Wow, this is the third time today I've responded to this question, there must be a run on AES/EBU!
I don't have time to type it all in again, but in a nutshell the XLR jacks used in AES/EBU are terrible RF connectors. A true 75 ohm BNC is much better. RCAs are terrible at RF as well. AES/EBU uses high voltages (3-5V) which means the driver needs to supply 30-45mA while S/PDIF uses 0.5 which only needs 6mA. The much higher current will cause significantly larger power and ground bounce issues on the board and inside the driver chips. This is almost guaranteed to increase jitter. The balanced topology of AES/EBU is a good thing (the only good thing going for it) but the other problems can far outweigh that. So IF the alternatives are RCA S/PDIF or AES/EBU, the AES/EBU could very well sound better. BUT a proper implementation of S/PDIF with real 75ohm BNCs on all jacks and cables will have a high probability of out performing AES/EBU. So if your DAC has a 75ohm BNC jack, AND you get a cable with 75ohm plugs on it (not so easy, for some reason most 75ohm cables with BNC plugs use 50 ohm connectors) it will probably outperform an AES/EBU connection. John S. -- JohnSwenson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=76659 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
