From: brindle@lf.hp.com (Mark Brindle)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Re: DACs talk TCP/IP
Date: 26 Feb 1995 18:02:52 -0500
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Little Falls Site
Message-ID: <3ir1as$sm0@eyrie.graphics.cornell.edu>

PRIME MINISTER S0REN RAGSDALE (soren@gas.uug.arizona.edu) wrote:

: What's the concensus on the AT&T connectors as opposed to coax?  I've 
: heard all the Toslink-bashing, but it seems that AT&T would be fairly 
: serious about good fiber connections.

Quite obviously, coax is the *IDEAL* medium for digital transmission
because it provides essentially *perfect* rejection of any spurious
non-digital signals.

When the size of the coax cable is properly matched to the font of
the digital source, 1's flow (lengthwise) down the center conductor
while 0's pass (broadside) down the shield -- and NO other numbers
can get through.

Unfortunately, many low-cost A/D converters and CD transports save
money by using cheap, public-domain fonts in which the 0's are oval
rather than perfectly round.  The resulting null-distortion causes
unnatural (and easily recognizable) compression of the sound stage.
This effect can be partially corrected by using specially designed
coax with a slightly oval cross-section.

WRT the transmission of 1's, there are two competing bodies of
opinion.  Most purists tend to favor the minimalist approach of
using a sans serif font with a solid center conductor;  however,
some recent studies suggest that there may be real benefits to
a twisted center conductor in combination with a slight serif
at the base of the 1's.  Apparently, the serif allows the 1's
to engage the spiral conductor and impart a stabilizing spin --
in much the same way that the ogive at the base of an artillery
shell engages the rifling in the gun barrel.

hope this helps,

Mark


From fastfwd@ix.netcom.com Sun Feb 26 19:39:56 PST 1995
Article: 27437 of rec.audio.high-end
Path: news.claremont.edu!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken.llnl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!math.berkeley.edu!rdreyer
From: fastfwd@ix.netcom.com (Andrew Warren)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Re: DACs talk TCP/IP
Date: 27 Feb 1995 01:35:07 GMT
Organization: Netcom
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References: <3ipe3l$f2a@tadpole.fc.hp.com> <3ir1as$sm0@eyrie.graphics.cornell.edu>
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Originator: rdreyer@jacobi.berkeley.edu

In <3ir1as$sm0@eyrie.graphics.cornell.edu> brindle@lf.hp.com (Mark 
Brindle) writes: 

>Unfortunately, many low-cost A/D converters and CD transports save
>money by using cheap, public-domain fonts in which the 0's are oval
>rather than perfectly round.  The resulting null-distortion causes
>unnatural (and easily recognizable) compression of the sound stage.
>This effect can be partially corrected by using specially designed
>coax with a slightly oval cross-section.
>
>WRT the transmission of 1's, there are two competing bodies of
>opinion.  Most purists tend to favor the minimalist approach of
>using a sans serif font with a solid center conductor;  however,
>some recent studies suggest that there may be real benefits to
>a twisted center conductor in combination with a slight serif
>at the base of the 1's.  Apparently, the serif allows the 1's
>to engage the spiral conductor and impart a stabilizing spin --
>in much the same way that the ogive at the base of an artillery
>shell engages the rifling in the gun barrel.

Mark:

Since 0's can't add anything to the signal anyway (I've tested this by 
adding 0 to every number I could think of -- it never changes the 
number), it seems to me that REAL purists should discard them 
altogether.

I'm working on a way to do this.  My technique involves pre-processing 
the digital data to convert it to Roman numerals.  As everyone knows, 
the Romans HAD no zeroes, so this effectively filters them out of the 
data stream.  Just to make sure, I'm using a solid piece of I-beam as my 
transport-to-DAC interconnect.

-Andy

-- 
Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
Fast Forward Engineering, Vista, California