Anything I need to be aware of in setting up of this? any advice is appreciated
I use AES output from my QU32 into my dbx VENU 360.
Not at my mixer right now, but as I recall, the QU will “see” the AES connection and send LR to it when connected. I don’t recall changing any setting to make this work.
Be sure you use a quality AES cable. A standard XLR is not recommended from all accounts I read.
HTH
Joel
Glaser Audio Productions
I seem to recall that Canford Audio once demonstrated AES over wet string at a trade show!
While I suggest that you use something slightly more conventional for your cable, I don’t think it’s that fussy in practice. I’ve certainly never had a problem with it when grabbing the first mic lead that comes to hand.
Its probably a matter of cable length and impedance matching. I wouldn’t worry much for short runs (i.e. 10-20m/30-60ft), as long the cable provides low capacitance (signal rate is still 6MHz). Not sure if I’d run AES through an analog multicore, if thats the question.
I’ve used standard mic cables usually star quad type. I think AES cables are usually 110 ohm like DMX lighting cable. That should work. Nowadays folks are starting to use CAT cable for DMX so that’s a possibility. It’s 110ohm. I would probably use 6 shielded which is what I use now for permanent install jobs for Stage boxes on Qus and GLD.
how come we don’t have a way to route it to one of the jacks on my 2412 Dsnake rack up toward the stage where I keep my amp racks and speaker processor?
Because they have DACsbconnected, not AES circuitry…
now I Need to find a cat5e snake with a AES cable on the same roll 
since the the 2412 stage box does not have AES
or just go analogue the last few inches…
I have been wanting to try this with my Qu-Pac and into my 360 on the mains.
For those who have tried it do you notice any improvement in sound, in theory it should sound better by eliminating two digital conversion stages.
For me cable length would not be an issue as the QU-Pac normally sits on top of the amp racks anyway.
I really doubt that any potential sound improvement from skipping the additional DA/AD stage will survive Amps+Speaker+Room+Audience-Noise. This is a pure academic discussion.
hmm I wonder, I like to avoid as many DA/AD conversions as possible my old reel to reels always seem so warm as my records on a tube amp
I’ll try it tomorrow at an outside event I’m doing. For testing I’ll use the AES out to drive the out fill speaker zone.
That test will not be for real critical listening but more for functionality.
On the proper PA system each skip of conversion is noticeable. Skip as much as you can.
ddff
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong. CAT cable I think is 110ohm. It’s is approved now for dmx lighting control. Couldn’t you get a dual or Siamese cat 5 or 6 and run the AES on the second cable using 2 pairs? I have ran digital audio from building to building that way.
Yes, AES runs perfectly through Cat5/6/8
ddff
Tried it to night, QuPac AES out to DBX 360 AES in, worked great, I may be wanting to hear an improvement but it seemed like there was a tiny bit more separation / easier to pick things out of the mix. I’ll try it again in a couple days. I went ahead and used the AES for the mains, at this event there was going to be time to go back to analog before the main performance if I would have felt the need to.
That brings up some questions:
I have been running my 360’s at 96k, should I switch them to 48k when using AES since the QU runs at 48k?
Will I have a latency issue if running the system in the aux sub mode and using AES for the mains and analog for the sub drive?
As for what my systems digital upgrade path has been:
- About a year and a half ago I replaced all analog crossovers with DBX360’s. Very noticeable improvement, time alignment and steeper crossover slopes really cleaned up the midrange.
- About four months after the DSP’s I added the QU-Pac, that addition brought out even a little more “mix separation”.
- For my comparison reference my analog boards are the GL2400 series with nice Drawmer, BSS, TC Elec, Lexicon, Ashly processing and the crossovers were TDM’s.
Thanks
Mike C.
Not being so tired now I looked up some numbers in regards to my latency question.
DBX 360 latency specs:
Analog input to output: 2.57 ms (48 kHz), 2.28 ms (96 kHz); Digital AES input to output: 2.31 (48 kHz), 2.15 ms (96 kHz)
QU latency specs:
Latency1.2 ms (local XLR in to XLR out) 0.7 ms (local XLR in to AES out)
So with those specs and assuming the 360 automatically clocks to 48k when connected to a 48k device regardless what it is set for when connected to an AES input, if I figured it correctly there would be an additional 0.76ms total latency of an analog input over an AES input with the 360 running at 48k and if the 360 is running at 96k it would be 0.63ms
Not being so tired now I looked up some numbers in regards to my latency question.
DBX 360 latency specs:
Analog input to output: 2.57 ms (48 kHz), 2.28 ms (96 kHz); Digital AES input to output: 2.31 (48 kHz), 2.15 ms (96 kHz)
QU latency specs:
Latency1.2 ms (local XLR in to XLR out) 0.7 ms (local XLR in to AES out)
So with those specs and assuming the 360 automatically clocks to 48k when connected to a 48k AES device regardless what it is manually set for. If I figured it correctly there would be an additional 0.76ms total latency of an analog input over an AES input with the 360 running at 48k and if the 360 is running at 96k it would be 0.63ms
Don’t forget a mSec is about stepping one foot ahead. Of course it seems to be obvious to not run mains and subs through paths with different latency, but assuming the subs are located on bottom and mid/high above the audience, the path length differs much more than few mSec near stage.