Digital I/O - Requred Lead (MUTEC ADO-02 / Akai IB-M208P) -

MUTEC ADO-02 / MUTEC ADO-II (Akai IB-M208P)

Greetings All,

I am looking at using the digital I/O option of this card. The intent will be to incorporate its usage with an audio interface possessing both S/PDIF and ADAT inputs and outputs (e.g. UAD Apollo).

In looking at the Mutec ADO-02 , its digital I/O appears to have sockets which resemble that of a 1/4 inch jack.

Please may you advise on what cord (lead) is needed to make connections to the SPDIF input of an audio interface. Also, if a connection can be made to the ADAT via the digital i/o on the Mutec ADO-02, may you also advice on the cord (lead) needed to achieve this.

The device I am using (and to which the Mutec ADO-02 is attached) is the Akai MPC 2000XL.

I kindly await your replies.


Best regards

The 1/4" digital I/O sockets on the Mutec board are AES/EBU digital connections. It is like a balanced/professional version of an electrical SPDIF signal. It will not connect directly to an ADAT lightpipe connection.

It is a higher signal level than SPDIF, and has some different status bits within the digital signal.

Sometimes it will work directly with an SPDIF connection, just using 1/4" to RCA TS (mono) adapters and RCA-RCA cables (with an RCA-BNC connector at the SPDIF end if it uses a BNC connector), or custom made cables, but you probably will not know until you test it.

If that direct connection does not work, the next level of connectivity is to make a special cable with some passive components in the signal path to more closely match the signal level and impedance.

Then the most compatible form of connection would be to use some sort of active AES/EBU-SPDIF convertor box.

AES/EBU is supposed to use special 110 ohm STP cable for it's connections, SPDIF is supposed to use 50 ohm coaxial cable, on shorter runs normal analogue audio cable might work.

Electrical SPDIF uses either BNC or RCA connectors.

AES/EBU normally uses XLR connectors, rather than the 1/4" TRS connectors used on the Mutec board, so when reading any information about AES/EBU, in relation to the Mutec board, look at the details to do with AES/EBU XLR connectors.


Some reading...

http://www.rane.com/note149.html

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov05/a ... 1106_5.htm