The i2S interconnection between sources and DAC became popular in the last year mainly because it transports
the signal at their original nature and not assembled together so to be transported in an asynchronous
connection.

The i2S connection is made of 4 signals:

DATA data – LRCLK Left/Right word clock – BCLK Bit Clock – MCLK Master Clock

SPDIF, USB, AES/EBU, all of these formats assemble together the 4 signals just named in one signal that at the
destination is re-exploded into their original format, i.e.: DATA, LRCLK, BCLK, MCLK.

By the transport of the 4 basic signals the target is to have a transmission with lower troubles to manage. For
sure the process is simpler than the transport of an assembled signal. About the less complexity is not true in
general that one method is better than the other.

Unfortunately, the i2S interface is not standardized and there are a lot of variants; any brand has its own
proposal.

The physical interfaces on the market are 5:
– One 19 pins HDMI connector, balanced signals,
– One 8 pins RJ45 connector, unbalanced signals,
– One 5/6 pins DIN connector, unbalanced signals,
– One 9 pins D-SUB connector, unbalanced signals,
– Four BNC connectors, unbalanced signals.