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Can someone please clarify ADAT ports?
This could be silly I know, but I have always assumed that ADAT optical I/O’s such as you’ll find on the Behringer ADA8000 must be connected to an ADAT product of some kind- at least at one end.
Suddenly I might have seen the light… so any two devices with an ADAT optical I/O will “see” each other and connect? Neither has to be an ADAT product? “ADAT” is like a protocol or a format?
So what’s the difference between the Optical I/O on my M-Audio FW410 and the ADAT Optical I/O on the ADA8000? Is there a difference? I’m going to guess one carries only 2 channels while the ADAT Optical is specifically designed to carry 8 channels. Are they inter-connectable (yes, I just invented that word)?
Cheers, Bag.
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3 Replies
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Hello Bags and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.
The optical port on apiece of gear may be ADAT, S/PDIF or both, depending upon how it was designed.
Regards,
Ty Ford
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The optical interconnect you are referring to was originally designed for the “TOSLINK” low-cost 2-channel interconnect by Toshiba for consumer stereo equipment.
The same connector and fiber “cable” was re-purposed by Alesis for their unrelated 8-channel protocol. The ADAT interconnection system was originally proprietary to Alesis equipment, but has become a rather open standard used by others who make 8-channel audio equipment.
You are correct that is it quite possible that an “ADAT” cable configuration won’t necessarily have Alesis-brand equipment at either end.
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Thanks guys, it puts a slightly different slant on my audio interface shopping list. Cheers!
Graeme Hague
Author/Composer
Freelance Audio Engineer
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