through USB'? Do you have any particular program and/or protocol in mind?

If only there were some way of reading music files back from the player, one could write a Winamp plugin...

Peter

Well, now we are closer, since we do have a backup utility that reads files through USB, don't we?

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I don't know if the Linux USB drivers support this, though.

The Linux USB support does allow USB speakers to be plugged in and used. How to reverse this to the laptop, I'm not sure.

With the power requirements, I believe the empeg needs 1A max, due to the drive spinup. The biggest problem I see is trying to connect the power from USB over to the empeg's power circuitry.

The other issue on a laptop is that most don't provide the maximum power to the bus unless the laptop is plugged into AC.

This is all probably possible, but not worth the work.