Digital XLR vs. Analog XLR - Balanced Cables


What is the difference between a digital XLR/balanced cable and an analog XLR/balanced cable?

What if I used an analog XLR/Balanced cable to carry a digital signal from the digital output of one device to the digital input of another device?

Any risks/damage, etc. . .
ckoffend

Showing 5 responses by ckoffend

Kijanki,

Thanks for clarifying this clearly for me. I checked other answers that you have submitted and you appear to have a very good understand of electrical signal processes. While I had planned on getting a pair of balanced digital cables, I had hoped to initially do a test with analog balanced cables initially. My intention is to use two cables to carry a 24/192 ks/S digital signal as single digital cables (outside of 1394) do not have sufficient bandwidth to accurately carry this signal. I am going from an upconverter to a DAC.
I am running a DCS purcel to a Delius. The Purcel upsamples to 24/192 ks/S, but the only cabling method that is capable of delivering this highest upsampling is by using a pair of XLR (AES/ebu) cables, each delivering 96 rates per cable, combined to deliver a total of 192 via the two cables - at least for the DCS equipment. The ideal cabl would be a 6" cable + the terminations.

I have plenty of spare balanced analog cables, but have not yet purchased a pair of balanced digital cables for this applicaiton.
The temporary cables that I have tried, to confirm that I am getting the full 24/192 upsampling sound very good. As I previously mentioned, to upconvert to this level, it is required that I used two balanced digital cables to handle the full bandwidth. DCS indicates that it is impossible to transmit this amount of bandwidth on either a Coax digital cable, a glass optical digital cable or a single balanced AES/EBU cable. I don't necessarily question this, but before spending a several hundred dollars per cable, I wanted to be sure that the two appropriate cables would actually deliver the required upsamping level I wanted to hear/test. Since I have plenty of balanced analog cables, I was just seeking a reasonable and fast opportunity to test.
For the record, I did end up trying a non-digital pair of balanced cables and they worked great. Yes, I will end up replacing them with a digital pair of balanced cables, but wanted to confirm that everything would perform as reported with the dual digital cables from the upconverting to the DAC.

Thanks for all your input and if anybody has any recommendations on balanced digital cables, please feel free to offer them.
Kijanki, I hear you. But one of my concerns is with many of these cable companies is when does the marketing end and the real engineering begin. Even with digital cables, there are certainly some cable manufacturers who clearly point out that the cable is a "true 75 ohm" or "true 110 ohm" cable while many others just call the cables digital cables.