Short answer..... AES cables beat SPDIF for digital EVERY TIME. I'm no engineer so I can't give you the specifics. Maybe it's the balanced design of AES. They can also carry clock signal. It's a constant 110 ohm and we use them for every IC cable we use, even analog signals.
Short answer..... AES cables beat SPDIF for digital EVERY TIME. I'm no engineer so I can't give you the specifics. Maybe it's the balanced design of AES. They can also carry clock signal. It's a constant 110 ohm and we use them for every IC cable we use, even analog signals.
Short answer..... AES cables beat SPDIF for digital EVERY TIME. I'm no engineer so I can't give you the specifics. Maybe it's the balanced design of AES. They can also carry clock signal. It's a constant 110 ohm and we use them for every IC cable we use, even analog signals.
I thought we were talking about AES/SPDIF cables. I too have hundreds of feet of CAT 5e and CAT 6 cable that I use. I also use $ 0.25 /ft. AT&T ST-optical cable at hundreds of feet. In certain situations, you can get away with dirt cheap connections.
Devialet use AES digital inputs in their amplifiers and when using multi-amplifier configurations a lot of them can be needed. Curiously in a strange configuration - the digital outputs are RCA, but they recommend connecting them to the AES XLR input of the slave amplifier using custom cables!
I thought we were talking about AES/SPDIF cables. I too have hundreds of feet of CAT 5e and CAT 6 cable that I use. I also use $ 0.25 /ft. AT&T ST-optical cable at hundreds of feet. In certain situations, you can get away with dirt cheap connections.
Hi Bruce,
We are. CAT 5E makes a fine AES/110 Ohm unshielded cable. The attenuation at 10MHz/100 Meters is about the same, (-7dB) and its capacitance about two thirds at 52pf/meter (which makes it easier to drive if used as unbalanced SPDIF). It's just a practical alternative to dedicated AES/EBU cable. But admittedly, not very audiophile, or pricey.
Hi Bruce,
We are. CAT 5E makes a fine AES/110 Ohm unshielded cable. The attenuation at 10MHz/100 Meters is about the same, (-7dB) and its capacitance about two thirds at 52pf/meter (which makes it easier to drive if used as unbalanced SPDIF). It's just a practical alternative to dedicated AES/EBU cable. But admittedly, not very audiophile, or pricey.
You are correct, it's characteristic impedance is 100 Ohm +/- 15%. But at the data rate that AES/EBU operates, and with its transitions times, it's not a real consideration.
CAT 5 cabling is used very broadly in studio wiring for its versatility in transmitting BALANCED data and BALANCED line level audio over the same infrastructure. An additional advantage of its use for AES/EBU Data is that one cable accommodates eight channels of data. CAT 5E has many technical advantages beyond its use as Ethernet, or other network cabling.
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CAT 5 cabling is used very broadly in studio wiring for its versatility in transmitting BALANCED data and BALANCED line level audio over the same infrastructure. An additional advantage of its use for AES/EBU Data is that one cable accommodates eight channels of data. CAT 5E has many technical advantages beyond its use as Ethernet, or other network cabling.
Yes, but as most of us are very concerned about jitter in WBF, it is very disturbing to know that such cables are being used by those who supply us with out recordings. As far as I know, some operations during mastering are still carried in the analogue domain. And we must hope that the sound engineers listen to the recordings at the best conditions when working on them!
FWIW, Meridian is using CAT5 for speakerlink (digital) and also CAT5 to carry 6 channels of high rez audio between the HD621 and processor (using MHR), and it seems to be working just dandy.
