ADAT and ELCO Connectors – Can I Gain More Headroom?

inSync reader Ed K. sent the following e-mail: “I was recently involved in a project at a local recording studio, and the owner was telling me that if I’d hook up my ADAT to my patchbay with an ELCO connector I’d gain a good deal of headroom into my ADAT. I e-mailed Alesis for sources for the connector, and they thought it was untrue that I’d gain more headroom with this connector. Any thoughts?”Thanks for the question, Ed – we always have thoughts! Here are some on this topic: It is very doubtful that the ELCO connectors on Alesis ADAT recorders will provide you with significantly more headroom than the 1/4″ connectors. What the ELCO provides is simply a convenient method for interfacing with +4 balanced equipment.You could run a -10 signal into the +4 ELCO inputs – you would certainly gain a ton of headroom! BUT, your system’s gain staging would be thrown so far off that more than likely you would find the noise levels and digital signal resolution unacceptable. In addition, the ELCO’s +4 output would overdrive a -10 input, resulting in serious distortion.Our advice? If the gear used with your ADAT is -10, use the 1/4” inputs (RCA on the ADAT-XT). If your system is +4 balanced, use the ELCO connector. You’ll be far happier with the results if your operating levels are matched.

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