TDIF or DB25?

I

Intrepido

New member
Question for the experts, what is the difference between tdif and a regular DB25 cable?

I checked both and they look the same but if you go to a music store and ask for a tdif cable it will cost you around $40.00 but you can get what looks the same (DB25) for about $10.00

Any info is apreciated, thanks.
 
I'm not 100% sure, but tdif needs (or wants) 110 ohm cable. The pinout may be different as well.

There is no good reason why it should cost that much more than a computer cable, other than supply and demand.
 
Hey Intripdo,

If I am not mistaken. "DB25" is really just the designation for the connector, but the term is often mistakenly used for refer a cable. In the case of a (non-MAC) PC applications, the only such cables (DB25 and both ends) I know of are RS-232 cables for serial data connections to modems, and early on other devices like mice, tables and printers that are now handled by USB. In serial applications, only 9 (or less?) of the 25 pins were needed to communicate serial data, thus a 232 cable had only to connect those pins on either end to work correctly. The TDIF on the other hand utilizes all 25 pins from what I can see (internet at http://mackie.com/products/digitalxbus/pdfs/digitalxbus200_Connections.pdf). I know squat about audio data standards, but from the TDIF pinout looks to me as if TDIF is some sort of parallel data arrangement, with a bunch of control signal lines to boot. So even if all pins of the Db25 connectors on a RS232 cable were to be wired end to end, it is not likely that the "criss-cross" connections needed to support TDIF data transfer would be in place.

Just my 2. Hope this helps.

Tom
 
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