XLR Cable for AES Output

S

Smile

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Jan 1, 2015
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Aurender N20 USB sounds noisy vs ROON through my Mola Tambaqui. (USB cable is $2)
Want to try AES but only have on-hand XLR.
I understand the two types have different resistance, but might I use an XLR cable to learn the AES capability?
So: Waste of time using wrong cable or I'll learn something?
 
As far as I know, AES only comes with XLR and is 110-ohm impedance.

S/PDIF is 75-ohm and can be had with RCA or BNC connectors. It is not interchangeable with AES/EBU.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
 
An AES cable is critical like rca or bnc
now even the pin out varies on xlr where aes has one wiring pin out always to my memory
Having said this all try what you have most sound bad but you may have one that sounds Great
any digital cables should be to spec find a cheap one made for digital no need for ultra $ for a trial.
Blue jeans is one there are many cheap ones made to spec
the purpose of aes is shielding very much like xlr is.
if your rca or bnc is noisy it may still be on aes
 
Balanced AES/EBU and analog XLR cables have the exact same pinout. All the conductors are used in both types. The difference between AES/EBU and analog XLR is that of the cable. The AES/EBU standard calls for a cable with a 110ohm characteristic impedance. The S/PDIF standard calls for cable with a 75ohm characteristic impedance.

You can try a standard balanced XLR cable for a test, but you'll likely not be hearing things at their best.
 
For short AES/EBU cables, any short (say 10 feet/3 meters or less) XLR Shielded Twisted Pair cable will work just fine. Longer AES/EBU cables will need to have a 110 Ohm Radio Frequency Characteristic Impedance.
 
It amazes me how much misinformation gets posted really
xlr has 3 pin outs I know of and maybe more so how is it the same
Specs not the same
makes no sense to post if you don’t look it up first
 
First off the link you have provided references AES which stands for Audio Engineering Society and is not a reference to the AES/EBU 110ohm specification. The page you linked is referring to the Audio Engineering Society's recommendation for balanced XLR signal interconnection.

Secondly, there are several ways to wire XLR connectors however, the vast majority of the industry follows the practice refered to in the below link as, "the absolute best right way to do it". In the article, the absolute best right way to do it references terminating pin two hot, pin three negative and pin one shield on both ends of a given balanced audio XLR cable. You will note that the article goes on to provide solutions when there are different designs between manufactures of audio gear and ground hum is often introduced. The diagrams toward the bottom of the page in the table are the, "the last best way to do it" and these solutions are often implemented to ward off ground hum.

Please also note that the article in this link references the standards document "AES48-2005: AES standard on interconnections -- Grounding and EMC practices -- Shields of connectors in audio equipment containing active circuitry." Which again is not referring to an AES/EBU 110ohm cable design, but the standard by which the audio engineering society has recommended for proper termination and interconnections.

Sound System Interconnection
 
Look up by maker for audio
An example Krell is not the same as mark Levinson just an example
I can’t find a pdf I made but there is 3 I know of
some are male
And female not the same
Also rca is not always the same either
Some use a 3 conductor cable and only one side two wires go to one pin shield side
reg aes it’s a few factors not just pin out the imp is very important as it’s a data sigle
And it’s two way transmission so echo and imp can cause issues in sound
I did not know this many years ago amd found out due to needing to get an answer
we can’t just plug to extend xlr cables works most but not always due to pin out varying
even the Simple rca cables we use ever wonder why one is bad and another is good lol.
audio makers do not always follow industry standards
do as you might but results are not always the same just saying
When I find the pdf I’ll
Post and I also have a video of man explaining why for all audio cables
 
Al, I believe you and I are saying similar things. Yes many gear manufacturers do not follow standards for grounding and older vintage equipment especially those coming from Japan from years back didn't use pin number two as hot.

Cable manufactures don't necessarily know what equipment will be interconnected with the cables they build and so need to follow an acceptable standard themselves to provide a cable that works well in most applications. Hence, many cable manufacturers choose to follow the accepted standard of pin two as hot, pin three as negative and pin one as shield on both ends of either an analog balanced XLR cable or a digital balanced XLR cable also known as AES/EBU 110 ohm cable.

Certainly, if ground loops or hum are introduced due to gear design variances (or mfg's not following an accepted standard) then most cable manufacturers that I'm aware of would gladly take the cable back and modify it for their customers to keep them happy as well lessen the chance of propagating noise within a given sound system.

Cheers!
 
Smile said:
Aurender N20 USB sounds noisy vs ROON through my Mola Tambaqui. (USB cable is $2)
Want to try AES but only have on-hand XLR.
I understand the two types have different resistance, but might I use an XLR cable to learn the AES capability?
So: Waste of time using wrong cable or I'll learn something?
Click to expand...

Just try the XLR that you have. More than likely it will work just fine.
 
Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll
Have the info and yes we are Saying the same
some makers if you tell them what is to be used can help
one thing I remember is the rca topology of ground isolated in the signal path matters
Most use the ground as the same as shied but not all.
Nor am I Saying not to try
I’m just trying help inform is all.
 
The AES/EBU and balanced audio XLR pinouts are identical. So it comes down to the cable. Norma Mic cables have a characteristic impedance of 100 ohms +/- 50%.

This is irrelevant for normal low frequency audio use, but not for digital transmission. AES/EBU cables have a controlled characteristic impedance of 110 ohms, which does matter for carrying digital signal with bandwidths to tens of MHz.

So experiment away. Your audio cable may have the same characteristic impedance as a digital.one. Or it may not.

With short cables it doesn't really matter anyway.
 
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