@devinplombier not entirely true. coax is a copper cable. It is susceptible to EMI and RFI. If subjected to either or both, the electrical noise may impact timing and interfere with data transfer. In addition the noise will make its way into the DAC which again will negatively impact sound quality.
Connections doing digital data transfer not impacted by emi and rfi are optical and fiber optic.
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?
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I do apolcogize on the bit depth. It is a term chatgbt recognizes. I'll paste its answer below. I don't think that invalidates my discussion of what a bit is. We talk about "words" a 16 bit word length or 24 bit word length. Thos bits are still on/off switches, which is how digital works. I think we were talking past each other. On the other issue, chatgbt has assured me more than once that the asynchronous DAC in the Moon 280D will supercede the transport's clock. It was chatgbt who told me to try an RCA interconnect. And the interconnect works. I'll compare it to a cheap digital 75 ohm cable. Here is chatgbt's answer on "depth." i think depth talks about the effect of word length, but not what a word length is. That's where we were talking past each other. What Bit Depth Actually IsBit depth determines how precisely the amplitude (loudness level) of a sound wave is measured at each sample in a digital recording. Think of digital audio as:
Bit depth controls the number of possible volume steps between silence and full scale. Simple AnalogyImagine a staircase.
The more steps you have, the smoother quiet details and dynamic transitions sound. The Math (Important but Simple)Each additional bit doubles the number of amplitude values.
That’s not a small difference. That’s massive. |
@audio-b-dog I did some reading on this unit, which claims to be asynchronous, although it doesn't go into further detail. It would be unusual if it is. The question to ask Simaudio directly (not ChatGPT) is if the unit is asynchronous across all digital inputs. |
An RCA interconnect will work, it just won't be the best tool for the job. What that gives up in a real world situation is case specific, but a cable with the desired specs all around need not be pricey. For example, this one is well engineered with correct impedance for both cable and connectors and is the theoretically most desirable length. |
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