For discussion;
Typical consumer interface;
LED into a plastic fiber with the signal going to a phototransistor. The connectors being plastic also. Like on the back of a CD player.
What it should be?
Laser diode driving SM glass into a photodiode with ground or turned stainless or aluminum (?) connectors.
How much of an improvement are we talking? In jitter.
Or am I being an idiot by asking this.
Typical consumer interface;
LED into a plastic fiber with the signal going to a phototransistor. The connectors being plastic also. Like on the back of a CD player.
What it should be?
Laser diode driving SM glass into a photodiode with ground or turned stainless or aluminum (?) connectors.
How much of an improvement are we talking? In jitter.
Or am I being an idiot by asking this.
What's available on Ebay and what's available from RS components, Digi Key etc ?.
I have thought about it but never followed up......Toslink cables and TX/RX modules are as cheap as can be BUT they work ok, it would be interesting to try a very good optical connection and see what difference it makes.
Dan.
No, I liked your choice of words.
I merely point out that the "experimental" aspect is not a worry anymore.
Instead of saying "it's an experiment so doesn't need to be compliant to the book", now it covers even non experimental applications to deviate if necessary with permission of AHJ..
When I had to design the wiring for a machine, most of the wires were either DC, coax, mixed signal, PLTC, fiber, a whole awful mix of cables that never fit exactly into any code designation. So many times I had to ascertain the intent of the code, and if it was a stretch, call in the AHJ.
jn
Just to clarify, Toslink is not the only audio out on most TVs. Every TV above something like $100 made in the past 5 years has audio output via HDMI ARC. SPDIF is basically dead in all forms and will probably disappear entirely at some point.
Mark: I have no idea what you are trying to say there, but it sounds like a dig at people with a technical background. Could you clarify please
Bill: Not intended as a dig at anyone, exactly. Just that maybe good for engineers to think twice before finding irony in non-expert choices of audio equipment. Unless of course, its okay to see engineer's choices as ironic when they are outside their field of expertise. Not necessarily a wryly amusing thing, seems to me.
140MHz former HP/Agilent modules would be more than adequate. The company is Avago now AFAIK.
Fiber Optic Modules and Components
Sorry for typo. Should read: Not all purported snake oil turns out to be fake.
Can you give sources and p/n. and.. how easily does it get mod'ed into a piece of gear which has Toshlink.
Are current requirements same? What needs to change to make it work with LD and PD?
Does a drop in replacement exist?
THx-RNMarsh
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The real solution is just not to use SPDIF and then you can do whatever you want. Just trying to improve the transceivers and fiber are not going to do much but increase your maximum distance.
If I were designing it from scratch and didn't care about cost I'd use an FPGA on each side with SERDES and encode the data with 8b/10b or similar and send it over off-the-shelf 10G SFP+ transceivers.
If I were designing it from scratch and didn't care about cost I'd use an FPGA on each side with SERDES and encode the data with 8b/10b or similar and send it over off-the-shelf 10G SFP+ transceivers.
Ok, but that wasn't the point. There was a clearly superior interconnect technology for digital audio in domestic environments in the AT&T setup but it shrivelled and died, even though high end gear still has AES/EBU. The irony to me was that they couldn't sell measurably better (and hopefully audibly better), but things that often make it worse sell. Is this a marketing fail or actually just a symptom of the audio market in general where only a few survive on engineering excellence...
SFP single mode converters are made in millions are affordable. Might as well use what is available?
I note that HDMI to single mode converter pairs start at around $140. Wrong point in the chain for many of us, but might be of interest for those with home theatre rigs.
I have been told by people familiar with audio marketing that the estimated 1/3 of audiophiles appearing as highly neurotic tend to think anything that sounds different is automatically better. In other words, they don't check to make sure a change is really for the better.
I have heard anecdotal stories where audiophiles of that type have been forced to compare the sound of their equipment choices later and could hear that the thing they thought was better was really worse. Usually, they are reported to get mad at that point, particularly they are mad at the person who made them compare. They tend to shoot the messenger, in other words, at least initially. Prior to that unpleasant experience they were so sure they were right in their beliefs they would not listen to expert advice. Some get over the bad feelings in time and later approach an expert for advice going forward.
Don't know that such things only happen in audio though. The underlying human tendencies are pretty ubiquitous.
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I am sure the demise of better consumer A-V technologies has been due to cost/price pressures from retailers.
I have witnessed it first hand. Stores which compete with same or similar brands and products, push mfr to lower thier costs further and further in a race to be the lowest priced one for the consumer to choose to buy. Its a race to the bottom which isnt sustainable.
The retailers go out of business but the consumer is to blame for only buying the lowest cost.... comparing prices. Instead of comparing performance, reliability, quality, etc.
THx-RNMarsh
I have witnessed it first hand. Stores which compete with same or similar brands and products, push mfr to lower thier costs further and further in a race to be the lowest priced one for the consumer to choose to buy. Its a race to the bottom which isnt sustainable.
The retailers go out of business but the consumer is to blame for only buying the lowest cost.... comparing prices. Instead of comparing performance, reliability, quality, etc.
THx-RNMarsh
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