1 (edited by hi-d-ho-man 2023-10-31 22:44:36)

Topic: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Can a a cable such as this be used to convert optical madi connection to bnc madi to be used with a Madiface USB?

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead … amp;adurl=

I’m trying to get to where i can use all available analog & digital connections of 2 Orion 32’s. Outside of a Madiface USB prices go 2x & up from there.

Thanks

2 (edited by ramses 2023-11-01 00:31:02)

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Sorry, but for the life of me, I don't understand what you mean. The difficulties in understanding already start in the first sentence.

You write "Can a cable such as this be used to convert optical MADI connection to BNC MADI".
"Such as this" ... "Such as what?" what are you actually referring to.
If you are referring to the headline, so a cable is either optical or copper, but not both.

Both your Orion's have a MADI port. Why don't you just connect them serially?

MADIface USB -->-- Orion #1 -->-- Orion #2
|                                                          |
+-----------------<----------OM3/4--------+     and back to the MADIface USB?

Make perhaps a small ASCII drawing … how are the devices connected and what exactly is your problem.

I would recommend choosing only optical connections so that you get no ground loop issues.
With optical you have galvanic isolation.

If you need a translation tool, try this one: https://www.deepl.com/

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Under the question was a link to a cable with male optical on one end and bnc on the other.

Im aware of running serially but instead am looking to use both madi ports to have the option to use all 50 channels of i/o available on each of the Orions.

Shouldn’t be much in the way of ground loops the units racked right next to each other 18” bnc cable max.

My English is fine you just missed the link for the cable. (Or it isn’t showing due to your settings)


Here it is again

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead … amp;adurl=

4 (edited by waedi 2023-11-01 04:17:20)

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

The link is still there when you quote the post

Here is the link in proper way :
https://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Adapter-Fe … &psc=1

That cable is not even a BNC it only looks similar, don't buy it !
This BNCish connector is unknown to the audio-world

The link from the OP is a google ad link, it is probably hidden from the forum, I don't know settings to make it visible.

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue

5 (edited by ramses 2023-11-01 10:55:56)

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Sorry, the link was not visible to me so I could not understand the request.

Please don't be misled by the similarity of the connectors.

The cable you are asking about is actually a computer network adapter. It is used to connect multimode fiber ports with different connector types, in this case LC to ST. As mentioned in my post, copper and fiber cannot be directly connected.

There are better pictures of the ST connector on the internet, there you can clearly see the fiber cable in the ST connector:
https://www.ficonet-shop.de/ST-Stecker-multimode-1

The MADIface USB manual states, "The BNC input supports MADI coaxial, AES and Word formats."
So its clear that this is for coaxial / copper connections. Copper != fiber.

Looking at your Orions, I have the impression that they have 32 analog inputs and outputs, for a total of 64 analog input and output channels. That should be enough to connect both Orions to a single optical MADI port, if operated at single speed.

What I do not understand yet, what additional features are you missing in this case, if you connect both devices to the optical MADI port serial. Do you mean the ADAT I/O and Monitor L/R in the back?

The IMHO easiest solution would be, to use an RME product which offers two MADI optical ports.
PCIe: HDSPe MADI FX
USB3: MADIface XT

Otherwise, you would need to bridge between MADI coax and optical.
RME had such products in the past (bridge and router):
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/products/madi_converter.php
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/images/prod … ter_1b.jpg

But those are not available anymore and were also not "cheap"; therefore I think it would be better to use either the proposed HDSPe MADI FX card or the MADIface XT, then you have two optical MADI ports and galvanic isolation, plus a little port/feature reserve on top.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Unfortunately, the Madiface XT is not available at the moment either.

7 (edited by hi-d-ho-man 2023-11-01 16:47:52)

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

ramses & waedi thank you for your feedback.

Ok I’ve scrapped that cable as a thought.

My ultimate aim was to have access to my Orions’ 100 i/o channels available for use at 48k.

Madiface XT would be ideal with the dual optical but the price tag is hard to justify atm.

I’ll likely just do a Madiface USB / serial setup to get going and add a proper format converter later for the full connect.

Thanks again

8 (edited by hi-d-ho-man 2023-11-01 21:50:42)

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

hselters wrote:

Unfortunately, the Madiface XT is not available at the moment either.

Thanks hselters

With it being 10 years old maybe a new unit is close. I just may hold of a few months

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Maybe RME staff can shed some light onto this. As far as I know production got stopped due to chip supply shortages but not officially discontinued. Not sure if that situation has changed or if they redesign a successor using a different chip.

10

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

The MADIface XT will come back, with better analog I/O specs, only USB 3, else identical.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

That's great news ! May be the XTC will come back too ? With four headphone outputs ? (wishful thinking)

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue

Re: Madi Optical to Madi BNC

Fingers crossed