If your serious about audio this video is is priceless. Thank you for this great point of reference with clear explanations. This is an instant classic for audio enthusiasts in all platforms. Thank you 🙏🏿 Hans

Very good description of the technology Hans. It's amazing how many choices we have available today in audio.

All my best to you, Hans !!! You put your heart and soul into all your videos. :)

Excellent video Hans. Glad to have you back in top form.

Uncle Hans.. You are spot on about the use of certain connections depending on the component. In my system, I have switched between the two spidf standards hundreds of times

Excellent explanations 👍I especially liked how you showed that the 'digital' signal is not 1' and 0's floating through a cable, but sequences of analog squarewaves on a treasures journey from source to receiver / dac..

Thanks you Hans...Although I have already learnt all the contents that you have said on this video. It's still very refreshing to see such a reference grade video made for people's future reference. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.

This is so wonderfully descriptive, thank you for making this! I've learned a lot from this.

Hans, this is the best explanation I have yet to hear about this all too confusing subject. Your graphics are easy to understand and support your talk. Thanks for helping us understand what we have as options and how they work. - Ray

Welcome back, great review as always

Excellent video, Hans. Thanks a lot for your in depth analysis and great visualisations!

Very clear explanation Hans! Thank you.

Your wealth of knowledge is truly impressive Hans!

Thanks again, Hans. Another excellent, informative video.

Video of the year! Merry Christmas Hans! 🎄

Fantastic clarification, Hans! Thanks so much!

this is what I'm waiting for. thank you very much.

Thanks Hans, you rock :) Merry Christmas

Wow. That was great. Thanks for such a thorough breakdown.

So glad I found your channel! Highly informative and super well explained. Subscribed and thumbs up! Doe verder zo!

this is one of the best explanations ever! thanks so much

Hans, thank you for your thorough review of digital-interface cables, what they do and the different ways in which they're used. You are so right to point out that how well a particular kind of digital interconnect cable works (how good it "sounds") depends greatly on the quality of the equipment we use it with. I hope sometime soon, if you haven't done so already, you can give us, your loyal viewers, a follow-up report on how well you have recovered from the operation to restore the steadiness in your hands. Has the device the doctors implanted given your hands the steadiness they had before the tremors began to really affect you? I am very happy to see you looking good and back to giving us your excellent and very informative videos!

Clear and succinct explanations, thank you very much 😊

Great job explaining the different interfaces. New to me was the pin layout in I2S can differ from manufactures, if I understood that correct.

Thank you for excellent explanation.

Great information video, thanks

Excellent detail

YOUR ARE AMAZING, thank you very much !

The is truly a Reference Grade video, thank you Hans, fantastic work as ever. I wish my old college text books were as clear and well reasoned as your videos. I would have achieved far better grades!! Merry Christmas from the UK.

Opnieuw een zeer interessante video. PS Ook mijn vrouw waardeert uw video's zeer. In haar geval niet vanwege de inhoud, maar vooral vanwege uw rustgevende stemgeluid waarbij zij heerlijk ontspant terwijl ik vol interesse luister 😀

Thank you again Hans😎👍👍

Well done , thanks

Thank you Hans for this very knowledgeable exposé! I used to work in the broadcast industry where stereo audio was transported AES EBU true one 75 ohms coax.

A wealth of information as usual! Always, by the end of your videos, I have learned - or at least - clarified something new in my head. Thank you Hans and all the very best for a happy Christmas and a healthy New Year!

There was one other interface from the past: SDIF-2 was a three-cable solution (Left/Right/Word Clock) used on professional PCM equipment in the early days of CD. I have SDIF-2 to S/PDIF AES/EBU conversion equipment which I use for recording from PCM1630 tapes to modern equipment. As for AES/EBU vs. S/PDIF, you can connect either signal with suitable cables and a modern digital recorder may just work, I can connect either directly to a Tascam DR-100MKII for example.

thanks for a great videos

Thanks for this, Hans. I learned from your video. A fairly clear explanation of a very murky subject to 99% of audiophiles. As in so many engineering specifications and standards, the major influence on whether to need 'pro' level interfaces and cables is *distance.* And in that light, there's the issue of 'audible difference.' Pro and broadcast gear may fall into a chain of dozens of items between source and endpoint. There, the contribution of each item in the chain adds to make (otherwise) inaudible signal changes accumulate to become audio issues that *are* audible in a broadcast or recording. And for example, sending these interconnections hundreds of meters between a concert and a TV/radio/recording 'truck' may be a chore that we mere audiophiles needn't face. My point: That professional level interconnection standards and practices that are nice to know and "get your head around" may offer advantages that simply playing back high quality music at home doesn't need. [Ground loops excepted.]

Very helpful.

Thanks sir. For explain 🎉

/thank you great information

Very good video Hans! 👍 One note on the I2s, the reason for HDMI/Ethernet cables is to transmit the delicate I2s signal balanced (and they are good for transmitting high speed data)! Some manufactures referee this as the PS-audio "standard" but other manufactures have there own balanced pin configuration for the I2s signal's. There are balanced converter on the sender and a unbalanced converter on the receiving end. And i think that the signal by passes the dac's internal clock and connect's to the DA-converter's I2s pin without the need for a PLL clock. (I have upgraded my 10year's old dac with an HDMI-I2s connector)

thank you!

Great thanks

Bedankt

Hans, great video as always. It would have been great to learn about the difference between HDMI cables for I2S. I know most use LVDS but there is at least one other standard… I’m still not clear on the difference between them (one is compatible with both, but one is more limited). Any knowledge you can share would be great!

Hans, dank!

Hey Hans, as someone with a vintage dac, what do you think about the ST glass optical input vs AES/EBU, Coax, Toslink?

Thank you very much! There was one system missing in this story and that was Firewire or iee1394. I use a digital mixing board that uses that interface and it is not without its problems, but once it is stable it does the job. (16 ch 24bit 96khz..) Is it a sensible interface you think?

Very Good Very Good.......Straight and to the point. "" It Depends "" I Like It. :-) It not only fits here but just about everywhere else , and always when your wearing horseshoes. Cheers

Would using the Pontus 2 going via XLR to active speakers (acoustic energy ae1)using their volume controls be okay. Would it prove a difficult load going direct without a pre-amp?

Thank you for the explanations. From what I have heard the I2S is advised. As on Denafrips Dacs (HDMI interface) and on Sonnet Dacs (RJ45 interface). In this regards they probably paid more attention to that connection and not so much to the others (possibly). Unfortunately I could not distinguish which cable was mentioned at around 15:30 mark. "AZ mad/mac cable"? Search engine does not help. Any suggestions?

Excellent.

I meant to mention that I own the PS Audio SACD transport and DirectStream DAC and I use I²S via pseudo-HDMI connectors to connect the two, with excellent results

My first experience with I2S was the ps audio perfect wave dac and transport. It was an hdmi cable using the I2s protocol. It was excellent and I attributed it to the buffering and the I2s. My dac will receive toslink, spdif, aes, I2s and usb. Choosing a roon player am using a usb to the dac and sound quality is amazing. Using toslink to stream Amazon hd from chroma at audio and while very satisfying, not up to the usb.

Great video but I missed one thing: is I2S synchronous or asynchronous?

You start and finish the video with the same question. Should have titled this various digital connection explained. Thanks for the info.

hi thanks for the extremely valuable video There is an aspect that escapes me and I can't really understand leaving aside the cheap equipment for a moment and instead analyzing the valuable ones, I swear that I don't understand why DACs and digital sources of a certain level have not adopted for the transmission of the spdif signal the BNC standard which is the one commonly used for digital oscilloscopes, function generators and digital spectrum analyzers It was a standard already available and absolutely valid since they use it up to 1 GHz Not only that, I have also seen that these units are so precise that they are able to highlight problems even in the bnc to bnc connection cable, for example with square wave tests. That is, it seems that every now and then in high fidelity there is a naïve, unscientific approach The RCA cable was not created for transferring digital signals but analog ones. I really don't understand why you should force yourself to adapt a cable wrong by design A 50USD right cable could be much superior to a 500USD cable wrong by design Obviously it's not even worth discussing cheap devices with their understandable limits

I just purchased the BlueSound Node (2021) and currently feed it to my Holo Spring KTE dac via SPDIF. it's a nice solution but they are working to get the USB output to work (still waiting). I did ask about using a DDC (Singxer SU6) with BS Node. They responded "Yesterday's update did not include USB DAC output, not from lack of trying though and we are still looking to add it very shortly. That being said, it is very unlikely it will support I2S." I would have thought if their USB output would work then the SU6 would reclock and would support I2s to my dac?

It seems when I use I2S HDMI from DDC to Dac , the left right channels are swapped. Any suggestions on fixing this and not affect the sound?

But Hans, isn’t USB the better choice whenever you have an onboard dac in your amp, so the clock works optimal?

Sibilence is a problem, but I learned some valuable things.

Wouldnt the best connection be the one that can deliver the most data the fastest correctly?

What’s really interesting is most audiophile high end dealers say balanced is far better than RCA which is nonsense if you speak to someone who actually knows what they are talking about. USB is rubbish compared to AES/EBU or SPDIF which again is rubbish. Case in point recently was considering upgrading my MSB DAC to the new DCS Apex Bartok which is used on its own along with connected to my Antipodes server using USB and sounded great although virtually the same. My dealer then said I had to listen to a new brand he had taken on at the Munich show called Ideon and listen to their ION DAC which also uses USB . It transformed the sound by at least 30% in all areas , I was blown away. Clearly Ideon are doing something completely different when it comes to their USB compared to other companies as their DAC’s are on another level. Just goes to show it’s not the connection but how they are configuring it that makes the difference.

I've been wondering what can I do with the I2S on the back of my SMSL D0200 Dac especially since it has XLR, RCA and Toslink.

With the latest Wi-Fi standards and Wi-Fi direct, seems to me that the days are worrying about digital cables are numbered. If more Dacs include Wi-Fi streaming as most good receivers nowadays, interconnects will be less relevant

My problem is how to find a i2s cable. A lot of good brands have hdmi, but I don't find any i2s cable. Can you help me ?

Would i2s be the better option for dsd playback from sacd player? I’m using a hdmi to i2s extractor

Like the 8th time I watched this.., finally getting it.., that I’m buggered… no one is working in the local hifi shops knows this.. they’re mostly vinyl …. & I’m stuck with the connections my gear has or doing a PhD to figure the next match up In gear😂👍🙏

What is "AZ Mag cable?" I can not find it on the Internets.

What about Ethernet, my Brooklyn Bridge has a network connection...?

And USB 2.0....? It supports much higher Sample Rates..., but does it sound better than AES ? Many Thanks

What about AT&T glass?

I wonder if switching from my laptop to a dedicated streamer will improve sound quality

Definitive explanation of the subject, I'd suggest.

And the best is?

It is probably a fantastic video, but I'M A DUMMY 😓😭, sorry but it's to technical for my, I need examples how the connection looks like and wich one I should take.🙃

S/PDIF IS FINE.....RCA IS FINE......