Joshua Boyd wrote:
  Has anyone ever tried to build a lightpipe device?
I'm not sure you can
 get the recievers or transmitters for them for building open or hobbiest
 devices, but would love to hear otherwise. 
ADAT? Sure, I have pile of those RX/TX units.
  I think balanced for digital is overrated.  I may be
strange, but I
 prefer coax for digital audio.  And I mean real coax with BNCs, not coax
 with RCA connectors. 
Balanced helps on grounding problems when done correctly (shield
connected only from transmitting end and transformer coupled signals).
However, I prefer using fiber optics. Much more bandwidth and no
grounding problems with large installations.
        - Jussi