MixPre-D aes to Tascam DR-100mkII s/pdif -- how?

[Bruce Watson]

What's the best way to get an AES signal from a SD MixPre-D into the s/pdif port of a Tascam DR-100mkII? Does the Tascam want a toslink optical cable, coax, or what? The Tascam website says only "S/PDIF digital input (3.5mm stereo to RCA digital conversion cable included)" and I have no idea what that means.

 

[John Willett]

What's the best way to get an AES signal from a SD MixPre-D into the s/pdif port of a Tascam DR-100mkII? Does the Tascam want a toslink optical cable, coax, or what? The Tascam website says only "S/PDIF digital input (3.5mm stereo to RCA digital conversion cable included)" and I have no idea what that means.

The Tascam has a jack input for digital audio and requires a special cable. You need to get this cable from Tascam and tell them the connector you want on the other end.

For info - the Marantz 660 used a standard phono connector for digital in and the Sony PDM-D50 is optical.

 

[Bruce Watson]

So, there's no difference between AES and s/pdif other than connectors? Data formats are interchangeable?

 

[John Willett]

So, there's no difference between AES and s/pdif other than connectors? Data formats are interchangeable?

Not quite - AES3 allows for a higher voltage than S-PDIF. Also CD start IDs and the like are carried on S-PDIF, but not on AES3.

But, in general terms, the formats are interchangeable and you can run S-PDIF into AES3 and vice versa.

So, yes, data formats *are* interchangeable; but if you run S-PDIF into AES3 you would lose the CD start IDs - though all the audio information would go across perfectly.