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S/PDIF sounds more analog than AES/EBU

Hi folks, I have both Nirvana S/PDIF and AES/EBU cables. At the end I prefer the S/PDIF because to me it sounds more natural (more "analog") than the AES/EBU. Is S/PDIF more "analog" in general? Does AES/EBU sound more mechanical/sterile? My transport is the MBL 1621 and DAC is Accustic Arts Tube DAC. Thank you.

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 2 responses by kijanki

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,453 posts
 
Chris - As far as I know AES/EBU is the same thing as S/PDIF. It is used in studio equipment while S/PDIF is for the rest of us. Electrical levels are slightly different and it is balanced but the protocol is the same. My Benchmark DAC1 receives both with the same chip. Here is quote from WIKIPEDIA:

"the low-level protocol for data transmission in AES/EBU and S/PDIF is largely identical, and the following discussion applies for S/PDIF as well unless otherwise noted." There is also fiber-optic version of the same protocol know better from its Toshiba name "Toslink"

I don't know what could be different in your system - maybe this difference in electrical levels. Are both Nirvana cables of similar quality?
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,453 posts
 
As far as I know the only difference in digital data transmission is jitter. Jitter manifests itself by creating side bands at very low level - very audible since not harmonically related to their root frequency. It can make impression of "lively" sound but I'm not certain how it changes imaging.
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