Computer Audio Asylum

Posted by audioengr (M) on February 17, 2008 at 19:08:14

In Reply to: RE: Synergistic Research USB Cable posted by dspringham on February 17, 2008 at 12:09:50

USb is a cable from the computer to the audio converter, usually USB to S/PDIF or USB to I2S. I2S is the interface to the D/A chip. If you do USB to I2S, you avoid the conversions to S/PDIF and the clock recovery from S/PDIF.

The USB cable has one signal pair and a power pair. The S/PDIF cable has a single signal pair. The I2S cable has 3 or 4 signal pairs, usually one data pair SDATA, one L/RCLK or "SYNC" pair, one MCLK or master clock pair and one BCLK, or bit clock pair.