Question

No T2 cards available anywhere, they're all proprietary and you can't even find or buy any of those! this issue is going to kill the quantum! I'm about about to give up and send mine back! I can't help but wonder what is going on here? I am literally going through thunderbolt hell for what should just be a simple thing!

Answer 1

Thunderbolt was developed by Intel and Apple.  The Thunderbolt technology works very well with Mac computers.  The problem is that the PC developers are very many and most have not yet adopted Thunderbolt technology.  So you PC options are limited and may require a bit more setup.  This is the simple and very frustrating nature of computers.  We all must feel this pain.  

The Quantum is perfectly compatible with Thunderbolt 3.  The reasons for product design are very many, but T2 was the intended spec as T2 has all the bandwidth and processing power needed for the Quantum.  T3 is not needed.  Additionally, there are even fewer T3 devices available in the tech market.  This also is the nature of things.

Answer 2

I feel your pain.   I just built a computer from the ground up, took awhile but is now working great.   I couldn't find a t2 card either so I just bought a t3 pcie card and had to fork out even more for the t3 to t2 adaptor.   I have no idea why they built it with t2.   Reading the specs on the card, it says its backward compatible with t2 and t1, but I wasn't going to chance that and got the startech adaptor anyway.   Good luck going forward.   It does work really nice when you get all that kind of **** worked out.

Answer 3

Thanks for the reply's, the computer I just had built with a motherboard that had a thunderbolt header was a foolish move, my son is going to love it otherwise it would become a paper weight...

I have now ordered all the parts for a second build, an extreme one including the Startech adapter, about the best of everything and pretty much future proof (knock on wood)  had to dip into the savings... but it's only money right?   

I'll report back with the results in a few days and share the build if it all works out right

Answer 4

I can say though, I went to Sams club and picked up a 40" 4K  Samsung TV and ordered a touch screen overlay that turns the TV into a Touchscreen, I just got it in this morning put it all together and it works brilliantly!

Pardon the language but I will add it's freaking BAD ***!!! total cost about 670 clams.. that $230.00 cheaper than the 27" Raven MTI Il,  my buddy has one of those and this mops the floor with it in my opinion...

Now just to get the new workstation and, cross my fingers, the Thunderbolt happening.. and I'll be back to file my report

Answer 5

Here's an update on my system.   Very happy now that everything is working like its supposed to and the advertised numbers on latency are exactly as advertised.   Very nice.    Mine is a ATX case, asrock mb a270 K4, i7770 quad at 4.5khz, 32 gigs ram, 1 tb SSD drive, win 10 home, and the lower end gigabite video card.  Not using the builtin video as I can now up the resolution and it is perfect even on a 27" monitor.  I thought it would be too small to see at 2560x1440 but it works out perfect with studio one 3.5.1.  My initial concern was running a 16 input system at 96khz.  In the end, I added my octopre mkII to the mix, and running at 48khz and 24 analogs, couldn't be happier.   I had a bit of trouble at 96khz and I am now convinced that 48Khz was the way to go.   Less than 1ms input latency just like they said and it is really stable.  Hope my rambling helps someone.

Answer 6

Congratulations William, I am just waiting on an M.2 drive for OS and programs, a 2 T-Bite WD Caviar recording drive and the graphics card and I'll know the truth, I turned a 40" 4K Samsung TV into a big touchscreen with Devils Technology (D-Touch) software because I'm running Pro-tools 12 so I made the move on an  EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 for excellent graphics, I figure by the end of the week she'll be together, I also went Intel 4.5 Kaby Lake for 308 bucks from Walmart of all places. 64 gigabytes of DDR4 T-Force Dark RAM.. yada yada... I'll leave the full build if it all works out right I wouldn't want to share an uncooperative build

if you're stable at 48K on 24 tracks at that kind of latency I'd say you've done pretty **** good for yourself, that's what I'm looking forward to and downsizing my vast amp collection into a Kemper, higher resolutions than that are a myth and a waste of HD space anyhow IMO

Thanks for the reply...

Answer 7

I've unregistered the quantum and returned it, never downloaded any of the software except the drivers and universal control, very disappointed, once I got it up and running I wasn't impressed with the sound, the drivers are undeveloped without the ability to do things I guess I take for granted, me and presonus interfaces are parting ways.. Apollo or Orion here I come..

Answer 8

I am living this hell right now.  I just purchased a ASUS ThunderboltEX3 (PCIe card) for my Z170-A motherboard.  Low and behold I am discovering that ASUS has not supported this product and all kinds of people are having problems getting Thunderbolt to work.  I have spent an inordinate amount of time installing drivers and software, updating my BIOS, changing the parameters in my BIOS, installing the PCIe card and then uninstalling and trying the whole thing in another slot on my computer.

Additionally, I have been chasing information online that may help, but to no avail.  I have been to ASUS forums, You Tube, you name it, I have looked at it and tried it.  I am going to give it another go this week and if that fails, I will return the ThunderboltEX3 card and give up on having a Quantum.

I built this computer from the ground up last year so I am not interested in scrapping it for Thunderbolt connectivity when ASUS boasts about such connectivity.

Answer 9

Swapped motherboards in my computer with a certified Thunderbolt motherboard, a Gigabyte GA-Z170X Gaming 7, and I am in love with the Quantum.  Working perfectly, great pre's, great routing ability.  

My guess for the T2 instead of T3 was the licensing / hardware costs of going T3, which would have added no functional improvement.

Wish the had designed the Studio 192 properly for USB3 operation,(instead of calling it USB3 and only using USB2) the increased speed would have been close to the Quantum. Not quite as good, but much better than it is. Hindsight is 20/20...

Love the Quantum.....

Don