Music and tech: or musech?

[qigong chimp]

Would an external disc drive, e.g. something like this

when loaded with a CD and connected via USB to a pair of powered speakers, e.g. something like these (with onboard DAC)

deliver sound?

Thanks, techy musos.

 

[Dadam]

Techie but not really muso here.
Depends on the spec of the speakers but possibly not. The drive will have to be seen as an external storage device to the speakers, which will need the circuitry to manage the byte stream from the drive when playing. Have a read of the speaker manual. What is the USB port for? It probably isn't to plug in an external mass storage device e.g. hard drive as that would probably be a USB type A or C. That plug is a USB-B which is an odd choice. You usually only see that on printers these days which suggests the speakers are fairly old, but on the other hand they have bluetooth.

 

[qigong chimp]

Q acoustics m20s. Very now. USB in port is for digital music streamed from PCs, smart phones and the like. A stack of contemporary and very good DACs have USB b in.

In effect, can I use an external disc drive as CD transport? Does a CD player do owt other than convert the digital data on the CD to analogue before pushing it out to an amp? These speakers have DAC and amp, so..?
Or, put another way, is there any distinction between the data stream emerging from a PC or phone (downloaded music files or spotify type streaming) coming down the cable into USB b port, and that emerging from a CD in external drive?

 

[Dadam]

OK, google tells me these look like Q Acoustics M20
From the review it seems the USB is to plug into a laptop to use as an external sound device. On that basis I think they would not do what you're after.

 

[qigong chimp]

OK, google tells me these look like Q Acoustics M20

So do I!

 

[Dadam]

Q acoustics m20s. Very now. USB in port is for digital music streamed from PCs, smart phones and the like. A stack of contemporary and very good DACs have USB b in.
In effect, can I use an external disc drive as CD transport? Does a CD player do owt other than convert the digital data on the CD to analogue before pushing it out to an amp? These speakers have DAC and amp, so..?
Or, put another way, is there any distinction between the data stream emerging from a PC or phone (downloaded music files or spotify type streaming) coming down the cable into USB b port, and that emerging from a CD in external drive?

OK, USB-B still seems an odd choice to me but hey ho.
I don't have the detailed knowledge of this but 99% certain the data streams from a storage device (CD drive) to a computer and from a computer to an audio device will be using different protocols within the wider USB "wrapper" protocol.
The key thing is though, one device or the other must be able to act as a USB host and be able to drive the other device as a USB client.
Both of these devices will be USB clients. You need something in the middle

 

[Dadam]

Ignoring the techie bits, the drive only has an eject button. How do you start or pause playback, or skip tracks? It might conceivably auto-play but you'd have to listen to the whole disc every time.

 

[qigong chimp]

Now you're talking. Good points.
So, while you're on, when an external drive is plugged in to a laptop, which is host and which client?
The speakers have remote control with pause function?

 

[Dadam]

The laptop will be host. It manages multiple USB client devices like mice, external drives, external DACs, printers etc etc

 

[Dadam]

I guess the remote control would be for controlling them as bluetooth speakers. The bluetooth audio protocols allow the audio device to communicate back to the playback device for controlling playback. It's not impossible for speakers to act as a host and control external storage clients but if so it would say in the blurb as this would be additional circuitry. My guess is they just have the chips for acting as a client audio device for plugging into a laptop.

I guess you have a spare optical drive and looking at getting some speakers to set up a little CD playing system? Might be easier to get a cheap laptop or tablet, which you could also use for streaming music. But if it's just playing CDs you're interested in, probably easier still to get a dedicated CD audio player.

 

[qigong chimp]

Thanks for taking the time. Appreciated.

Was looking to use an external drive as, effectively, a CD transport. But the differential in price between CD transports and external disc drives ought to have been a clue that there's a bit more to it.

 

[DCBassman]

If all you want to do is play CDs, you just need something with the analogue L and R phono channels. If price is no barrier, there must be endless options. On the cheap? Pick up a DVD player and remote from a charity shop.

 

[Cycleops]

A digital music player like one of the old iPods or one of the latest gen ones would be favourite to connect to the speakers. Never done it though.

 

[qigong chimp]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

Hello, that vein in my temple is throbbing again from chasing around down the interweb rabbit hole.

There are tech/audio specific forums, sure, but posters there can, frustratingly, assume a basic familiarity with the terrain that I... lack.

Someone gave me some apple vouchers, which I propose to redeem with a subscription to apple music.
I'd like to bypass the onboard DACs on my iphone and ipad and stream the digital 0's and 1's to the external (powered) DAC on the Q m20 powered speakers pictured upthread, because I assume it will do a better job/deliver better sound quality than connecting the speakers via 3.5mm analogue jack line-in.

My iphone and ipad are of an age to have the Lightning port, not the USB C.

So, in language a child and his gerbil would understand, how might I, most simply and cheaply, implement this plan?

Must I shell out for one of these, or would this alternative do? What have I overlooked?

 

[ColinJ]

So, in language a child and his gerbil would understand how might I, most simply and cheaply, implement this plan?

Find a suitably-qualified child and his gerbil, and get them to do it for you?