Digital And Analogue Cables
I'm confused as to why USB, HDMI, Coax cables are referred to as digital and RCA as analogue cables.
All of the cables transmitt voltage variation through the wires, so how are they digital and the other analogue?
Can someone shed some light on it without manufacturer marketing lingo.
@ghasley I appreciate your respect, and no offense is taken. I’ll be the first to admit that I myself still have much to learn about the engineering side of audio. I am at least lucky to consider myself curious and want to gain experience and expertise wherever possible! Thank you for your clarification and coaching. :) |
@pegolea Digital cables transmit a digital, binary signal (0’s and 1’s) before a digital to analog converter (DAC) converts the signal into an analog signal. Generally different types of digital cables have required specifications to enable the effective delivery of the digital signal to its destination. Coax, for example needs to have a 75ohm impedance while AES (digital XLR) needs to be a 110ohm impedance cable. |
@ghasley Digital cables are basically intended to transmit square waves of sorts, right, and not a full analog audio signal (despite whether you classify those signals as analog, they do not contain the analog representation of the music)? Yes, all cables have conductors that can send either type of signal, but the interfaces in which they connect and the spec that they need to transmit the information effectively determine their classification. |
@ghasley Nicely said! And many times the audible differences in those interfaces are due to differences (improvements and fallacies in signal preservation, impedance, shielding, and grounding) in cable designs (e.g. one Coax can sound vastly different from the next), or that the destination’s handles something a bit different from one interface to the other, even if they are all using SPDIF. |
