2. cables
  3. 131664-90127

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
 
@shadorne Got it, must be my lousy Hegel DAC, Belles amplifier or Kudos speakers.  That would explain everything.  Thanks.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

I have also experienced differences between digial COAX cables.  I will agree that the Blue Jeans / Beldon 1694A makes an excellent COAX cable --for the money-- (like janehamble said).  I'm sure there are better (based on other posting), but for $20-30 it is extremely difficult to beat.  It is a very natural sounding digital cable with extraordinary resolution.

Based on all my research, there are a few elements which dictate how good a digital able is:

- terminations: 75ohm.  The BNC connectors are superior, but most can only use RCA.  However, it's important to get as close to 75ohm terminations as possible. This includes how the cable/termination is shielded (COAX cable and termination plug).  It has an effect on signal reflections as well.

- length.  It is suggested 1.5 meters is the best/minimum length to reduce the effect of signal refection on the main digital signal.  I use 6 feet.

- composition.  This is one area where silver is superior to all others.  In my opinion, silver is sometimes beneficial in analog, but mostly I believe it is not a good thing.  However, in digital transmissions, you want a medium that is able to charge and discharge extremely fast.  This gives better accuracy on the timing and form of the digital square wave signals and also reduces the effect of signal reflections back to the source.

Janehamble has very good success with the Audioquest Carbon, which is silver-plated solid-core.  I have heard excellent results from DH Labs Silver Sonic D-750, which is also silver-plated solid core.  I suspect the Wire World cables, starting with Starlight 7 and above, may also perform very well.  The Wire geometry is "almost" solid-core in a sense that they have several solid-core wires side-by-side like a ribbon cable.  It's not quite true solid-core, but it's not as stranded bundle either (bad).

It's been on my list, but I would like to build the following cable sometime in the future:

- VH Labs Pulsar AG OCC Silver / airlock.  2 meters at $170 (with 15% discount for 2 meters).  24 awg solid core OCC silver with an extremely low dielectric airlock insulation (no absorption of high frequency energy!).  This is a coax design with silver-plated copper braid shield.

- DH Labs RCA-750 terminations $24 plus shipping from ebay.  This is the best digital termination I could find that is closest to the true 75 ohm design.  It requires soldering the wire to the center pin.  I believe this design is going to be superior to any other RCA connector (that are usually designed for analog audio purposes).

I think this cable would be highly superior to many other cables (even those significantly more expensive).  I'm not going to buy a $1,000 cable for comparison, but the theory makes sense to me.  For $200, it would be a heck of a cable.

itzhak1969
515 posts
 
My coax cable cost me $600 and it was one of the best investments in my system. the timing, transparency and agility are superb .once you try the hi-end handmade cables there is no going back anymore. 
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,467 posts
 
@janehamble

I am sure your equipment is among the very best available. I am happy for you that the sound changes dramatically between one digital cable and another as that is a wonderful result and must be encouraging if you were not happy at first.

Just curious, how do you know when the equipment is finally working properly? If the Audioquest Carbon is better than a Blue Jeans cable how do you know or judge how close you are to the equipment running properly? How do you tell when you have the cable that best fixes the sound so that it approaches the ideal sound.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Just going to add another experience
I purchased a used AudioQuest Hawkeye interconnect with the 72vbs and fitted it today, should obvioulsy be better as it cost a heck of a lot more than the old Tributaries cable, right?
quack quack oops, truly a move backwards, bass is now very boomy and bloated and the air and prescence have receded far into the background.
Swapped cables back and played the same piece of music again just to make sure and back to where it was, which is actually very nice sounding to my ears so maybe it definitely is time to just leave well alone and enjoy the music!

Anybody want to buy an AQ cable?
More to discover