12S Connection

[Covenant]

I have heard this term used on this forum and the Squeezebox forum but cant find much information. Can someone enlighten me?

[lovejoy]

I2S as I understand it is the way that digital audio gets passed between chips. For example, on the USB input of the 7520 DAC, there is a chip that converts the incoming USB data into I2S to pass onto the DAC chip itself. The major benefit of I2S is that there are separate lines for clock and audio data which makes it quite robust. Compare this with SPDIF where the clock and audio data are split into frames and squirted down the same cable and you can immediately see the benefit.

The drawback with I2S is that paths have to be kept as short as possible, but as it was developed for use within a single piece of equipment rather than to connect say, a transport to a DAC it's not much of an issue.

I've not seen the Squeezebox threads. I'm guessing the talk is of a hardware mod to allow taking the I2S signal from the Squeezebox into a DAC which sounds like a good idea if it can be done well as there is always going to be a performance ceiling with SPDIF or TOSLINK.

[Covenant]

Thanks Rich, you are correct about about the hardware mod. It was a proposal from a DIYer which I noticed. The Squeezebox designer was quite complimentary about it so it may evolve into something that becomes well known, if successful.

[lovejoy]

Sounds really interesting. Now that I've settled on USB I don't think I'd want to go back to using coax or optical, but if something like this was a go-er it would make the Squeezebox a much more attractive option for me. I'd really love to get rid of that big ugly box that is the PC but still be able to access internet radio.

I would think that it would be pretty simple to adapt the 7520 for an I2S input as long as you didn't mind losing your USB connection. Stan may correct me on this though.

[trailer]

Didn't some of the Audio Alchemy kit use an I2S connection?