Digital AES/EBU and XLR..Whats the difference?

lsdd · Post by **lsdd** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:49 pm

Can I use an XLR mic lead as an AES/EBU Digital connection??????
It seems to work........
xxd

rklegon · Post by **rklegon** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:43 am

AES/EBU is a stereo digital transfer protocol which uses an XLR connection/cable.
So to answer your question, yes, you're doing this right. AES/EBU uses an XLR cable/connection, just like S/PDif (another stereo digital transfer protocol) uses an RCA cable/connection.

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:56 am

with SPDIF, you should be sure to use 70ohm (video) RCA

lsdd · Post by **lsdd** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:03 pm

A friend of mine said it's a special kind of XLR lead, should be gold plated, but that it's fine to use a mic lead to get out of trouble....hmmmm
Thanks everyone!!
xxd

rklegon · Post by **rklegon** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:03 pm

kelldammit wrote:with SPDIF, you should be sure to use 70ohm (video) RCA

I believe it's actually a 75 ohm RCA cable. There's also optical S/PDif (TosLink) which is carried over an optical cable.

Anyway I guess you could say that S/PDif is to Consumer as AES/EBU is to Pro. (although there are some differences)

woodlakesound · Post by **woodlakesound** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:13 pm

lsdd wrote:Can I use an XLR mic lead as an AES/EBU Digital connection??????
It seems to work........
xxd

Bob Katz has stated within 10 feet a top quality mic cable can be used with sample rates at 48k and under without detecting losses. Though it would still be optimal to use AES/EBU spec if ya got it.

acro · Post by **acro** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:55 am

Careful -- I think the spec was 110 ohms, if I remember correctly.

stephentayler · Post by **stephentayler** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:03 am

Yes 110 ohm for AES/EBU, 75 ohm for spdif
use the best cable and connectors you can get and keep length to a minimum.

But a mike lead will work if you are stuck.

Stephen

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:18 pm

Although I no longer own any gear that supports AES/EBU, I still own one cable for that purpose, and there is a different impedance than for a standard mic cable. I had to label it so I don't make a mistake later on, as it doesn't say "AES/EBU" cable -- merely something to the effect of "high throughput mic cable" or something else a little bit indirect like that.

But I think it makes a bigger difference beyond 10' of cable length. Mine is a short patch cable, so I probably could get away with a standard XLR patch cable without data loss. I can't really run this experiment though -- the 896 is long gone and everything that I have now is S/PDIF.

MOTUnation.com

Digital AES/EBU and XLR..Whats the difference?

Digital AES/EBU and XLR..Whats the difference?

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Re: Digital AES/EBU and XLR..Whats the difference?