AES/EBU Digital Interconnect for DIY ?!

Hi
I want to put together an AES/EBU digital i/c to connect a DIP Upsampler to an M-Audio Super DAC.

Advice please on suppliers of good quality connectors and cables.
Any DIY projects on the net?
Thanks.

 

I can do both .....i've a varriety of cable, single solid core, or stranded coax, twisted pair coax all silver plated ptfe insulated, or even make your own using silver....assuming you want RCA to RCA though I can get XLR's....... pm me.......

 

Zanash.. Thanks.
The AES/EBU connectors I am looking for are for these:

The black round one to the right (Digital in)




The black round one to the left with three pins. (Digital out)

Know any good quality makes/suppliers?

 

Those are XLR plugs you'll be wanting then I think Neutrik ones are the best, from what little I've read...

 

but the signal is not balanced ? why go to the expense .....

but yes neutrik are damn good..

if you go that route i've some nice dayglo orange shielded twisted pair...ptfe silver plated

 

oh yes about 6mm dia

 

The AES/EBU signal is balanced.

Bluemax - it's not really worth DIY when you can buy Gotham GAC-2 terminated in solid Deltron XLRs for about £12 for 1m. Farnell 430390

 

Downloaded a PDF file on Gotham Cable from Farnell. Apparently it is a specially developed 110 Ohm double-shielded cable that use twin-ax design. And the price is low.

But I need only about 0.4 meters and DIY will be fun
How about using three silver plated (or pure silver) twisted pair wires plaited together like Kimber and terminated with Neutrik XLR plug and socket?

Or is co-ax superior for digital?

 

Hi,

best cable you can make for the job:

1) Cliff plastic XLR Plugs (they are also best for normal XLR Cables)

2) High quality 50 Ohm coaxial cable, two length, some solid or foamed PTFE cable is readily available with fairly small diameter and a performance similar to semi-rigid cable.

Take the two cables and twist them around each other. Join the screens and use as "pin 1" aka signal ground. You may wish to consider grounding the screen only on one side of the cable (usually receiver side) and the other side connect the screen to pin 1 via a 10nF low inductance capacitor.

Use one center conductor each for pin 2 & pin 3 (aka signal).

Works exceedingly well.

Ciao T

 

Well...
the orange cable would be £2/0.5m
or enough 0.5mm [4n] silver and ptfe too make 0.4m cable £10
and £6 ish for the neutrik IDC plug and socket
so cost is relatively small

 

This design makes very good sense.
I will give it a go if I can find a supplier of specified XLR plugs and 50 Ohm co-ax.

In the past, I have used number of cable designs by Thorsten and got excellent results.

That is except the UBYTE-I that involved (for very good reasons) removing the outer sheath and braid. It was a pain to make cos Maplin seem to have changed the spec and copper foil kept breaking off. People in Belgium who could buy Jobarco cable (no braid) were very happy though.

Thanks.

 

Farnell is out of stock on Gotham GAC-2 / Deltron XLR cables at the moment.
But they stock
CLIFF 3 Pin Female Line Connector (APF CP3003) Farnell 149323 £1.64 and
CLIFF 3 Pin Male Line Connector (APM CP3004) Farnell 149322 £1.50

Also NEUTRIK XCC Series designed to transmit digital audio signals.
NEUTRIK NC3FXCC Digital 3 Pin XLR Socket. Farnell 3886177 £4.16
NEUTRIK NC3MXCC Digital 3 Pin XLR Plug. Farnell 3886189 £2.62
They might need a special crimping tool.

Can't find high quality 50 Ohm coaxial cable as yet.

 

Hi,

Note, some very fancy US made cables use the same connectors heavily disguised....

Hmmm, how about RG223 or RG178 or RG316?

Ciao T

 

Why are you looking for 50ohm cable when the AES trasmitters / receivers are expecting to see a 110 ohm connection? Aren't you wasting your time?

FWIW Van Damme also do a special 110ohm for AES/EBU and it's cheap.

Stephen

 

Hi,

Well, most supposed 110 Ohm cable is actually closer to 100 Ohm (as is the standard Cat5 etc that often is used in studios for long runs), plus at the frequencies involved (64 X 44100Hz or 5.6448MHz) the wavelength is quite long.

Other issues actually come considerably more to the fore.

Try for yourself. As I have been always using mixtures of studio and consumer gear I just MAY know what I'm talking about, 'scope jokeys and nay sayers nonwithstanding.

Yes, also it's particulary good. Try it. And while you are at it, see how much a random sample deviates from your revered 110 Ohm impedance and then do the same test with the dual Coax (which is 100 Ohm, in case this escaped your notice) which has a very tight CI spec.

Ciao T

 

Relax, I'm not pretending to be an expert here.