RCA patch bay and SPDIF...?

[Mertmo]

Any reason I shouldn't connect multiple SPDIF sources and destinations with an
RCA patch bay?

[Synth80s]

Originally Posted by Mertmo2

Any reason I shouldn't connect multiple SPDIF sources and destinations with an
RCA patch bay?

I'll take a shot:

The digital and patch bay cable types won't match. Quality S/PDIF cables are made of 75 ohm, low capacitance, high bandwidth cable. Standard audio cables aren't made to support the same application, though some high-end cables probably could. I imagine the cable used in the RCA patch bay won't be great unless it was designed specifically for use with digital signals (highly unlikely).

Though I can't say for certain what it will do to the sound to run your digital audio through 2" of standard audio cable, I wouldn't do it.

It seems that most of the digital patch bays on the market are of the "digital router" variety. I wonder if that suggests that it's not a good idea to hot plug digital interconnects? (I'm not sure -- just thinking out loud)

Mr. Patch Bay sells a nice M-Audio 12x6 digital router for $349 -- not pocket change but damned reasonable:

http://home.flash.net/~motodata/patchbays/digital.html

-Synth80s

[themaidsroom]

i have a small rca patch bay for spdif here, it's very limited maybe 8 ptach points
in all, but it seems to work fine.........i don't hear anything changing......i may upgrade
the cable at some point.......if you can solder, even the most expensive spdif cable
and connectors shouldn't be more than $100.........



be well



- jack

[Vermeer]

Until I got my Apogee Trak2, I used a simple 4 to 1 RCA "switcher" I bought at Radio Shack for 15$. I compemented this with a buch of 5$ RCA cables. It worked well. SPDIF was designed to accomodate "consumer" digital connections (home theaters, etc.), so the quality of the cables is far less a factor than some people make it to be.

If you are serious about this, just get a Z-System. They have many options and allow you to mix and match SPDIF with AES and even adat.

Vermeer

[Gerax]

I just built one myself; it's really a simple design, in that I used one of my spare rack panels, drilled holes in it, mounted female RCA connectors on it, and soldered the 75 Ohm cables coming from all of my spidif devices in I/O pairs. Cheap and efficent. Now I simply use a 75 Ohm cable to patch whatever in I need to go to whatever out. No problem whatsoever, but I noticed that with this setup I had some troubles when using non 75 Ohm cable as patch cord (OK don't yell at me, it was a test): it kept getting interferences from AC lines, so I switched back to a standard SPdif cable and all is OK.

Hope this helps.

L.G.

[Mertmo]

Awesome guys, thank you so much for the replies.