AES/EBU Cables - what to use?

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Hrodulf, Jan 18, 2021.

  1. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    I'm about to dip my feet in the Pi2AES madness. The missing link is AES/EBU cables. It's a 110Ohm high frequency connection which uses XLR on both ends. I have seen pro's use everything from regular mic cable all the way to some fancy 100Ohm DMX cable. Are there special considerations to keep in mind to avoid impedance mismatch and wave echoes?
     
  2. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Welcome to XLR nervosa! In general the quality of the cable does matter. Stay away from cheap chinese mostly because they use the smallest gauge wire and usually exhibit poor soldering. But, you are using this to pass a "digital" signal. As long as it has good ground wiring and solid soldering, any brand will do. Analog balanced is a different story.

    Finally impedance matters. Make sure it is marked as 110 ohm and keep the length under 6 meters and you will be delivering bit perfect audio to your DAC.

    Asking here is a good idea since there should be a wide variety of cables folks have used.
     
  3. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    Cable impedance is more or less clear to me. Are regular Neutrik XLR plugs legit 110Ohm terminations? I have previously used general purpose analog XLR cables to get AES/EBU from my ADI-2 Pro to the speakers and it did make sound. At the same time, I've always tried to to use proper coax wire and BNC terminations for SPDIF.

    Or maybe I just need to calm down and learn to love the bomb...
     
  4. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    The typical XLR connector is not impedance controlled like a BNC connector is. I suspect the connectors were adopted for the standard AES3 digital cable terminations mostly because they were already ubiquitous in studios everywhere. Those who work in digital audio and have very nice jitter analyzers will tell you that the XLR terminated connection performs slightly worse than a BNC terminated connection. A BNC connector will necessarily be unbalanced though, which may be another consideration. Worth noting that the difference in performance is very much in the weeds, and whether you hear it or not is in the air.
     
  5. Erroneous

    Erroneous Friend

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    I've been using a super fancy $6 Monoprice AES cable I bought on Amazon and it's been working smashingly. Surely some of the cable nervosa folks will show up here sooner or later but in the meantime that $6 cable sounds pretty good to me!
     
  6. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I have always used a "proper" Mogami W3080 with Neutrik ends that were sold as AES/EBU connectors. I run one such a cable, roughly 6 meters, between a BDP-2 player and miniDSP SHD.
    I needed a piece of this cable to connect RME ADI-2 , anyway I ended up with W3080 but "normal" Neutrik gold plated connectors. Now I have 2 feet AES/EBU input to RME ADI_2 pro from the player, and a long cable to digital out to minDSP.

    Cannot hear any difference and when I looked closely at BlueJeans, WBC AES/EBU they all use 110 Ohm with regular Neutrik connectors. As @Michael Kelly said, as long as your cable is reasonable quality 110 Ohm do not worry about connectors, normal Neutrik or whatever is fine.
     
  7. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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  8. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    Aren't you EU based? Thomann have some for low price.
     
  9. sheldaze

    sheldaze Friend

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  10. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    This is a great write-up as it talks about transmission lines, which is the main difference between analog and digital signal transmission via cable.

    Just dug through Neutrik's site. They claim that even their plain jane XLR's are okay for AES/EBU, but recommend using their new fancy connectors with built-in RF filters.

    Ok, this a start at least. Will ponder whether to pay the gold or the iron price.
     
  11. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

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    I purchased mine from Amazon from "Worlds Best Cables" - they have an AES cable with the proper connectors and mogami wire for a very fair price. I also am using their analog XLR's for DAC->AMP - they use a slightly different mogami cable, but still the same german Neutrik connectors.
     
  12. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    I genuinely love this brand. Similar quality to bluejean's best, and readily available from amazon. I've bought many :D
     
  13. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I too love WBC, but haven't tried their AES cable. I love their analog interconnects and appreciate how clear they are in what materials they're using.
     
  14. lehmanhill

    lehmanhill Almost "Made"

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    WBC and Bluejeans are good options. I suggest checking with your local pro audio supplier. After all, this is the kind of stuff the pro guys use everyday. In the US, I use Redco and get Mogami cables made up with my choice of several XLR connector options for a very good option. Sometimes, I buy bulk cable and connectors for DIY, but they do a better job than I can.
     
  15. farbinator

    farbinator Facebook Friend

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    I have a $20 0.5m WBC AES/EBU cable and a $6 Monoprice 1.5m cable. Use case is to connect a Pi2AES to my DEQ2496. Both work equally well, no issues.

    As others have said, digital signal is digital signal. Either the signal is good and you get music , or it isn't and you don't. Just avoid the cheapest dumpster grade cables and you'll be good.
     
  16. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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  17. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    A few people here have also gotten their ears on Grimm cables which are reportedly very good.
    @bixby @yotacowboy
     
  18. bixby

    bixby Friend

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  19. Abhishek Chowdhary

    Abhishek Chowdhary Friend

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    Belden 1800F + Neutrik NC3MXY/NC3FXY (No soldering required)
     
  20. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    This is an excellent explanation! Now I know why cables have impedance.

    The article doesn't mention analog or digital. How are they differently affected by the characteristic impedance?
     

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