I just installed a new rack in my booth and I need to get signal to it.
I have a Fostex DS-8 digital patch bay in the rack next to it. This
digital patch bay has both coax and digital ins and outs and I am
wondering how digital and coax compare in quality. I am mainly asking
because I have one spare coax and one spare digital cable. The coax is
long enough to reach the patch bay, but the digital isn't, so I'm
asking the question to find out if I can run the coax or if I need to
go and get a longer digital line.

In article .com,
Luther Bell wrote:
I just installed a new rack in my booth and I need to get signal to it.
I have a Fostex DS-8 digital patch bay in the rack next to it. This
digital patch bay has both coax and digital ins and outs and I am
wondering how digital and coax compare in quality. I am mainly asking
because I have one spare coax and one spare digital cable. The coax is
long enough to reach the patch bay, but the digital isn't, so I'm
asking the question to find out if I can run the coax or if I need to
go and get a longer digital line.


Huh? The coax (If it's S-PDIF) is digital.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

So in effect they are both the same quality, just with different jacks
for different applications??

In article .com,
Luther Bell wrote:
So in effect they are both the same quality, just with different jacks
for different applications??

I don't know, what is this "digital" connection you are referring to?
Are you talking about AES/EBU vs. S-PDIF, or are you talking about normal
copper S-PDIF vs. fibre S-PDIF?
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Luther Bell" wrote in message
oups.com...
I just installed a new rack in my booth and I need to get signal to it.
I have a Fostex DS-8 digital patch bay in the rack next to it. This
digital patch bay has both coax and digital ins and outs and I am
wondering how digital and coax compare in quality. I am mainly asking
because I have one spare coax and one spare digital cable. The coax is
long enough to reach the patch bay, but the digital isn't, so I'm
asking the question to find out if I can run the coax or if I need to
go and get a longer digital line.

Both the optical and coaxial ins and outs are S/PDIF, which is digital. In this
case, the difference between using coaxial or optical cabling largely is a
matter of convenience. If you don't have an optical cable long enough, but you
do have a coaxial cable that makes the trip -- providing it's the proper 75 ohm
impedance, and not longer than 25 feet -- the answer is pretty simple.

"Quality" in this case is not about audio, but about the ability to transmit the
digital information from one place to another. In the case of coaxial, 75 ohm
cable is what's called for, and using anything else (like audio cable, which
will work to a degree) is asking for data errors.

John LeBlanc
Houston, TX

I think he's asking about coax vs. toslink SPDIF.


"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
Luther Bell wrote:
So in effect they are both the same quality, just with different jacks
for different applications??

I don't know, what is this "digital" connection you are referring to?
Are you talking about AES/EBU vs. S-PDIF, or are you talking about normal
copper S-PDIF vs. fibre S-PDIF?
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."