[comp.sys.mac] Thinking about serial ports and data rates for samples

jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) (01/20/90)

I wonder...

Many CD players have digital out plugs which let you tap the contents
of a CD in its digital form.  Now what is needed to get this digital
signal into a computer (Macintosh to be specific)?  Well, the data
rate is pretty high... on the order of 88.2 16-bit words per second or
in other words, 176 Kbytes per second.  Now I'm told that the
Macintosh serial port can be clocked from an external source up to
something like a megabit per second.  Notice that the above 176
megabyte rate is 1.4 megabits per second serial.

Are there easy ways to make a CD player communicate with a Mac through
the serial lines without an expensive Nubus based digital interface?
It seems like an intriguing idea since musician types could record
(legally) sample CD disks onto their Macintoshes with only a simple
and inexpensive interface in-between.

Such a cool idea.