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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
rja's avatar
rja
2,356 posts
 
Have used so many digital cables over the years that I can't even remember them all.
I have found that all things being equal XLR digital cable "sound" superior to coax.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Just to digress a little.
My McIntosh is limited to 96 max so even though mqa is max at 192 the only way to obtain 192 would be replacing my McIntosh?
I am using the McIntosh digital input direct from my bluesound vault2 and running tidal mqa tracks.
Now I can hear a difference on the 96 vs 44.1 from comparing albums on tidal side by side.
But even if I bought a mqa capable dac, the bottleneck would still be,my McIntosh preamp yes? Or? 
jond's avatar
jond
5,654 posts
 
@uberwaltz no the McIntosh would not be a bottle neck the digital conversion would happen in the outboard dac. The dac would then output an analog signal to an analog input on your McIntosh preamp.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
@jond 
so even though my Mcintosh dac is limited to 96, an external dac could pass 192 though the analog outs direct into a set of analog inputs on the McIntosh?
Interesting, now all I have to do is research affordable mqa dacs!
thank you!
jond's avatar
jond
5,654 posts
 
Yes correct the McIntosh dac is not in the signal chain its limitations don't matter in that setup the Mac just gets an analog signal. So have fun!
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