PtiBouchon
Lucie / minuteoverly in-depth (i love it) explanation of why usb-c audio dongles/headsets hit USB-FS bandwidth limits https://epenguin.imalone.co.uk/2025/06/audio-dongles-and-ghost-of-usb-1.html
haha, in the section about bluetooth > calls involving sentences like, “You sound like you’re underwater” or “I’ll call you back.”
ok the kind of sad lesson here seems to be (as i don't know how to force the usb/audio device in there to use less bandwidth/resolution/channels) to look for a usb-c dongle/headset with at least USB-HS (480mbit/s), not FS (12mbit/s)
Make "Kersplat" 🧑🎤🍁Author did mention an app called Wireplumber for configuring Pipewire, but you're advice still stands. The big question is what cheap devices actually support HS, as I'm betting most of mine don't. 🤔
~n@mntmn dafuq! I mean… I love me some oversampling just like the next dude but… sorry for repeating myself… DAFUQ!?
Sidenote: In my quest to eliminate analog audio at home right until the speakers (digital monitors from Neumann, KH-120D) I tried out various USB-C -> Toslink cables (yes, cable, not box, this is something that exits) and there are some violent differences here too. from "no volume control" to "the cable itself talks and says 'USB AUDIO!' when plugged in". Wild stuff.
@nblr yeah, it's bizarre how audio is still so hard and buggy when it's supposed to have only a fraction of the bandwidth of video, which works much better nowadays (although, almost no-one is doing video output over usb, for reasons)
@mntmn well, at least it is somewhat standardized and "driverless", but on phones? I'd have expected them to just include a "well known left/right/button/mike" pin option. plus passive adapters - otoh… that would mean a probably "rarely used anyway" dac as extra electronics in every phone plus inviting another layer of complexity in the already complex usb-c plug pinout zoo. so… i can see why, but…
Daniel Gibson@nblr @mntmn
To me the main WTFs were:
- Why don't they at least use HS?!
- Why do super-cheap adapters that don't even talk USB2/HS use 96 or even 192kHz and 24bit? 48kHz and 16bit sound pretty good
An entirely different weird thing in this article: In at least two places it mentions illustrations that aren't there?! Is this a text-only copy of an article published elsewhere? (It doesn't mention anything like that)
@Doomed_Daniel @nblr illustrations are there for me
Kraftwerk-Das Model Collapse@Doomed_Daniel @mntmn googleusercontent.com seems to have capacity issues - open image in new tab got me a "bandwidth exceeded" which was fixed by hitting reload few times
Max
D Guthrie@Doomed_Daniel @nblr @mntmn They support those speeds because whatever DAC IC they use supports them. It's often a Realtek IC. Higher quality DACs and interfaces have better hardware (like discrete ICs for each channel, clever routing to reduce noise), not necessarily higher-resolution sample rates presented to the computer.
mmu_man@mmu_man very possible that it _also_ does that, but my systems don't support audio accessories; and i also have a built-in dac/adc with headset jack that i could use. the mic input on that is not amazing though because i'd need to dig into extending the adc driver and add filtering etc.
Ignas Kiela@ignaloidas @mmu_man oh, good to know! one less thing to worry about
@ignaloidas @mntmn WTF? 🤦♂️
Christian Vogel@mntmn This brings back memories (and PTSD) from 20 years ago when I needed to dig that deep (+a kernel patch) to get full duplex 24bit I/O from my usb1 m-audio fast-track pro Audio Interface… very amazing that we still have to fight these problems to this day!
morl0ck
maxmoon 🌱