RME Audio Hammerfall HDSPe AIO, User Manual

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User's Guide HDSPe AIO
© RME
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30.4 QS – Quad Speed
Due to the small number of available devices that use sample rates up to 192 kHz, but even
more due to a missing real world application (CD...), Quad Speed has had no broad success so
far. An implementation of the ADAT format as double S/MUX (S/MUX4) results in only two
channels per optical output. Devices using this method are few.
In earlier times the transmission of 192 kHz had not been possible via Single Wire, so once
again sample multiplexing was used: instead of two channels, one AES line transmits only one
half of a channel. A transmission of one channel requires two AES/EBU lines, stereo requires
even four. This transmission mode is being called
Quad Wire in the professional studio world,
and is also known as S/MUX4 in connection with the ADAT format. The AES3 specification
does not mention Quad Wire.
The SPDIF (AES) output of the HDSPe AIO provides 192 kHz as Single Wire only.
30.5 AES/EBU - SPDIF
The most important electrical properties of 'AES' and 'SPDIF' can be seen in the table below.
AES/EBU is the professional balanced connection using XLR plugs. The standard is being set
by the
Audio Engineering Society based on the AES3-1992. For the 'home user', SONY and
Philips have omitted the balanced connection and use either Phono plugs or optical cables
(TOSLINK). The format called S/P-DIF (SONY/Philips Digital Interface) is described by IEC
60958.
Type AES3-1992 IEC 60958
Connection XLR RCA / Optical
Mode Balanced Un-balanced
Impedance 110 Ohm 75 Ohm
Level 0.2 V up to 5 Vss 0.2 V up to 0.5 Vss
Clock accuracy not specified
I:
±
50ppm
II: 0,1%
III: Variable Pitch
Jitter < 0.025 UI (4.4 ns @ 44.1 kHz) not specified
Besides the electrical differences, both formats also have a slightly different setup. The two
formats are compatible in principle, because the audio information is stored in the same place in
the data stream. However, there are blocks of additional information, which are different for both
standards. In the table, the meaning of the first byte (#0) is shown for both formats. The first bit
already determines whether the following bits should be read as Professional or Consumer
information.
Byte Mode Bit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0 Pro P/C Audio? Emphasis Locked Sample Freq.
0 Con P/C Audio? Copy Emphasis Mode
It becomes obvious that the meaning of the following bits differs quite substantially between the
two formats. If a device like a common DAT recorder only has an SPDIF input, it usually under-
stands only this format. In most cases, it will switch off when being fed Professional-coded data.
The table shows that a Professional-coded signal would lead to malfunctions for copy prohibi-
tion and emphasis, if being read as Consumer-coded data.
Nowadays many devices with SPDIF input can handle Professional subcode. Devices with
AES3 input almost always accept Consumer SPDIF (passive cable adapter necessary).