[LAU] S/PDIF

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Bob van der Poel <bob at mellowood.ca> wrote:
<SNIP>
> Oh, that just takes more expensive gear :) But, generally, out board
> will be cleaner than a computer sound card??? Seriously, the more I
> can do out side of the computer box, the more comfortable I am.
>
> Thanks.

Generally speaking, all other things being equal, external gear is
typically quieter/more accurate than internal gear. It's not sitting
in a noisy electrical environment. (Electric & magnetic fields created
by switching power supplies, processors, fan motors, etc.) External
gear may have better power - less ripple, better load regulation,
etc., and better clocking which allows it to do a better job.

That's an easy generalization though as most of the stuff that goes
inside a PC just uses cheap commercial grade A/D & D/A converters
while much external stuff, most especially good pro equipment, will
use a much better class of converter which means at that first/last
critical step the job is just plain done better.

HTH,
Mark