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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
janehamble
123 posts
 
I recently needed to buy a coax to link my Schiit Eitr to my Hegel DAC.  I did plenty of research and finally concluded to listen to the scientists and go with inexpensive digital cables.  I chose a Blue Jeans coax.  It sounded OK and I was generally delighted with the Eitr.

One day, about a month later, I was at an audio dealer and he let me borrow an Audioquest Carbon coax.  I thought it would be an interesting and simple experiment for a few days.  After plugging it in I was gobsmacked.  It wasn't just 'different', it was better.  Much better.  I put my cheap cables on the market the next day and I've never looked back.

I'm not suggesting AQ cables are necessarily the best coax cables in the world, but I am stating categorically that not all coax cables sound the same.  IME, Blue Jeans are fine - and who doesn't want to save money if they can have it all for $25?  But in my system, sound quality took a significant step in the right direction when I upgraded my coax.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
@jea48 
Not yet tried that as not at home but will on Friday. Interesting as I remember having an old Monster cable digital coax that had direction arrows on the cable itself.

@janehamble 
Exactly my findings which is reason  for this thread....lol
Glad to see not just myself!
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
@jea48

Yes clock jitter is inherent in cables. The discovery by Stereophile was perhaps surprising in its day but everyone understands it today. This is why you need good equipment that is totally immune to inherent clock jitter on ALL the cables if you are seeking accurate high fidelity.

The problem with switching cable direction or another cable is that the jitter is just different but STILL there. So you can get impressive improvements but never achieve 100% clean jitter free performance by swapping cables. The source of the problem is in the component or DAC and its inability to reject jitter effectively. Jitter immunity is a major design goal for some high fidelity manufacturers others ignore it.
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
There should be correlation between level of your system to the cable,you really can’t expect good results when using stock cheap cables on high end expensive system it will degrade the sound severely ,and on the contrary there is no poit to buy expensive cables with lousy system it will not improve a thing.
The best results achieved when I changed all my cables (interconnects, speaker cables & jumpets and digital ones)
to the same brand and same level which show that it is very important to have synergy between cables and to avoid mismatch between brands and level of cables.

And yes there is a risk if you buy good cable and one or more of  components in your system aren’t good enough the cable will reveal immediately this weakness and you will have no choice and start upgrading.

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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
@itzhak1969



Absolutely there is a correlation. However it is opposite of what you state. Well designed equipment should reject extraneous parasitic noise and minimize distortion from ordinary bits of wire. Badly designed and faulty equipment will always suffer terribly as whatever wire you use can’t ever eliminate all the problems with the design.
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