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Hey All;

Just upgraded my converters and stuff and had a couple questions:

I managed to get a used Lucid ADA8824 and Genx6 for an amazing price, and picked up an RME Digiface to use along with it-I've never used lightpipe/toslink stuff but understand how it all works fine.

My questions lie in the cables themselves-
#1: Prices vary widely on the toslink cables, from Hosa cheap to boutique expensive-is there a difference? I mean I've always invested in good cables and Neutrik/Switchcraft connectors for all my audio stuff but since this is data at this point it seems more like buying a USB cable or something...

#2: I wanna try out this system this weekend but I have no wordclock cables, and the local store has to order them in-I used to do a lot of post production and still have BNC ended cables used for video, will these do? I can't remember if wordclock cables are impedance specific like AES/EBU or SP/DIF...

Thanks all...I've got an upcoming project i'm super excited about and wanna iron out all the details in this new system before 'testing' it on a band 8)

Cheers,
Eric

Comments

anonymous Thu, 01/09/2003 - 10:52

#1: Prices vary widely on the toslink cables, from Hosa cheap to boutique expensive-is there a difference? I mean I've always invested in good cables and Neutrik/Switchcraft connectors for all my audio stuff but since this is data at this point it seems more like buying a USB cable or something...

You mean to say that just because it's data it doesn't matter? On the contrary, digital data needs more care since you are talking about thousands of discreet events that need retain there timing accuracy. So keep doing what you always have.

The video cables should be fine.

Hope this helps.

Tungstengruvsten Thu, 01/09/2003 - 11:00

Not saying it doesn't matter, but since these aren't subject to physical wear and tear they don't have to be as robust. Since the optical cable has no copper or metal in it, i don't need oxygen-free/stranded blah blah blah....that's my line of thinking. I haven't seen chatter about .3mm optical cable vs. .5mm optical cable and the associated benefits, so it can't be on too many people's minds...

Thanks!

anonymous Thu, 01/09/2003 - 11:46

Sorry,

Didn't read your post carefully enough. I though we were talking S/PDIF and AES.

We were just discussing this on the DUC and I wanted to point you to the thread, but I can't figure it out. So I quote from a poster called Twent:

The 1's are usually represented by a presence of voltage (or light if using fiber optic cable) and the 0's are represented by the absence of voltage (or light). When a 0 changes to a 1 or a 1 to a zero - a square wave is created. When the threshold of time it takes to change from the amount of voltage that represents the "1" and the amount of voltage that is deemed a "0" is compromised by the square wave "rolling off" (rise and fall times changing) then plain and simple, your audio can be compromised. When using fiber optic cable this is amplified when a bad termination is made. I would strongly recomend staying away from any fiber cables that are "butted" together with a machine or terminated using "pre-polished" ends.

What he means by "butted" and "pre-polished," well, you've got me, but maybe this will give you some terms for some added research.

audiowkstation Thu, 01/09/2003 - 14:47

Their are two schools.

One, if it is good enough for accounting and no data gets lost, then how could one toslink sound different from another and the other school.

This one sounds better.

I am in the "use your ears a wallet school".

I try not to buy the most expensive or the cheapest, but close to the most expensive usually wins out.

Watch the boutique shoppes, they see the wallet a mile away...some snake oil included...you know, special dressing for the connectors and all that Jazz. Price and packaging and advertising and hype to boot..