Audio Cables and Connections

Last month we began a two-part series on connectivity with a look at video cables. This month, we'll look at audio cables and connectors, since choosing the right audio connection can be just as important as your video signal path. The discussion below puts the choices in order from best to only so-so.

As we discovered last month, FireWire is the gold standard for high-quality desktop video connectivity. Not surprisingly, it's also ideal for moving digital audio from tape to your editing system and then back again. Formally (and formerly) known as the IEEE-1394 protocol and marketed by Sony and other electronics companies as i.LINK, FireWire was invented in the mid-1990s by Apple Computer.

• Carries a bi-directional audio/video data stream with time code and machine control between devices that understand the IEEE-1394 protocol.
• Provides a fully digital pathway; signal degradation and other problems common to analog connections aren't an issue.
• Better-than-CD quality 16-bit, 48kHz stereo audio playback from the camcorder.

• Ports are built into most digital camcorders and many new computers; accessory cards are also available.
• Connectors are four-pin or six-pin. The tiny u-shaped four-pin connectors are found on camcorders; the larger rectangular six-pin connectors are used at the receiving end on computers and internal cards.
• Cables are four-pin to four-pin, four-pin to six-pin, or six-pin to six-pin. The first can connect one camcorder to another for digital dubbing; the second connects a camcorder to a computer or hub; and the third connects two powered hub devices.

• Connect a camcorder to a computer with a FireWire cable and then power on the camera ("hot-plugging") to activate the bi-directional DV stream.
• Playback and print your project to tape from your editing system with fully digital, lossless audio fidelity.

• Four-pin connectors are extremely small and fragile, leaving them vulnerable to early failure.
• Ultimately, as a data protocol, quality is unlimited and perfect and depends on system software and audio/video applications to function.

XLR cables and connectors are the top of the line for making analog audio connections. Also known as Cannon connectors, these devices provide a balanced transmission between high-end audio devices, like microphones and DAT decks, to ensure pristine audio reproduction without electronic interference.

• Two-wire balanced cables (the most common type of XLR connection) feature a 3-pin connector linked to a 2-wire twisted copper pair and a ground lead.
• Each of the wires in the twisted pair - the "high" and the "low" - carries an audio signal that's identical to the other, but 180-degrees out of phase, providing a fail-safe that's known as a balanced signal. This ensures you get maximum signal fidelity.
• Available on some consumer and many professional camcorders.