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wich signal cable is best at ~10m ( usb, optical, bnc ... ) ?

post #1 of 7
9/6/11 at 6:18am
Thread Starter 

Id like to know wich type of wire i should use if i need to place my dac far away from pc. my best bet is optical cable but id like to hear that from someone smarter than me. :) as far as i know usb would not work at all with that long cable ? am i right ? 

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post #2 of 7
9/6/11 at 9:07am

After some Googling...

 

USB max length = 5 meters

TOSLINK (optical) max length = 5 -10 meters

Coaxial = 10+ meters

 

Assuming that signal strength drops off linearly with distance (which may be wrong... but for a back of the envelope calculation seems reasonable) then you'll get the strongest signal from a coaxial cable (bnc or rca.)

 

Is the distance less than 5 meters? If that's the case then you can use any of the connection methods with equal success.

 

Edit: I just saw that you specified 10m. Which means that you are probably best off using coax (bnc).


Edited by Iniamyen - 9/6/11 at 9:09am
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post #3 of 7
9/6/11 at 9:40am
Thread Starter 

thx for a reply Iniamyen, i have been googleing myself, and i found that the optical is better for longer distances, coaxial is not. :)

so wich one is right ? :D still confused :p

some even hear the diffrences in sound quality, other say thats impossible etc.


Edited by aivar1988 - 9/6/11 at 9:48am
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post #4 of 7
9/6/11 at 9:43am
Thread Starter 

double post deleted


Edited by aivar1988 - 9/6/11 at 9:49am
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post #5 of 7
9/7/11 at 9:06am

TOSLINK is "limited" to 5 meters according to Wikipedia. It goes on to say it may be possible to have longer runs.

 

I am not sure of the "standard" for S/PDIF over coax, but If you look around there are reports of people running it hundreds of meters. Google "coax attenuation chart" and you can see that for even a 1 MHz signal, only 0.2 dB attenuation occurs per 100ft of cable.

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post #6 of 7
9/7/11 at 10:14am
Thread Starter 

alright, thank you! :)

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post #7 of 7
9/7/11 at 11:16am

yep, BNC coax, or AES balanced spdif, the others are out of spec at your 10m distance

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