22ft Digital Coax Cable. Good or too long?


Would a 22ft coax cable degrade my sound quality, versus say a 6ft one? I have heard that longer is better for digital cables. Is this true even at 22ft? I know most people recommend at least a minimum of 1.5ft on digital cables.
nemesis1218
There are a great many system-dependent technical variables involved, some of which are generally unspecified and unpredictable. But my guess is that in general there is a significant chance that sound quality will be degraded, at least slightly.

That may be particularly true if hi rez data is being transmitted through the cable, not because of the potentially greater resolution of hi rez but because of the relationship between its shorter clock period (compared to "redbook" 44.1 kHz data) and the time required for signal reflections caused by imperfect impedance matches to propagate back and forth through the 22 foot cable.

But it is certainly conceivable that performance at 44.1 kHz could also be degraded, due to increased susceptibility to both ground loop issues and noise pickup (and consequent effects on timing jitter) resulting from the long length.

BTW, the 1.5 recommendation that is often stated is meters, not feet. 1.5 meters is about 5 feet.

Regards,
-- Al