MOTUnation.com

Hi

I feel like these should be an easy question to answer, but maybe my Googling skills are having an off-day.

I have a MOTU 624 on order. I need to get a cable to connect it to my Mac. I have no requirement to do any complicated networking (except maybe sometimes connect my old FW 8Pre via ADAT), but I'd like to place the 624 on a shelf about 1-2m away from my Mac.

Questions...

What is the maximum length of (non-optical) Thunderbolt lead I can use? I've heard that anything longer than 0.5m can have an impact on performance, but I'd like to go to 1m or 2m.

Can I seriously connect using AVB instead of Thunderbolt? Or, have I totally misunderstood what AVB is? (I think the answer is YES... but it sounds too good to be true).

If I connect via AVB, do I have to connect the 624 directly to my Mac, or can I go via my ethernet hub (well... it's a Time Capsule) (assuming all cables are CAT5a / CAT6)?

Other than cable length and cost, is there any other advantage of using AVB vs Thunderbolt, or vice versa?


Thanks for any help!

Regards
Superleccy

I have an Orion 32+ connected to my Mac book pro via a two meter thunderbolt cable as my live recording rig. This works fine over 2 m for what it's worth. I believe that thunderbolt is claimed to work up to 100 m as it's optical I don't see why not. Historically CAT5 definitely works up to 100 m over copper UTP cable ( standard ethernet ). If you want to use a hub I think you need to use a dedicated AVB hub which Motu make.

AVB will result in much higher latency, which is clearly an issue if one uses VIs or monitors input thru FX. With this in mind, I'd recommend Thunderbolt whenever it is an available option.

Thanks both.

I have a 2m thunderbolt cable on order and it sounds like that should be good enough. Doesn't sound like AVB will give me anything extra other than future expansion options.

Cheers
SL