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RE: Digital cables

Posted by Mike C (A) on June 15, 2015 at 16:12:38

In Reply to: Digital cables posted by Tidycat1 on June 14, 2015 at 19:58:30:

The funny thing in all this is that the SPDIF signal is ANALOGUE, not a direct digital signal!

From what I understand, what I'd call a digital signal is the typical RS232 signal from say a modem to a computer; where 0 volts represents 1 and +5 volts represents 0. Viewed on a scope it looks rather like a square wave (with varying timing of course). SPDIF is nothing like this.

SPDIF signal is an analogue carrier, with both phase and amplitude modulated; high speed modems used this kind of modulation because it is possible to encode many bits per cycle of the carrier. I used modems giving 16.8K bits per second on a line of 3300 Hz upper frequency limit.
I guess SPDIF uses this method to keep the bandwidth low and away from radio frequencies.

So ... your SPDIF cable carries an analogue signal, though of higher than audio frequencies. There is nothing specifically 'digital' about the cable, and potentially an analogue IC could work well (or not of course!).

I have tried a DIY analogue interconnect made of Belden 89259 vs a special silver SPDIF cable with excellent results (I could not tell the difference; transport was Heed, dac was Luxman DA-06, system is valve based of high resolution).

I am sure there are *no* easy answers here, but I hope the above is informative and of interest.

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