AES/EBU

AES/EBU, for Audio Engineering Society / European Broadcasting Union, is a 1992 standard (revised in 1995 and 1998) for carrying digital audio signals between various devices using any of three physical interconnection types:

• AES Type I Balanced - 3-conductor, 110-ohm twisted pair cabling with an XLR connector, used in professional installations
• AES Type II Unbalanced - 2-conductor, 75-ohm coaxial cable with an RCA connector, used in consumer audio
• AES Type II Optical - optical fiber, usually plastic but occasionally glass, with an F05 connector, also used in consumer audio

F05 connectors, 5mm connectors for plastic optical fiber, are more commonly known by their Toshiba brand name, Toslink. The precursor of the AES Type II specification was the Sony/Philips Digital Interface, or S/PDIF. For details on the format of AES/EBU data, see the article on S/PDIF.