[strangedaze39]

Ok so I was plugging my Oritek into my computers COAX out jack and I never noticed until yesterday that that Jack is just horrid looking. I might be wrong and this might not make the slightest difference but how it's mounted on the motherboard only allows the Coax cable to slide on about a 1/3" and it looks like it's nickel or something. If anyone knows what I need to upgrade this or replace this, I would be very grateful.

 

[d-cee]

I'd be more about concerned about what your computers drivers/codec is doing to the digital signal

 

[sejarzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by strangedaze39 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ok so I was plugging my Oritek into my computers COAX out jack and I never noticed until yesterday that that Jack is just horrid looking. I might be wrong and this might not make the slightest difference but how it's mounted on the motherboard only allows the Coax cable to slide on about a 1/3" and it looks like it's nickel or something. If anyone knows what I need to upgrade this or replace this, I would be very grateful.

I hate to burst your bubble, but gold jacks normally have only a very thin gold layer flashed over nickel; gold doesn't adhere well to brass, which is what the jack itself is made from. There's absolutely nothing to worry about.

 

[strangedaze39]

I have a Mac so I'm using COAX digital out selected from sound prefrences, so I have no idea what I can do as far as drivers/codec. I know I have a codec install specifically for my onboard sound card, but it's bypassing the sound card with COAX out I'm almost positive so I don't see how that would matter. Could fill me in on this a little more ?

To sejarzo: If I could find a copper jack that has deeper seating on it I would think it would be better then the nickel looking one I currently have. Or no ?

 

[cetoole]

Funny you mention modding the spdif output of soundcards now. I just did this yesterday, and posted details in the Post pics of your Builds thread, but since it applies, here goes: Fuzzy little black thing is a PE-65612, 0.33uf Panasonic stacked film next to it, 75r RG-179, and a 75r rated bnc output jack. You cant really see much detail, but there is a series ~221r smd resistor on the pcb connected to the primary, and a pair of 220r 1206 resistors soldered directly to the transformer secondary in parallel. Assumed ~30r output z from the SN74F244 output buffer, that gives around 76.5r nominal impedance. I really need a TDR though to get this good. Meh, it sounds fine, and my DAC locks no problems. Next one I do, I am killing the input jack below the BNC, and mounting it lower, because it is a huge PITA to install or remove the card. Works good, using the kx drivers and ASIO4ALL.

 

[error401]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cetoole /img/forum/go_quote.gif Funny you mention modding the spdif output of soundcards now. I just did this yesterday, and posted details in the Post pics of your Builds thread, but since it applies, here goes: Fuzzy little black thing is a PE-65612, 0.33uf Panasonic stacked film next to it, 75r RG-179, and a 75r rated bnc output jack. You cant really see much detail, but there is a series ~221r smd resistor on the pcb connected to the primary, and a pair of 220r 1206 resistors soldered directly to the transformer secondary in parallel. Assumed ~30r output z from the SN74F244 output buffer, that gives around 76.5r nominal impedance. I really need a TDR though to get this good. Meh, it sounds fine, and my DAC locks no problems. Next one I do, I am killing the input jack below the BNC, and mounting it lower, because it is a huge PITA to install or remove the card. Works good, using the kx drivers and ASIO4ALL.

Is it possible to get bit perfect output from emu10k1? I've got an old SB Live! that might be worth using if it is...

 

[sejarzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by strangedaze39 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a Mac so I'm using COAX digital out selected from sound prefrences, so I have no idea what I can do as far as drivers/codec. I know I have a codec install specifically for my onboard sound card, but it's bypassing the sound card with COAX out I'm almost positive so I don't see how that would matter. Could fill me in on this a little more ? To sejarzo: If I could find a copper jack that has deeper seating on it I would think it would be better then the nickel looking one I currently have. Or no ?

You might be bypassing the internal DAC and analog output section of your onboard sound device--but what is converting the data stream from an internal format to S/PDIF? I think it's your sound card......

Two fundamental things can go wrong with digital audio--the data could be in error, and/or the timing can be off (jitter.) What do you propose might be happening to the signal now would be solved by replacing the nickel plated brass jack with a gold plated copper jack, and why?

 

[strangedaze39]

EDIT: I was saying S/PDIF instead of optical. Sorry about that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif You might be bypassing the internal DAC and analog output section of your onboard sound device--but what is converting the data stream from an internal format to S/PDIF? I think it's your sound card...... Two fundamental things can go wrong with digital audio--the data could be in error, and/or the timing can be off (jitter.) What do you propose might be happening to the signal now would be solved by replacing the nickel plated brass jack with a gold plated copper jack, and why?

I'm not suggesting that a replacement jack "fix" anything. Only improve the sound

Anyways it's probably a small difference, but a good COAX cable is trying oh so hard to maintain conductivity, and have a little resistance as possibly, but it's kind silly when it's plugging into a nickel/brass jack.

Also I'm not sure about this but, I use COAX so I'm not sure what you ment by "internal format to S/PDIF". Both COAX and SPDIF are forms of carrying digital signals, but COAX doesn't have to be converted to before it goes through the COAX to the DAC. At the point it's in the cable it's still a simple digital out signal. If it was S/PDIF it would be different and actually has to convert the signal to an optical one before sending it through the cable, is that what your talking about ?


Thanks for your input, much appreciated

 

[Pars]

SPDIF is what is carried over the Coax cabling... COAX is not a format. Regarding the jack, if you want something prettier, yes you could change it. I would not expect any change in the sound. As Sejaro has said, the only things in an SPDIF signal that could be affected are the data (very unlikely... this is the part of digital that either works or it doesn't) or the timing.

Colin's mod to his soundcard is much more along the lines of what you should do if you really wanted to make a difference. And you would need to do similar to the input of your DAC as well, which is probably alot more than you wanted to do.

 

[sejarzo]

Yeah, what Pars said!!!

A lot of people are confused by this, but as he mentioned, coax simply means a coaxial cable (single center conductor, surrounded by a shield.) It's the physical cable over which S/PDIF format signals are transferred in the electrical domain. A lot of folks think that TOSLINK/optical isn't S/PDIF, but it is.....the S/PDIF standard is a protocol for both electrical and optical transmission of digital audio data:

S/PDIF article on Wikipedia

Who told you anything different????

And another thing.....check out the Neutrik and Switchcraft sites to see what the contacts of various XLR and TRS jacks and plugs are made from. Most pros don't use gold plated connectors in studios, because they know it just wears off in a short period of time.

 

[brainsalad]

Nickel works extremely well, especially for plugging and unplugging. After time (years) exposed nickel will corrode but the physical action of sliding the plug on and off the jack wears the corrosion off.

As long as the connector is making contact, it doesn't matter if its 1/16, 1/4 or 3 inches.

 

[cetoole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by error401 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is it possible to get bit perfect output from emu10k1? I've got an old SB Live! that might be worth using if it is...

Sorry, I have no idea actually if you can get bit perfect out of this card, and no good way of testing it. I can say that my feeling is it sounds much better than my other SPDIF transports, which include a Chaintech AV710 using the stock toslink (for now, that will be changing soon too) and my Pioneer dv563a using rca coax. Is it a real difference, heck if I know. This is using it with my (still stock, for now) Adcom GDA-600 DAC (pcm63) with a 6' BNC-RCA cable I made by taking apart a broken VGA-5 BNC video cable I had, and soldering an RCA on one end. I really cant wait to hook up my new Audio Alchemy DDE v3.0 (still stock, but less that I need to do on that one than the Adcom, mainly just the output stage) I just received (pmd100/ad1862), and I have a 16' cable for it using Belden 1694A coax and canare BNCs on both ends (BJC).