KVR Audio

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:29 pm

No idea. I found the info a little unclear, so I emailed them about it anyway (after close of business on Friday, so not heard yet).

Kaine · Post by **Kaine** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:42 am

We had a few batches around 2012 / 2013 where they (the manufacturer) shifted away from the prefered TI chip solution to a VIA and we offically stopped supporting it. They moved it back to the TI chip around the middle of 2013 and all the models after that kept using the prefered solution. As of the last generation they've moved over to Thunderbolt option and the units we've tested so far (mainly from Focusrite, RME, Presonous) have so far worked really well. I've not had a hands on with every Interface out there, but its proven to be a fairly solid choice from the feedback I've had.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:18 pm

Ah thanks -- I got an email back today, too, with some more details. I shall be bearing this in mind.

camsr · Post by **camsr** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:23 pm

Maybe an offtopic question, just curious
What makes a pro-audio laptop different?
I have a few reasons to ask. One is because I have experienced noise issues with my audio interface when using unbalanced signal outs, when connected with firewire. Would USB be better or worse in this regard? Two, one of the reasons I chose the motherboard I did for my desktop was the power regulation built onto it, it is very good from what I understand. I thought also this may help to reduce ground circuit noises, but it didn't. Do some of these laptops have less noise, cleaner more stable power, or both?

Mushy Mushy · Post by **Mushy Mushy** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:24 pm

camsr wrote:Maybe an offtopic question, just curious
What makes a pro-audio laptop different?
I have a few reasons to ask. One is because I have experienced noise issues with my audio interface when using unbalanced signal outs, when connected with firewire. Would USB be better or worse in this regard? Two, one of the reasons I chose the motherboard I did for my desktop was the power regulation built onto it, it is very good from what I understand. I thought also this may help to reduce ground circuit noises, but it didn't. Do some of these laptops have less noise, cleaner more stable power, or both?

I'd say noise and being tried and tested with common DAW's, as opposed to Excel/Word etc.

Kaine · Post by **Kaine** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:28 pm

camsr wrote: What makes a pro-audio laptop different?

Off the shelf models tend to have a short life cycle as they keep making adjustment and changing the product codes and we're lucky if we see deliveries of the exact same model twice over a six month period. That sort of situation means it's hard for a reseller to keep up the support levels, when kit can change at a moments notice. So really the key focus on a pro-audio laptop is that we can pre-validate them and have an avenue to go back to the manufacuturer and get issues resolved if problems arise. Also as we receive them as shells, we're able to build them to offer some element of customization on each unit.

The are plenty of off the shelf units that are more then up to the job and if your happy to take your time, do some research and try different driver revisions, then you'll get there eventually. What the resellers offer in a pro-audio laptop is simply a solution that has already had that done for you in advance.

camsr wrote: I have a few reasons to ask. One is because I have experienced noise issues with my audio interface when using unbalanced signal outs, when connected with firewire. Would USB be better or worse in this regard? Two, one of the reasons I chose the motherboard I did for my desktop was the power regulation built onto it, it is very good from what I understand. I thought also this may help to reduce ground circuit noises, but it didn't.

If you've got an enviroment that is experiencing ground loop problems then chances are your going to have a crap shoot with any unit you place within it, as it's as much about the whole room as it is about any given piece of kit. Making sure all your connections are balanced as you already noted can go a long way to helping resolve it, setting up a hum eliminator box can be helpful as well in some senarios (placing it before my amp, cured a lot of ills) but then if it's coming in around the interface itself your milage may vary in those regards. Different PSU's may sound fine in any given room/setup and then not in someone elses and vice versa, so it becomes a bit of a hair pulling situation as you try and work out a combination that works.

Whilst looking into this a few weeks back for someone else I came across some USB Isolators that are still on the market. My Googlefu tells me that Firewire Isolators used to be a thing back in the mid 00's but I can't seem to locate any on the market currently so they may have died out due to reduced interest in the current market in FW kit. I've not delved too far into that side of things, so you may have far better luck than I did, what I did spot was this http://www.macworld.com/article/1034877/griffin.html which may at least give you a starting block to work from in your own hunt.

As side note when it comes to USB https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei= ... b+isolator brings up a few althrough they range from $60 to $500 so not the cheapest way forward. I've found this one https://www.olimex.com/Products/USB-Modules/USB-ISO/ which seems a bit too cheap to be true compared with the rest (it's certainly looking a bit more DIY!), I am tempted to pick it up and give it a try when this sort of thing rears its head in the future through.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 12:59 pm

standalone wrote:Check this company out:
http://www.moltenmusictechnology.com/

Will do. Thanks.

@Kaine thanks for the info. I like the look of the Scan systems. Top of the list atm.

@camsr Quiet, fast, with lots of RAM and tested to work with my audio interface and DAW are my main priorities. I have had almost 10 years out of my current system. I want the same from the next laptop.

prof_lofi · Post by **prof_lofi** » Tue Jun 16, 2015 6:16 pm

Hi @thecontrolcentre

What did you end up doing?

The reason I ask is I'm about to do the same and am looking for a good laptop replacement for my last ADK laptop. I want one with FW but the only one available in the UK is the top of the line Scan 3XS which would be fine but the fan noise seems way too loud for my purposes (from videos and reviews I've read).

I guess I could go with their DJ model and sell my RME FW 400 and replace it, but it's in perfect condition and the most I'd get for it is £350 - only to then spend £700 on the identical unit that uses USB

And not sure how the fan is on the 15" DJ model. That's really what's putting me off the FW model.

What did you decide?

Does anyone else have any experience with the top FW Scan 3XS laptop, or the DJ laptop with USB (if so, how was the USB for Audio compared to FW, and how was the fan noise/battery life?)

Cheers,

Bill

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:10 pm

I just pulled the trigger on this system from Scan.co.uk ...

3XS Scan Performance 17" - Studio Laptop

Case
3XS N170SD 17.3" Laptop With 960m + I74720HQ + 7265AC

CPU
Intel Core i7 4720HQ, 2.6GHz, quad-core + HT, 6MB cache, 3.6GHz + TB

Memory - DDR3
16GB Corsair (2x8GB) - 1600MHz, CAS 11-11-11-28, 1.35V

M.2 Solid State Drives
500GB Samsung 850 Evo, 540MB/s Read, 500MB/s Write, 97k IOPS

Storage Drives
1TB Samsung 850 EVO, 2.5" SSD, 3D V-NAND, SATA 6Gbps, Read 540MB/s, Write 520MB/s, 1GB Cache, 98000K IOPS Max x 2

Optical Drives
Samsung SN-506BB/BEBE Slim Black Internal Blu-ray & DVD Writer OEM

£1681.08 inc. VAT + Delivery

Would be interested to hear any comments you guys have ... thanks.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 5:48 pm

I'll have a couple of questions when you've had it for a while ("how hot does it get?" "how long does the battery last?") - but I'd just say I'd have wanted 32GB RAM... I wouldn't want to try too much streaming of my sampled drum kits even with an SSD: I'm not convinced the buss is wide enough.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 5:55 pm

pljones wrote:I'll have a couple of questions when you've had it for a while ("how hot does it get?" "how long does the battery last?") - but I'd just say I'd have wanted 32GB RAM... I wouldn't want to try too much streaming of my sampled drum kits even with an SSD: I'm not convinced the buss is wide enough.

I wanted 32gb RAM but it aint available with the model I went for ... it would have added more than £500 (and Thunderbird) to the cost.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 6:10 pm

thecontrolcentre wrote:I wanted 32gb RAM but it aint available with the model I went for ... it would have added more than £500 (and Thunderbird) to the cost.

Yeah, I've seen the price

-- hence "wanted"....

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 9:09 pm

pljones wrote:
thecontrolcentre wrote:I wanted 32gb RAM but it aint available with the model I went for ... it would have added more than £500 (and Thunderbird) to the cost.
Yeah, I've seen the price -- hence "wanted"....

RAM and SSD drives seem very pricey to me atm ... still, I've ended up spending only twice as much on this laptop than on my old one (bought in 2006), but have 2.6 quad core instead of 1.8 dual core, 16GB Ram instead of 2GB, and 1 x 500GB SSD + 2 x 1T SSD instead of 2 x 80GB HDD. Should fly

2ZrgE · Post by **2ZrgE** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 9:12 am

I'm constantly looking for a new production laptop, the only thing I'm really afraid about is cooling an i-7, don't want to have a kind of blow dryer on my desk.

Configuration looks fine, I'd go for 15'' instead of 17''.

prof_lofi · Post by **prof_lofi** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:41 pm

But the 15in is an i7 as well right?

Pro Audio Laptop UK