Optical SPDIF via 3.5mm Jack?

[djanssen]

Why would you want a toslink if there is spdif? Looking at tests the quality of toslink is not beter than spdif. Maybe a coaxiaal interface would be great, otherwise extract digital audio from HDMI.

Regards,
Mischa

Agreed with Mischa, Hifi folks use coaxial for higher sampling rate and bit resolution. We have start design a board that try to archive 192KHz, 24 bit out at coaxial. It is kind of funny, that copper cable better than optic fiber on this case.

Cheers,
TL Lim

Have you seen what these folks have done? https://www.hifiberry.com

If you're building one TL Lim - sign me up!

[Tarjei85]

"Both HDMI and optical pass digital audio from one device to another. Both are better than analog (the red and white cables). Both can pass multi-channel audio, likeDolby Digital. Both cables can be had pretty cheap.

The biggest difference is that HDMI can pass higher-resolution audio, including the formats found on Blu-ray: Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. These formats can't get transmitted across optical."

Copy/paste from Here.

Personally I use the audio-over-HDMI sollution and is nothing but impressed with the sound quality.
(Not that I have a $100 billion hifi, but still pretty darn good with my NAD amp and B&W speakers).

If you dont have the possibillity to use HDMI I understand the need for coax/optical.

As a "quick-fix" if your amp/reciever doesnt support HDMI you could connect your pine to your TV with HDMI and activate passtrough in audio settings and than use optical-out from the TV to the amp. I did this for some time before I bought my current amp and it worked ok. Just be sure to adjust the sync-settings in the audio-setup-window of your tv as this tend to make things a little out-of-sync

[tllim]

Why would you want a toslink if there is spdif? Looking at tests the quality of toslink is not beter than spdif. Maybe a coaxiaal interface would be great, otherwise extract digital audio from HDMI.

Regards,
Mischa

Agreed with Mischa, Hifi folks use coaxial for higher sampling rate and bit resolution. We have start design a board that try to archive 192KHz, 24 bit out at coaxial. It is kind of funny, that copper cable better than optic fiber on this case.

Cheers,
TL Lim

Have you seen what these folks have done? https://www.hifiberry.com

If you're building one TL Lim - sign me up!

Will do, most likely on late March.

[aphex0]

Me too! Interested in hi-fi for sure.

[RRomik]

Hello!
I wanted to ask for connecting the connector SPDIF. Can I connect directly to the RCA connector pins 9 and 10 on Eruler Bus? Or need to use a scheme like this

[tllim]

Hello!
I wanted to ask for connecting the connector SPDIF. Can I connect directly to the RCA connector pins 9 and 10 on Eruler Bus? Or need to use a scheme like this

The posted circuit may work. The coaxial (RCA) connector is 75ohm impedance, it is better to have TTL buffer between them.

[RRomik]

Ok! Thank's!

[gbjensen]

I also had the SPDIF in my mind regarding getting a "HiFi" quality audio output.

But then did I find a cheap I2S D/A converter with a PCM5102 converter. My audio Amp does not have any digital inputs (old fashion i know! RCA inputs only) so I would need a D/A converter anyway.
   

I have jet not got my pine64 so I can't report any details bout the functionality jet.

[paranoid_android]

In case anyone is interested, I designed a simple board - an SPDIF to I2S or I2S to SPDIF converter. It's an open-hardware board and you can find the project here:
http://circuitmaker.com/Projects/55C2ED9...A529E312E9
(Circuit Maker is the latest Altium's product - a free yet quite capable PCB software based on Altium Designer).

With a help of a few cables it can be easily powered from PINE headers and connected to PINE's I2S.
Feel free to produce/modify it in any way you wish.

It doesn't have an optical transmitter or receiver, but the board can be easily modified to contain such (instead of an RCA socket).
The original idea was to have a simple daughter board for a SigmaDSP motherboard (which, by the way is almost finished). By placing an SPDIF transceiver on a daughter board I will be able to easily customize the finished product (the motherboard contains ADAU1701 DSP, which has an ADC and a DAC and I use them both, so I don't even have to attach these daughter boards if I don't need digital input and output).

[HappyFuzzy]

Hi,

please produce "optical out" (toslink) module for PINE64! It would be great for HTPC projects as most of people who buy this board as ideal HTPC HW (because of 4K and H265 support) need it.

Thank you!

That would be fantastic!