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Do I need an expensive digital cable?

I have been using a fairly inexpensive optical cable to connect my CD transport to my Moon 280D streamer. I was told that an SPDIFcoax cable would sound better. For an experiment I purchased an inexpensive Pangea coax cable. It didn't sound at all because its terminator ends did not fit snugly in my equipment. I consulted chatgbt who often gives me audio advice. It advised that for the short run of 1 meter, an RCA interconnect would work. It did. And sounded much better than the optical. Chatgbt said that RCA interconnect was good enough.

Now, there is a twist to this story that might make those doubters think twice. A digital cable carries packets of information that are rechecked to assure that the streamer is recieving correct information. There is the timing concern, though. But my Moon 280D has an asynchronous DAC with a clock as part of the DAC. Any information sent by my transport, whether it is clocked by the transport or not, will go through the Moon's asynchronous DAC's clock. So ;there shouldn't be a timing problem. Should there?

Can anyone make a case that I should buy a "better" coax cable?

audio-b-dog
parkergetdean
1,124 posts
 

nobody ever said on their deathbed: I wish I spent less on cables and left more money to my kids. Yet.

12many
359 posts
 

I was someone who NEVER would have thought digital cables matter, but I compared two USB cables and there was a difference in sound characteristics compared over two different very good systems by multiple people.  This hobby is full of surprises.  

audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
883 posts
 

@parkergetdean 

I think their kids said it.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,169 posts
 

@audio-b-dog 

24 bit is not a size of a network packet. 

192khz/24 is 192khz sampling rate with 24 bit depth. It is high resolution compared to 44khz/16 which is a sample rate and a bit depth of a redbook cd.

It has everything to do with resolution of audio and nothing to do with data packets transferred over network.

I think your understanding is incorrect and incomplete. 

audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
883 posts
 

@audphile1 

I have no idea what a bit depth is. Where did you get that information? A bit is basically on/off. A bite is a group of 8 bits which can represent 256 things. Digital packets consist of bites. They have all sorts of complexities, such as handshakes so that the sender and receiver verify what was sent. I have never heard the word "depth" used when talking about digital transfers. Could you explain please?

I just spent $14.00 on a one meter 75 ohm coax, just to see if it makes a difference when compared to the RCA analogue cable. That should give me somewhat of a baseline. I am still not convinced that the clock on my Moon's DAC does not supercede the transport's clock. I'm waiting to hear from Moon. (I can never remember the spelling of their company's name.)

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