[PlanetCCRMA] multiple card synching

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Thu, 2005-02-24 at 09:19, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 16:44:17 +0100, Michele Spinolo
> <michele.spinolo@tin.it> wrote:
> > > RME and 'cheap' don't go together very well. The low end HDSP 9652 is
> > > still about $600 each and it has three ADAT interfaces you wouldn't be
> > > using. That's not the right solution.
> > >
> > > Actually it may not require an HDSP which is expensive and way more
> > > card than you want. Possibly one of the smaller RME cards would work
> > > using some sort of control language. Also, there are many well
> > > supported 2 or 4 channel cards that have spdif inputs. Possibly one of
> > > them would work? I have an AP2496 but I've never investigated whether
> > > it can sync to spdif. If it did then 3 of them would be only
> > > moderately painful I think.
> > 
> > Yes, I know RME and cheap don't go together, unluckily!:-)
> > I meant cheap regarding RME cards, i.e. the cheaper RME card which could do
> > the trick!;-)
> > Is your suggestion for HDSP 9652 or HDSP 9632?
> 
> Really I cannot recommend either for your needs. The problem with all
> currently produced RME cards that I know of is that the spdif input is
> on a second card. You have to purchase the HDSP 9652 and use it with a
> daughter card. The daughter card takes up a slot, so if you needed 3
> spdif inputs you'de pay about $1800, you would use 6 slots inside your
> PC, and you'd have no less than 9 ADAT ports supporting 72 channels of
> ADAT audio data that you were not using. That seems like a terrible
> waste to me!
> 
> A more likely scenario that I'd personally check into would be some
> sort of exterrnal ADAT to spdif converter box. If you could find one
> that meets your needs (3 spdif inputs) and that box did the conversion
> of incoming spdif to ADAT then you'd only need a low end RME card with
> ADAT. Unfortunately a quick Google only led to spdif to ADAT Optical
> (also known as TosLink) which is standard for high end audio receivers
> and, imagine, DVD players.

I have successfully used the z-systems detangler for that (multiple
spdif <-> single adat), see:
  http://www.z-sys.com/pp_routing.html

-- Fernando