Lightpipe Cable Length. does it matter

[passionmax]

Right now in my studio I have hosa Lightpipe cables that are 20 ft long a piece. Does the length of the cable matter. also If I buy Monster or Apogee does it make a difference. I am going from my Motu 2408 MKIII to my Yamaha desk and I want the clock to stay as stable as possible.
thanks

[DigitMus]

The answer is: it depends. I've been using a 50 footer with no problems, others have reported having jitter problems (due to reflections & attenuation, I guess) with 16.5 footers (5 meters). I think it depends more on the devices it's plugged into. JMHO

Scott

[Chris Peters]

passionmax,

think there was a similar thread in an other discussion forum before. Basically I agree with Scott. I would recommend to keep your lightpipe lines as short as possible in general.

I had a couple of discussions with developers regarding this matter. We think bad refractive indexs or angels of refractions in plastic fibre cables could cause an increasing signal distortion. We assume that the transfer through glass fibre will cause less distortions due to better refraction conditions in the glass material. This could also be a reason for the much longer transfer distances which are possible with glas fibre cables instead of plastic fibre cables. But this is only our personal opinion.

In this case I would recommend to take glass fibre cables to get the best possible signal quality for your recordings. With regards to your statement: „...I want the clock to stay as stable as possible...“ I also would recommend to clock all devices by a separate master clock generator throught BNC lines. Do not clock your devices through optical lines - independently their quality! This would add more jitter to your recordings in general.

Regards, Chris.