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S/PDIF Question; Is it Uni or Bi-directional?


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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)

 

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