It would seem to be difficult to compare an AES/EBU cable of one brand with a RCA cable of another as the cable colorations would affect your judgement. I have also found that where certain cables "lock in" to a situation, that anything you try to compare them to will sound inferior. I have only had the opportunity to compare the Apogee Wyde Eye AES/EBU to its RCA counterpart. The differences were very subtle. The AES/EBU seemed to have a little more detail but the RCA cable seemed a little smoother. I would not be surprised if others would hear different with different equipment or even different cd's. I think the construction of the cable and the characteristics of the associated equipment matter more than whether you use AES/EBU or RCA or even toslink, for that matter. With digital cables, the characteristics of the connectors would also be very important. I have a situation in one of my systems where the lowly Monster Lightspeed 100 has either beat out or equaled all comers so far including a $250 Madrigal. Only the HT copper has been a little better. I have tried the XLO and HT cables mentioned above on my Parasound CBT2000 and preferred the the HT. However, when comparing the same cables going from an Audio Alchemy DTI 2.0 to a Micromega dac and I preferred the XLO.
