z-link vs adat

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pkole
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z-link vs adat

Post by pkole »

Is there a quality difference between z-link and adat?
I am about to purchase a16 ultra and i already have adat ins and outs from my scope cards.
However, if z-link's quality is superior then i would go for it.
Waiting for your help and suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Panagiotis.
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

z-link is capable of slightly less jitter, otherwise, pretty much the same....other than, z-link does 96khz, while adat only does 48k, unless used as s-mux which halves the number of channels.
pkole
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Post by pkole »

Thanks for the reply.
Can you please tell me whether both protocols affect dynamic range, headroom etc?
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

afaik, both should be identical. there's no conversion involved that would affect those things. both are purely digital connections and the music is already digitized.
pkole
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Post by pkole »

Garyb your posts have been really helpful.
I think i 'm going to try a16 ultra on my adats first, and leave z-link for later in case i 'm not satisfied.
If anyone else has another opinion, i would like to hear it.
Thanks again.
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krizrox
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Post by krizrox »

You may need an external clock if you're using ADAT's (or a clock cable from the A16). No clocking needed with the Z-Link. I think it depends on how you have your rig configured. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

wordclock is nice for transmitting clock to multiple devices, but the optical cable will work just fine. no additional hardware required in either case. personally, i would use a clock generator/distributor and the bnc connectors if i had more than two or three devices to clock. otherwise, i'd just sync to adat optical.
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