Im on mac., A mac studio to be exact. And apple has not been generous with their USB type A connections as of the past few years. So I was constantly replacing cheap USB type A hubs I would buy on amazon. As Im sure some of you know. If you are running DAW clock info via USB from one cheap ass hub to a DIGI, a Trigon 6, a Studio logic SL88 and a modular rig at the same time, well traffic can get a bit backed up.
Figured I would share what my research and testing has turned up. I was constantly buying cheap USB hubs and got tired of replacing them. And by chance stumbled across these fine folks (see link)
They make a industrial grade POWERED 7 port USBa 2.0 for under $65. Read the description and you’ll see why these work so much better than them crap ebay ones. I have not had a single issue, no weird mouse movements, no drop outs or disconnects. Its been flawless. See link
Nice - this is the one I recently bought and it’s been great so far. $100 AUD (about $65 USD) with USB 3, MTT via a VL817 controller, LEDs and switches for each port, a 4 Amp power supply and cable included. A4 and AR are running smoothly via Overbridge on my 2012 MacBook Pro, along with a truckload of other peripherals.
It looks really well made. Too bad it doesn’t support USB 3.x though. I’ve been using a hub made by Anker that has USB3.0 up to 2.5Amps in some of ports… it’s been fine, but its not built like that one you linked
(Weird, my browser double-posted my comment! I’ll delete one)
They make the same one in USB 3.0. Its like $90. I just didn’t have the extra $30 and all my peri’s are 2.0 so I figured it ,would do… Luckily it did. Id rather smash my dick with a hammer than have tech issues and downtime. When I cant work on music I start to get major anxiety and depression. ha
Oh word. I read the specs. Pretty close to what I got aside from the housing. I was mentioning to LOWPH below, if I cant make music Im in a bad state. downtime is my worst enemy. Im sure you can relate. I have troubleshooted issues for days at times. Luckily and its been few and far between with the current rig. I wouldn’t say I have a TON of gear but I have a fair amount (see pic). Im running 32 channels full of hardware so there is a lot that can go wrong. And when it does sometimes its hard to find out where its coming from…
Interesting. Not sure how much I trust a website called usbfirewire.com
There’s this “industrial” hub at the pihut Industrial USB 3.2 Hub | The Pi Hut
Although spec isn’t as good I don’t think (lower ampage)
hahaha. I hear ya… But literally this is the first time I have used a hub that can run ALL my midi peripherals at once plus charge shit at the same time. I know a little bit about electronics and Ill tell you why these are good. And btw I opened it as soon as I got it to confirm. The shielding is very good on this unit, Also it has a total of 6 non-periodic transaction buffers. All of these other ones listed ponl;y have 2-4. Its the main reason why it doesn’t bottleneck when you plug a ton of midi info going back and forth at the same time., There is also 500ma of power on each USB. As for the name I think they started the company when firewire was just becoming a thing. If you go to the website you’ll see most of what they do is build custom to order hubs, cables and ports to your specs. They make almost everything there. The hub I got doesn’t look like a mass produced hub you get on amazon. Its all metal, has some weight to it and is made very well. Just saying… I wouldn’t have bothered posting this if it was suss.
I’m surprised to hear that! I’ve actually had pretty good results with Anker stuff in general. I’ve used their USB battery pack, a solar panel charger, USB cables, stuff like that. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. The hub I’m using definitely isn’t as solid looking as the one you linked, but so far no problems.
I wish more things like this were built to last. So much of it ends up in the garbage. I guess with days transfer cables/hubs it’s almost inevitable, because the protocols keep advancing and the equipment becomes obsolete
