Why does my DAC sound so much better after upgrading digital SPDIF cable?


I like my Mps5 playback designs sacd/CD player but also use it as a DAC so that I can use my OPPO as a transport to play 24-96 and other high res files I burn to dvd-audio discs.

I was using a nordost silver shadow digital spdif cable between the transport and my dac as I felt it was more transparent and better treble than a higher priced audioquest digital cable a dealer had me audition.

I recently received the Synergistic Research Galileo new SX UEF digital cable.ย  Immediately I recognized that i was hearing far better bass, soundstage, and instrument separation than I had ever heard with high res files (non sacd),

While I am obviously impressed with this high end digital cable and strongly encourage others to audition it, I am puzzled how the cable transporting digital information to my DAC from my transport makes such a big difference.

The DAC take the digital information and shapes the sound so why should the cable providing it the info be so important. I would think any competently built digital cable would be adequate....I get the cable from the DAC to the preamp and preamp to amp matter but would think the cable to the DAC would be much less important.

I will now experiment to see if using the external transport to send red book CD files to my playback mps5 sounds better than using the transport inside the mps5 itself.

The MPS5 sounds pretty great for ca and awesome with SACD so doubt external transport will be improvement for redhook cds


128x128karmapolice

Showing 6 responses by nonoise

Is Rod Serling lingering around here, somewhere off to the side, smoking a cigarette?
Test equipment cannot measure everything we hear. To say we're at the apex of our ability to capture and measure everything that we can hear is absurd. That you can correlate to a numeric value and collate the data must give you goose pimples but you're over simplifying an incredibly complex mechanism: our ears and the ability to hear.

All the best,
Nonoise
I
indeed, regardless of a test, you did hear a difference, and thatโ€™s all that matters at the end of the day (for you).
How condescending of you.
However, tests tell us if there actually is a difference, rather than just hearing one.
Not true. No testing equipment exists that can hear. It can only grab a moment in the musical event and analyze a fragment of it, not the complete event. ย Our ears take in info in a non linear fashion that no instrument can duplicate, on the fly. What equipment can discern organic vs. lean? Or separation vs. congealed? I could go on but it would be all for naught.
I said this in my initial comments for this thread, but people describe differences in a amp even though it was the same unit, so differences are heard with the same system, since you changed the system by using a different cable, itโ€™s easy to understand that you heard a difference.
You left out "some" between the words, 'but' and 'people' which makes your conclusion a faulty, but clever, one.ย 

This is one sly troll. He claims he can't hear all that well, is a whizz at math, and uses links and quotes to speak for what he, himself, can't hear or distinguish. Toss in some condescendingly obtuse insults and Bob's your uncle.

This troll is not an audiophile by any measure.

All the best,
Nonoise

A quick look at this thread shows one to be sarcastic and the other, responding, but not in kind. Kind of a false equivalency to state otherwise, eh?

All the best,
Nonoise
Just remember that everything about audio is not written in stone or was dictated by a burning bush and you'll be fine. Trust your ears.

All the best,
Nonoise