Soundcard with AES/EBU Capability

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phyl
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Phyl

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I need a sound card for my Giga computer. It needs to have AES/EBU capability but not much else, so I'm looking for something like the E-MU 0404 or a low end RME card.

Any other cards I should look at?

Thanks.
 
Massive Master said:
I use a Lynx AES16 interface - That's all it does.
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Damn, that's a nice card but a tad pricey. I think I'll be watching eBay for some used stuff.
 
You know, if it helps, you can always get a transformer or premade cable (Lynx has one for around ten bucks) to go from AES/EBU to S/PDIF... It works, it's a valid signal, and cards with S/PDIF I/O are a dime a dozen.
 
Massive Master said:
You know, if it helps, you can always get a transformer or premade cable (Lynx has one for around ten bucks) to go from AES/EBU to S/PDIF... It works, it's a valid signal, and cards with S/PDIF I/O are a dime a dozen.
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I have a card in the giga machine now that outputs SPDIF, but my new MOTU HD192 needs an AES/EBU signal.

If they make cables or boxes that convert SPDIF to AES/EBU I'm all set.

Thanks Massive.
 
That's what I was talking about - They're ten bucks.
 
Phyl said:
I have a card in the giga machine now that outputs SPDIF, but my new MOTU HD192 needs an AES/EBU signal.

If they make cables or boxes that convert SPDIF to AES/EBU I'm all set.

Thanks Massive.
Click to expand...

I'm a dummy. What is AES/EBU ?
 
I googled it:

AES/EBU (Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcasting Union) is the name of a digital audio transfer standard. The AES and EBU developed the specifications for the standard.

The AES/EBU digital interface is usually implemented using 3-PIN XLR connectors, the same type connector used in a professional microphone. One cable carries both left- and right-channel audio data to the receiving device. AES/EBU is an alternative to the S/PDIF standard.
 
Thanks. It makes good economic sense to exploit any existing hardware such as connectors, cables, etc. to make connections to hardware devices that have new protocals. If it can be done.
 
After doing some more research, it looks as if there are some fundamental capabilites inherent in the AES/EBU format that do not exist in SPDIF, therefore simply making an adapter cable probably isn't the way I want to go.

It will probably work 95% of the time, but there are apparently cases where bit depth and sampling rate information of the source signal could be mis-interpreted if I use a SPDIF output to feed the AES/EBU of my DAW.
 
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