Even though I'm generally in the "evil S/PDIF" camp my latest DAC actually uses S/PDIF (coax or optical). But I'm using both an in and an out stream. The DAC generates a stream that is has all zeros for data, this is fed to a soundcard that can sync its output stream to an incoming stream. It doesn't matter how good or bad the cables are etc since the timing on the S/PDIF links is not used for anything. The Local oscillators in the DAC are used to drive the DAC chips.
By doing this I get to use an asynchronous interface without having to write any drivers, the soundcard manufacturer takes care of that for me. The best interface would be for something like the Touch to have clock inputs (NOT a word clock) that drive in instead of its local crystals, nothing other than a switch needed. The data can still go out over the existing digital outs. This automatically syncs it up to the device generating the external clocks and it can still switch between sample rates. The receiving DAC will have to look at its incoming stream and figure out what the sample rate is so it can choose the right clock to use, but that is not particularly difficult. As for a new interface I'm actually working on one based on netjack (network protocol for the jack server) which is a very simple protocol using UDP, its simple enough that it can be implemented entirely in a cheap FPGA. It uses standard network infrastructure so you can use regular ethernet cable, switches etc. It doesn't just have to use special hardware, it uses standard low level protocols so a computer can talk this directly out of its existing Ethernet port. The protocol was designed for studio use so it supports many channels and sample rates. Its not just a one to one system, you can have many different devices connected to the same network and route audio data between them. John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=71464 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
