RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster - Digital Drive

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RE: SPDIF vs. XLR

In Reply to: RE: SPDIF vs. XLR posted by Thorsten on September 4, 2016 at 06:28:54:

Thorsten wrote:

"For AES-EBU the nominal impedance is 110 Ohm but XLR Plugs are more like 300 Ohm. Any of these is sufficient to create reflections, but XLR will be worst and BNC will be least bad."

The 110 Ohm characteristic impedance of an AES/EBU digital cable is actually such a wide-range specification that it almost seems arbitrary. The actual specification falls somewhere between a generous 110 ohm ± 20% (88-132 ohm) range. I've built several DIY AES/EBU digital cables albeit short-length 0.5m cables, with the only stipulation being a simple twisted pair with a very tight twist ratio along with cable resonance damping, and find the AES/EBU digital interface to be subjectively superior to any S/PDIF cable interface, regardless of lacking any hands-on measurements, IME.

A more meaningful caveat of an AES/EBU cable interface is the notion that a balanced interface is less sensitive if not insensitive to cable and connector quality vs. a single-ended rca interconnect cable interface. A typical pro audio balanced cable and pro audio XLR connector can present just as lackluster performance as a mediocre single-ended rca cable tends to present. It took a number of DIY experiments to discover the importance of using a true high-performance conductor and XLR connector in order to achieve a more than satisfactory presentation via an AES/EBU interface, IME.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - SPDIF vs. XLR - jllaudio 20:21:27 08/30/16 (10)

I'm guilty of using long digital feeds to DACs :-( - John C. - Aussie 15:44:24 08/05/17 (0)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Thorsten 06:28:54 09/04/16 (5)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster 16:13:53 09/05/16 (4)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Thorsten 06:48:12 09/06/16 (3)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster 11:24:07 09/06/16 (2)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Thorsten 23:24:38 09/06/16 (1)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster 12:29:39 09/07/16 (0)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - PAR 01:47:09 08/31/16 (0)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - ahendler 21:57:03 08/30/16 (1)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Old SteveA 12:06:10 09/01/16 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster 16:13:53 09/05/16 (4)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Thorsten 06:48:12 09/06/16 (3)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster 11:24:07 09/06/16 (2)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Thorsten 23:24:38 09/06/16 (1)

RE: SPDIF vs. XLR - Duster 12:29:39 09/07/16 (0)

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