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RE: SPDIF vs. XLR

Posted by Thorsten (M) on September 6, 2016 at 06:48:12

In Reply to: RE: SPDIF vs. XLR posted by Duster on September 5, 2016 at 16:13:53:

Hi,

I suspect your DAC uses a Cirrus Logic or AKM SPDIF receiver. These work poorly with SPDIF signals as they are designed for direct interfacing to AES/EBU which has at least ten times the common SPDIF signal levels. Unless suitable active signal conditioning is added SPDIF with these devices is much worse than it has to be.

And yet are the most common SPDIF devices and usually using the pretty terrible datasheet application too, all the way down to the inappropriate (slow slope, low bandwidth) transformer models recommended in the app note.

These receivers practically need AES/EBU signal levels to trigger cleanly.

Also, 0.5m is still pretty short, depending upon your source's rise time and sample rate this may be short enough to avoid any of the transmission line issues that cause reflections and signal distortion.

Try it with 5m runs.

I find once the DAC is equipped with a decent internal clock and a memory buffer there is so little difference between SPDIF, AES/EBU and USB as long as they are all galvanically isolated, that I'd be hard pressed to say I hear any.

Thor

At 20 bits, you are on the verge of dynamic range covering fly-farts-at-20-feet to intolerable pain. Really, what more could we need?

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