BlueSkyy Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 I have a single source that I would like to connect via S/PDIF coax to two receiving pieces of equipment including a standalone DAC for driving headphones and a home theater video processor that is also, in effect a DAC. So my question is the S/PDIF connection uni-directional (source to receiver) only and I could, therefore, just fan the one output into two or does handshaking between the source equipment and receiving equipment need to happen and, therefore, would preclude me sending the single source to the two receiving DACs? If handshaking is necessary, I suppose powering off one or the other DAC when not in use may work as well. Thanks for your thoughts! Denafrips Terminator + DAC fed by a Denafrips GAIA DDC, HTPC running JRiver MC, iFi PRO iCAN Signature headphone amp, Marantz AV8805, OPPO BDP-105 for SACD ripping, Sony UBP-X100ES for watching and listening, McIntosh MC1201s Front L/R with Bryston powering the remaining 5 channels, B&W N-801s, B&W HTM-1 in Tiger Eye, B&W 801 IIIs on the sides and in the rear, JL-F212 sub, ReVOX PR-99Mk II, Rega P10 and Alpheta 3, PS Audio Nuwave Phono Amp, Audeze LCD-4 and LCD-XC, UE18 IEMs, Sony CD3000 rebuilt, Sony VPL-VW995ES laser projector, Joe Kane Affinity 120" screen, Cables: Cardas Clear Beyond speaker, Wireworld Platinum Elite 7 RCA, custom (by me) XLRs using affordable, quality parts 🙂 Link to comment
mansr Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 There is no handshake, so splitting the signal works in principle. However, since it's not officially supported, there may be issues with specific equipment. Try and see. It won't break anything. Link to comment
BlueSkyy Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 Thank you! I'll give it a whirl! Denafrips Terminator + DAC fed by a Denafrips GAIA DDC, HTPC running JRiver MC, iFi PRO iCAN Signature headphone amp, Marantz AV8805, OPPO BDP-105 for SACD ripping, Sony UBP-X100ES for watching and listening, McIntosh MC1201s Front L/R with Bryston powering the remaining 5 channels, B&W N-801s, B&W HTM-1 in Tiger Eye, B&W 801 IIIs on the sides and in the rear, JL-F212 sub, ReVOX PR-99Mk II, Rega P10 and Alpheta 3, PS Audio Nuwave Phono Amp, Audeze LCD-4 and LCD-XC, UE18 IEMs, Sony CD3000 rebuilt, Sony VPL-VW995ES laser projector, Joe Kane Affinity 120" screen, Cables: Cardas Clear Beyond speaker, Wireworld Platinum Elite 7 RCA, custom (by me) XLRs using affordable, quality parts 🙂 Link to comment
OE333 Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 From the protocol side splitting the signal by a simple passive splitter is possible as S/P-DIF is unidirectional, no handshake. On the physical side a passive splitter will cause a 3dB loss in signal amplitude and it will normally lead to reflections as there is no proper 75Ohm termination any more. As a result the signal quality is severely degraded. Most receivers will however work somehow with such a degraded signal but reflections and lower signal amplitude will increase jitter. Also in many cases a higher error rate is to be expected. Bit errors will normally be delt with by the receiver but as S/P-DIF has no redundancy such correction can only be done by interpolation leading to a loss in audio quality. So a passive splitter will work in most cases but it will often degrade audio quality. For a good result an active splitter is recommended. T+A Fellow (Head of R&D @ T+A 1989-2021) (*) My postings represent my private and personal opinion and hopefully are helpful to the members of this forum T+A MP200 | T+A DAC200 | T+A A200 | T+A Talis S300 | DAW: Core i7 8700K - Linux 5.4.0 - Roonserver + HQP | NAA on RockPiE (RK3328) Link to comment
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