[time-nuts] Sound cards

[J.D. Bakker]

>Maybe I lost track and missed something, but I don't think I ever saw
>more on the subject of specific high-end sound cards that might be
>useful for nutty measurements.

 From an earlier list message:

>[F]or best noise/jitter-performance an external ADC should be used, 
>connected through a digital link to a PC sound card. One could do a 
>lot worse than the TI PCM4222 eval board 
>(http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pcm4222.html), which 
>accepts an external clock if so desired. At $149 (plus a tenner or 
>two for the sound card) this will likely be much cheaper than an 
>equivalent FireWire-device.

The digital link in question is S/PDIF; with the current popularity 
of Home Theater systems cheap cards with digital I/O have become 
quite prevalent. As an added bonus, S/PDIF can be run over both 
coaxial and optical media, the latter being attractive in further 
isolating PC noise from any measurement setup. And of course, a 
manufacturer's evaluation board is much better documented and more 
suited to measurement-specific mods than a random sound card.

JDB.
[using a custom board with a similar setup in a narrowband VNA]
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