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Any audible difference between cheap and expensive BNC cables?

I recently added a Naim streamer (streaming from an SSD NAS) to eliminate my PC (and fan noise) from the equation, plus remove the need to run a USB across the room from PC to DAC. It already sounds better than my previous PC>USB>DAC setup and is connected with a cheap $6 Monoprice BNC to RCA S/PDIF that I nabbed on Amazon.

Would there be any audible difference if the cheap BNC to RCA was swapped out with a higher end BNC to BNC S/PDIF?

I've gotten huge gains from upgrading speaker cables. Upgrading my interconnects between sources and amps on the other hand produced negligible results. The dealer I bought my turntable from has a NORDOST Silver Shadow BNC to BNC at 50% off for just under $300. I'm just wondering what kind of difference, if any, I'd get in sound from upgrading. The Monoprice cable was supposed to be temporary but it sounds good so I'm on the fence about upgrading now since I've always been told digital is digital and buying expensive digital cables that pass the same 1's and 0's doesn't make any difference.

I'm on board with upgrading if it makes an audible difference but want to make sure I'm spending my monies wisely so I'd like to hear some opinions of people who have tested different S/PDIF cables and what, if any, changes they experienced. The DAC has RCA and BNC S/PDIF inputs but the streamer only has BNC out so I have to at least be BNC on the Naim side. The DAC side could be RCA or BNC.

Any thoughts?
samiamnot
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,393 posts
 
S/PDIF cables do matter. I've heard differences in each cable I have owned or auditioned. With BNC terminations you will have the required 75ohms for digital. As @steakster says, a high quality BNC/RCA adapter is required. He mentions that some cable manufacturers can provide adapters.

I want to mention that I've owned some excellent digital cables with RCA connectors which claim to be 75ohm. With all cables, the design and implementation are key elements in reproducing quality sound.


samiamnot OP
25 posts
 

@tantejuut It looks like that company is in Canada so I’d probably have to deal with import duties and I don’t know what else if I wanted to return it. I also haven’t heard of Take Five or VH audio. What do you mean by low level detail? I’m unsure of the terminology. Are we talking about attack time here?

@cleeds The dealer is out of state so it’s not as easy as stopping by the shop to borrow one for demo. However, they do have a gracious return policy without restocking fees so I will mostly likely order it from them and just eat the return shipping costs if I don’t notice an improvement.

@blueskywalker I get that a bad signal will cause issues. I’m just unsure if the Monoprice cable is actually producing a bad signal since I don’t know exactly what jitter sounds like or if it’s something that the human ear can even hear. I read an article on jitter where the author wrote that he had to take measurements and examine graphical readings since they were too subtle to be heard by ear. I do agree that in theory it seems like BNC to BNC would be superior to BNC to RCA since, well, having to of the same termination just seems better than mismatching. I’m just unsure if I have a jitter problem in the first place so I might be addressing an issue that doesn’t exist.

@steakster The Nordost cable I’m considering is BNC to BNC and they provide RCA adapters should I ever need them. With the option to go BNC out of the streamer and BNC into the DAC though, I wouldn’t have any use for them with the current setup.


samiamnot OP
25 posts
 
@lowrider57 I understand with speaker cable that you'll get different sound from different materials, e.g. silver producing a brighter sound that copper. But that's analog. With a digital signal, how can the sound be colored differently from cable to cable. Don't mean to be so clueless but if a good cable can carry a signal without jitter problems, wouldn't it sound the same as any other cable that doesn't have jitter problems. Hearing "differences" is just kind of vague. Can you elaborate?
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,393 posts
 
Of course, proper impedance is important, so is capacitance and the impedance match of the devices being used. The digital stream enters the cable as a square wave. The design/material of the cable and its length will determine how much reflection happens. If the square wave becomes rounded or uneven, the source device will not get an accurate reading of the bitstream information. One result of the distorted signal is jitter.
The quality of the clock comes into play here. It may have trouble interpreting the signal and correcting it to match the original source.
Different cables may result in different sonic attributes.

That’s about where my knowledge of digital transmission ends. Those with more knowledge should chime in.

samiamnot OP
25 posts
 
I ended up ordering the Nordost Silver Shadow BNC. The reviews are all positive ones but still vague comments like "music became more real sounding", "very fast cable", "makes digital sound less digital", "open and detailed", "detailed with natural sound"...

All similar reviews with different buzzwords. Maybe that's a good thing and means it consistently delivers across various setups. Suppose I'll just have to wait until next week and hear for myself.

Thanks for all the input.
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