New Avid HDX Thunderbolt 3 chassis

[JanuS]

Personally, I'd prefer a HD Native system over HDX, when HDX consists of only 1 card.

So.. can you fit a PCIe Native HD card in the rack / desktop as well?
I suppose so, PCIe = PCIe

[JFreak]

What's wrong with the HDN TB box that is old as heaven and earth?

[JanuS]

Nothing really.. perfectly fine box. Although a TB 3 connector version would be appropriate.

I'm referring to the new announced Avid / Sonnet chassis.

[LDS]

I assume this means TB3 is now supported with HDX across the board?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by LDS

I assume this means TB3 is now supported with HDX across the board?

Better not assume anything. Assume only this: Avid obviously supports the new boxes, but anything else be prepared to read some readme's and knowledgebase articles.

[Ryan Young]

Originally Posted by JanuS

Nothing really.. perfectly fine box. Although a TB 3 connector version would be appropriate.

I'm referring to the new announced Avid / Sonnet chassis.

I use this with my MacBook Pro, works perfectly.
Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Ryan Young

I use this with my MacBook Pro, works perfectly.
Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter

Of course.

But if the computer only has one TB3 buss, the problem is (citation needed) when you connect a TB1 device to the buss the whole buss downgrades to lower speed.

I am not completely sure though; may also be that if your only buss has a TB3 device first and TB1 device second, the first TB3 box would operate full speed and speed reduced from the first TB1 device onwards. You also need to read Avid readme's as (again, not sure) they might insist HDN box be first in TB chain if you operate at 96kHz or higher.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Of course.

But if the computer only has one TB3 buss, the problem is (citation needed) when you connect a TB1 device to the buss the whole buss downgrades to lower speed.

I am not completely sure though; may also be that if your only buss has a TB3 device first and TB1 device second, the first TB3 box would operate full speed and speed reduced from the first TB1 device onwards. You also need to read Avid readme's as (again, not sure) they might insist HDN box be first in TB chain if you operate at 96kHz or higher.

No the whole bus is not slowed down. As always other peripherals on the bus can affect available bandwidth, lucky audio has small needs here. If Avid is saying the HDN box can't be at the end of longer chains I suspect that is just a concern about bandwith consumption of upstream devices... with the restriction written in a simplistic way that they did not need to try to get into what actual upstream device bandwidth consumption there is... if low then sure you might be able to have a longer chain. I do wonder if they are worried in practice about DC power through a bunch of devices... if upstream devices are consuming bus power. Again I suspect they may have wanted to simplify any restrictions they provided.

The practical issue may be more just Thunderbolt bus termination. e.g. plugging in a device (Thunderbolt single port, USB-C, displayport display, or indeed the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter) terminates the Thunderbolt 3 bus and you may run out of ability to chain other Thunderbolt 3 devices. And adapting into a device that has two Thunderbolt 1 or 2 ports only provides that performance downstream, but should not affect upstream devices.

BTW great that the new HDX enclosure includes two Thunderbolt 3 ports, I hope Avid learnt their lesson with the Thunderbolt HD Native box, or maybe Sonnet is just smarter--a good company to partner with. A refresh of the HD Native box with dual thunderbolt 3 ports might be nice.

[JFreak]

I think it is both. Avid only supports HDN TB box as 2nd device on TB buss (power issue) but they also say if you run 96k or more it needs to be 1st (bandwidth issue)