RME Audio Fireface 802, User Manual

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92 User's Guide Fireface 802 © RME
Having tested several chinese replicas of the Apple Camera Connection Kit, from 2-in-1 to
5-in-1 adapters, we strongly recommend purchasing the original for use with the 802!
All adapters seemed to work for the simple application of copying photos. Attempting to run the
802 with USB Audio 2.0 was when the problems started. Some of the tested adapters would not
work at all, others only with short cables, and only one adapter came close to the quality of the
original. But as soon as 8-channel recording or 96 kHz playback was initiated, the Apple Kit
always performed much better.
We also recommend the purchase of a dock-to-dock extension cable, to avoid having the
CCK attached to the iPad directly with the heavy USB cable hanging down.
This can cause the CCK to slip out of the iPad’s connector, or to be in the way most of the time.
An extension cable provides enormous freedom of movement. We are working with cable
lengths of 50 cm and 1 m, both work flawlessly. These cables are available as
DeLock iPhone
extension cable
, or
Dock Extender
, e.g. from Amazon.
It is important to note that each individual component is responsible for stable operation of 802
and iPad. As an example, a setup with an iPad connected to a 1 m DeLock cable, CCK, 5 m
USB connection to the 802 only worked with the original Apple CCK. Not only for simple iTunes
stereo playback, but also with 96 kHz playback and 8-channel recording. In this setup, the USB
cable could even be replaced with a 10 m active one. With lower quality cables or CCK replicas,
even 50 cm dock to dock to 1 m USB would be considered success...
As far as we are aware active cable extensions for Lightning are not available. The existing
passive extensions make no sense due to the doubled thickness of their cable (double the
amount of wires inside), and the used Lightning connectors are no originals and therefore usu-
ally lack quality. The original adapter with its short cable is lightweight and works, can therefore
be used easily with iPad and iPhone.
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