500x and Spdif

[MotherGo0se]

 

I'm looking to buy a version of Pcie card that has coaxial Spdif input. I never used this way of connecting PC with Pod. To those of you who did, is there significant difference in overall quality of sound, or is it just as good as going trough USB? I rather not temper with configuration of the PC if the difference in sound is gonna be unsignificant.

[Ed_Saxman]

if you use the POD as audio interface in your recording software the audio quality of the signal going through USB would be exactly the same you would get by connecting the POD to another audio interface through S/PDIF, in both cases the recorded signal would by direct digital, no differences at all

 

There is a difference: the S/PDIF loses sync, just like the Helix does:

http://line6.com/support/topic/19234-helix-spdif-out-loses-sync-too-often/

 

It seems that Line 6 never managed to have a reliable S/PDIF connection, no matter the model you have.

[duncann]

I've never had problems with spdif on the HD. Different story on Helix though.

[Ed_Saxman]

I've never had problems with spdif on the HD. Different story on Helix though.

 

Lucky you! My experience is the opposite, always had problems. Tried with different interfaces and cables, then I gave up.

 

When the S/PDIF drop happens, my interface (Roland Octa-Capture) even hangs, having to close Logic Pro X, turn off my audio monitors, and so on, in order to restart the whole thing again.

 

It's a real shame, becouse the S/PDIF signal is great, way louder and clearer than any other.

And the Helix suffers from the same desease, so I think I will keep the money in my pocket for a while.

Fortunately for us, the next "Helix 2" are probably on early stage of developement with a fancy S/PDIF that works for more than half an hour without losing sync. Finally! :rolleyes:

[duncann]

Lucky you! My experience is the opposite, always had problems. Tried with different interfaces and cables, then I gave up.

 

When the S/PDIF drop happens, my interface (Roland Octa-Capture) even hangs, having to close Logic Pro X, turn off my audio monitors, and so on, in order to restart the whole thing again.

 

It's a real shame, becouse the S/PDIF signal is great, way louder and clearer than any other.

And the Helix suffers from the same desease, so I think I will keep the money in my pocket for a while.

Fortunately for us, the next "Helix 2" are probably on early stage of developement with a fancy S/PDIF that works for more than half an hour without losing sync. Finally! :rolleyes:

 

Supposedly, the problem on Helix can be compensated for (or outright fixed?) in firmware. Hope that's the case, but it seems dubious to me, since this problem has existed for a number of people since day one. That's more than two years.

You may be right about the next gen Helix. But I think that's quite a ways away, years and years and years. Helix is doing too well for them to make a new flagship device. I wouldn't be surprised if they add more to the Helix product line though, in addition to significantly improving the current offerings, which they have been doing all along. S/PDIF Exception. :lol:

 

I agree it's a shame. Part of the appeal of digital is to simplify things. Guess it doesn't always work that way.

[MotherGo0se]

Thanks guys. Like I said I never connected my Pod hd 500x via Spdif. I have an old PC which I use mainly for playing and recording tracks. Just a while ago I stumbled upon some comments here regarding Spdif. Thought I should give it a try. While this dinosaur PC of mine doesn't have Spdif in, I was thinking maybe if I bought somekind of internal audio card with Spdif in that should do the job. Maybe I missread somebody saying that digital signal which goes through spdif cable is better quality wise then going trough usb. If that's not the case, then there's really no need to invest more in this old PC.

[pfsmith0]

Wait a second. That link above points to a thread where people say the HD500 does NOT have a SPDIF problem. Only Helix. My default configuration is with SPDIF and I've never, ever had a problem. If someone is having a problem I suspect it's the interface (I use an RME UFX which is notorious for having rock solid drivers).

 

To the OP, the only potential difference you might notice between USB and SPDIF is latency. The audio quality should be the same as they're both sending audio digitized by the HD500. In my case, I had no more USB ports available so I used the SPDIF port which was unused.

[riffmaster1991]

Does anyone know if the spdif out can be used as a way of getting a DI? I was thinking that if i had a cable that had a male rca end and an xlr male end I could possibly plug directly into one of my audio interface's mic inputs and then change the SPDIF setting to dry input. Can anyone confirm if this is possible?

[hurghanico]

6 hours ago, riffmaster1991 said:

Does anyone know if the spdif out can be used as a way of getting a DI? I was thinking that if i had a cable that had a male rca end and an xlr male end I could possibly plug directly into one of my audio interface's mic inputs and then change the SPDIF setting to dry input. Can anyone confirm if this is possible?

 

It is possible to get the digital dry unprocessed signal (see below here) but that digital signal cannot be sent to an analog input, but only to a digital input.

 

To get and record an analog dry unprocessed signal you need to use special built patches where one of 2 the parallel paths is empty, and in your DAW select the side of the POD dual mono/stereo signal which corresponds to that empty path. That's the trick.

 

 

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