[ltp] T43 and S/PDIF audio output

Dave Woodfall dave at tty1.uk
Sun Nov 22 20:04:46 CET 2020


Thank you both for your replies.

On 20/11/20 15:51,
Richard Neill <rn214 at richardneill.org> put forth the proposition:
> > I do have a Behringer USB interface, but my understanding is that USB
> > interfaces are limited in bandwidth compared to coax or optical,
> > which is why I wondered if this `AC-link' would be useful.
> >
> USB 2.0  is up to 480 Mbit/sec
> CD quality audio is 44.1 ksample/sec at 16 bits x 2 channels = 1.4 Mbit/s.
> So you're fine as long as you don't use a USB 1.0 port!
> I am not a professional audio engineer, but to me, the Behringer DAC sounds
> as good as a CD player using decent (£500-quality) equipment.
> HTH - Richard

Sounds reasonable.  I had a look in the usual boxes of PC bits for
the Behringer, but all I found was the box and manual.  It's here
somewhere...

The reason that I mentioned that USB might not be as good goes back
to when I was looking to buy an audio card and a DAC several years
ago, and the research that I found mostly agreed that the pecking
order goes: coax > Toslink > USB.

Having said all that, I'm only expecting to play audio with a maximum
48k sample rate on the T43, so USB should be fine... if it had coax
digital output to connect to the rest of my system, which is now all
coax-based, but the manual shows my UCA202 has Toslink.

One reason that I went with coax was because it will happily go
through passive audio gear, without needing any fancy optical
switches and splitters etc. (with their PSUs always switched on).  It
is a much simpler system in terms of routing/cabling etc. (and
cheaper to run/better for the environment etc).

--
Dave

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over,
pinning you underneath.  At night, the ice weasels come.
	 --Friedrich Nietzsche


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