Basics about S/PDIF: please help!.

Alejo

Alejo

New member
Hello to all,

From the manual of my sound card,

"The Audiophile 2496 gives you stereo (or dual mono) analog inputs and outputs plus coaxial S/PDIF digital inputs and outputs for a total of 4 ins / 4 outs of high quality audio I/O"

Well, when I break my neck on the back of my PC to reach my sound card, I only can see one pair of RCA stereo input and the same pair for audio output. Even treating them as mono, this only gives me 2 ins/2 outs of audio.
The rest of the ins/outs the manual shows could come through the S/PDIF, but the manual also says that the signal received and transmited by a S/PDIF connnector is always digital (CD, Minidisc, DAT, POD, synths and these things..).
Ok, ok...when the manual talks about S/PIDF and says "audio in", I should understand "analog signal wich passes through a A/D converter an then to the S/PDIF connector", but still there is one audio in/out missing!. Where is it?.

(I must say that the S/PDIF for the AP 2496 has only 1 RCA input / 1 output, therefore 1 audio in/out mono)

Positevely I knowI am wrong, but I don´t know where.

Thanks a lot.
 
It's on the breakout cable that plugs into the 9-pin D connector. That cable has MIDI in and out, and S/PDIF in and out connectors. The RCA jacks for S/PDIF each carry 2 channels of digital audio, by the way, so there's only 1 in and 1 out.
 
Also S/PDIF is stereo (two channels I should say) audio on ONE RCA type connector. So there will be one input and one output connector. Obviously this will only accept digital signal and you can't plug and analog source directly into it.
 
Thank you guys very much for you quick and precise responses. I got it now.

My idea was to get two stereo audio inputs on my sound card taking advantage of the S/PDIF, since I don´t have any device S/PDIF to plug on it. Could be possible and realtively cheap to buy an A/D converter for this? The chain would be, for example: Guitar-preamp.A/D converter-S/PDIF.
Or may be I should upgrade my sound card and forget about experiments?

Another question comes when I select the S/PDIF on my sound card: the audio gets muted. No sound at all. Can I select both inputs at the same time when recording?

Again, thanks a lot.
 
Audio muting when selecting the S/PDIF (Sony / Phillips Digital Interface - I think) may be a configuration issue...

As for a converter, check out the Art DI/O at www.fullcompass.com. Converts A/D and D/A with a 12AX7 on the A/D conversion. $124.95


Blind Cowboy...
 
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