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Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
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Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??


  • Subject: Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
  • From: Brian Willoughby <email@hidden>
  • Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 17:34:48 -0800


On Feb 5, 2010, at 15:11, Paul Davis wrote:
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 5:50 PM, Kyle Sluder <email@hidden> wrote:
On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Ryan Walklin <email@hidden> wrote:
This is ideal, but does require a lot of new hardware. A TOSLINK optical connector is available on all shipping Macs.

But it can't do what you want (uncompressed multichannel audio),

i never quite understood if there were h/w differences between a TOSLINK connector being used to deliver ADAT-protocol or S/PDIF protocol .... the former is 8 channels, uncompressed, via the same connector and fiber ... i guess the signal codec must be different.


There's no difference in the optical cable itself, and no difference in the basic hardware that the cable plugs into - which converts between optical and electrical. However, if you count firmware as hardware, then there are hardware differences in that respect. You can't make SPDIF-only hardware carry ADAT. The reason is that ADAT uses a higher clock rate, and although the fiber-optic cable can always handle the higher clock rate, the electronics driving the optical converter may not be, and the firmware in your audio interface may simply not offer the option of switching to the higher rate.

A CoreAudio FireWire audio interface like the Metric Halo Labs MobileIO 2882 and ULN-2, or the Mark of the Unicorn 896HD and similar, each have optical outputs (and inputs) which support ADAT.

As far as I know, there are no home theatre systems that support ADAT input. ADAT also seems at risk of disappearing from the marketplace, since the codec chips are only available from I believe one vendor, who may not still be making this chip or even be in business. Not sure about the latter.

Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting

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  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link??
      • From: "Ross Bencina" <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link?? (From: Ryan Walklin <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link?? (From: William Stewart <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link?? (From: Ryan Walklin <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link?? (From: Kyle Sluder <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Outputting multichannel sound through the optical link?? (From: Paul Davis <email@hidden>)

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