S/PDIF (pronounced "SPID-iff," "spuh-DIFF," or "ess pee diff")

Sony/Phillips Digital Interconnect Format

SPDIF (without a slash), unbalanced digital, "optical," "digital coax," or even simply "digital," IEC958 "Digital audio interface"

Consumer home audio equipment, portable audio recorders, computer audio interfaces, and various consumer, semi-pro, and pro audio equipment

RCA, TOSLINK, BNC

ADAT Optical

Alesis Digital Audio Tape

Lightpipe, simply "ADAT"

Alesis multichannel equipment and other multichannel devices, many computer audio interfaces, standard on the Apple Power Mac G5

TOSLINK

AES/EBU

Audio Engineering Society / European Broadcast Union

AES3, balanced digital

Pro equipment

XLR (AES3), BNC (AES3id, not as common)

TDIF (pronounced "tiddiff" or "teediff")

Tascam Digital Interface Format

"DA-88" (after the multichannel recording device that popularized the format)

Tascam multichannel equipment and compatible

Specialized 25-pin connector