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Digital coax cable, real world experiences?

Yes I know ANOTHER cable thread....lol
Guess that is why it has its own complete section
My question regards a cable I have not really paid much attention to previously, the digital coax connection from my media server to my preamp.
I was using a very old generic connection that is at least 15 years old but acquired a pretty cheap tributaries digital coax cable and thought oh well lets change it.
I was shocked and stunned at just how much more detail was present and the depth and solidity of bass was near overwhelming, granting I was listening to some pretty bass intense material at the time but still!
Now do not get me wrong I was once one of the biggest cable naysayers you would find and still think the majority of me now hearing changes is the quality of the rest of my system as previous "lower fi" systems just did not truly reveal any note(pun intended) worthy changes.
So my question is if I heard a significant difference with a fairly inexpensive cable what may occur with really going up the food chain on a digital coax cable? Or was it more that my previous no name very old cable was just that ..very old and poor.
Thoughts and real world experiences on digital coax cables?

128x128uberwaltz

Showing 1 response by desktopguy

desktopguy
334 posts
 
Most of my listening for the past decade has been desktop audio +/- headphones. I started using a S/PDIF converter years ago w/the 1st musical fidelity unit (I'm now up the 24/192 model). Anyway, for a long time I used toslink/glass to connect to the DAC.

About a year and a half ago, I got more serious about going to the next level of digital sound--and got my 1st multibit DAC, the Audio GD NOS 19. It was a revelation in somewhat warm, organic, relaxed digital sound.

Soon after getting this, I upgraded from toslink to coax, starting out w/an inexpensive 1.5M Billie Jeans. Not bad at all. Better sounding in some ways than toslink. Then, based on numerous positive comments I read, got a new, much more expensive cable: the 1.5M Oyaide DB-DR 510 (it comes in either BNC or RCA--I got the RCA version).

Done, and done. Best sound I ever heard from any cable. Immediate sonic success. As usual w/cables, the differences were small and subtle--but in low level signal situations, especially digital, small and subtle go a long way. In this case, all changes were sonically beneficial.

I would never go back. This coax cable (which cost ~$210) is a stone keeper.
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