muon* Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 14 minutes ago, aussievintage said: It works, but it was not intended/designed for external communications. External cable and other imedances CAN cause problems as a result, but for short distances, it should work quite well with it's separate clocks and data. otoh, it is still hard to understand why audiophiles aften eschew properly designed external serial interfaces - like USB. In my case I use a transport and spin CDs, so no USB devices. I also see no advantage in adding multiple conversions. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussievintage Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Just now, muon* said: In my case I use a transport and spin CDs, so no USB devices. I also see no advantage in adding multiple conversions. The beauty of digital numbers is that changing the method of transmission makes no difference, no matter how often you do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muon* Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 2 minutes ago, aussievintage said: The beauty of digital numbers is that changing the method of transmission makes no difference, no matter how often you do it Why if you don't need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussievintage Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Just now, muon* said: Why if you don't need to. For you, I agree, no advantage at all. There's chance of error if distances are longer, so for other examples, and in the more general case (of which I was speaking), yes, you ARE better off using USB. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muon* Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 8 minutes ago, aussievintage said: For you, I agree, no advantage at all. There's chance of error if distances are longer, so for other examples, and in the more general case (of which I was speaking), yes, you ARE better off using USB. Ignore me, I'm a minority and am not better off using USB, most folk do the streaming business so will be using devices with USB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
March Audio Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 (edited) 2 hours ago, muon* said: In my case I use a transport and spin CDs, so no USB devices. I also see no advantage in adding multiple conversions. As has been already said, i2s was never designed or intended to traverse more than a few cm (in a controlled environment). Running it externally through cables can be, and is, problematic. The advantage of "multiple conversions" is more robust transmission. Ie the better solution for the application. It's no good if the data doesn't arrive intact. I2s still fundamentally has the clock in the wrong place. As proven, it won't offer any real benefits over modern spdif implementations. It still won't be as good as USB. USB is the only "correct" solution. The clock is right next to or internal in the DAC chip. The dac is "clock master". Data is pulled asynchronously from the source as needed. Edited February 10 by March Audio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muon* Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 28 minutes ago, March Audio said: and is, problematic Not for me here. We better agree to disagree on this otherwise it will just be more pointless debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to music Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Where would we be without USB? Look at how it’s evolved to what we now. I thought USB3.0 was awesome, can’t wait for USB 4.0 to be mainstream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to music Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 6 minutes ago, muon* said: Not for me here. We better agree to disagree on this otherwise it will just be more pointless debate. it doesn’t matter, it’s what ever works you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
March Audio Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 (edited) 39 minutes ago, muon* said: Not for me here. We better agree to disagree on this otherwise it will just be more pointless debate. How do you know the error rate If you are happy that's all good. It doesn't matter. From a wider perspective; Having done a fair bit of work with it, (internal connections between usb, spdif boards, dsp, ADC and DAC boards) and understanding/experiencing the issues, personally I wouldn't use it for external connectivity. More to the point, even if i2s is working well through an external connection, it offers no benefit over modern spdif implementations. So it's just more complication, more expensive cables and more potential for issue. Edited February 10 by March Audio 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to music Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 8 hours ago, March Audio said: How do you know the error rate Hes gonna know very quickly if the error rate increases....... it won't sound the same as the other available input options.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POV Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 9 hours ago, March Audio said: How do you know the error rate If you are happy that's all good. It doesn't matter. From a wider perspective; Having done a fair bit of work with it, (internal connections between usb, spdif boards, dsp, ADC and DAC boards) and understanding/experiencing the issues, personally I wouldn't use it for external connectivity. More to the point, even if i2s is working well through an external connection, it offers no benefit over modern spdif implementations. So it's just more complication, more expensive cables and more potential for issue. 100% as per everything else there is nothing special about audio data transmission and there’s a reason that i2s is not used for external connectivity anywhere else. It’s a potentially problematic connection method which adds a layer of unnecessary complication for no benefit. But it’s always the same, audiophiles just like to believe things. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muon* Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
March Audio Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 (edited) 22 minutes ago, muon* said: Couldnt disagree more. Whilst it is 100% true that some will pay no attention and prefer marketing stories and the pure technical fiction that pervades domestic audio, putting factual information out there to inform people is never a bad or futile exercise. Edited February 10 by March Audio 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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