nk7

Never mind - I found the pin layouts in the manual.

Does anyone have the wiring info for the digital output on the RME HDSPe AIO?

Apparently, redco can do a 9pin D-SUB to a XLR digital cable for me. Just need to wait for prices etc...but so far so good. Thanks for the suggestions folks.

Thanks for that ELF - the thread seemed to come to same conclusion as I did: contact REDCO. Hopefully they get my email tonight due to time difference. And their shipping is reasonable for overseas cost. I did a couple of 10ft custom using their custom cable configurator and shipping was cheaper than the price of a single cable length (either digital or analogue). Not sure about the Cardas Neutral Reference though as that is starting to enter into the boutique world. I'd rather spend on components first...

I meant to say Canare make breakout cables for this card, well the PCI version at least. Relatively inexpensive. So for short <5m run is Capacitance a big issue when choosing manufacturers?

So D-SUB straight into XLR input on the DAC. A single cable. Seems an interesting idea! I have seen the Canare make one specifically for this card. Not the Apogee but I will look it up. I have seen Mogami for another RME card as well..

Hey folks Recently got a RME HDSPE AIO PCI-E card to play with. Trying to output digital AES/EBU to an external DAC. My question is related to AES/EBU digital cables. Does it really matter - the digital cable? I mean just a decent cable will do? Or should I start to look at MIT reference or Valhalla or Cardas or other boutique cable? Reason I ask is that the card has a rather average looking breakout cable to output digital AES and if a high-end cable is used between this and the external DAC, I don't see how the high end cable can extract more details because of this limiting breakout cable. That is assuming the more expensive digital AES/EBU cable is in fact much better overall than the breakout cable section that came with the PCI-E card if you know what I mean... Or does digital only care about signal going from A to B (B being the DAC) in a timely manner. Should I upgrade the breakout cable? Figured this sub forum would get more attention than the others. But let me know if this is the wrong place to start this thread. Cheers Nk7