Okay, I'm going to wait for the $14 cable and see if it improves over the RCA interconnect. I'm not jumping to a $400 cable next, though. Maybe something in the $200 range, which is around the price of the rest of my cable. $400+ for a 1 meter cable (the one on eBay is only .75 meters) Not long enough. When I have the time, i might call Music Direct and tell them the test I'm doing. I have bought a lot of expensive stuff from them and they consider me a good customer.
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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This is honestly getting more than a little frustrating. I gave you at least three very reputable sellers that offer free trials — did you not absorb that? Next, if digital cables don’t make a difference in your case then why did you hear clear differences between the crap cables you already tried? Pretty much proves the point right there. Last, you’ve received virtually unanimous responses from people here that digital cables make a significant difference, including many long-time members here with decades of hard-won experience that you just seem hell bent on ignoring. There are several “experts” here from the computer hardware/software industry who just refuse to believe digital cables make a difference and won’t even try a better cable, but you seem to at least be willing to use your ears so again I’d highly recommend you do so and take advantage of one of the several sellers out there I and others mentioned and try a cable in the $200 range. You’ve got next to nothing to lose and a lot to gain, so why the hell not? Do whatever you will. Peace out. |
@audio-b-dog sounds like a plan. but…Music Direct has nothing good in that price range - the lower priced AudioQuest is junk and it’s made in China.
I also have BlueJeans coax that a lot of people like and recommend. I think it’s junk as it sounds horrible. I am expecting your $14 cable to be in that same ballpark. There are no miracles. If the objective is to use a proper digital cable and save as much money in the process as you can, then the $14 cable on your $4,000 streamer/dac will work just fine(hopefully). If your goal is to improve your listening experience you’ll need to go up to a good cable that costs at least several hundred. |
Sorry to get you so pissed off and frustrated, brother. In fact, if you look at all the answers, nobody has said that they have ever used a transport into an asynchronous DAC. People have told me that my DAC is not fully asynchronous, and Moon said it would reclock the signal no matter what input I used. Look at the answers, my friend. Everybody says that more expensive digital cables sound better, and I believe that. But nobody has said that they had experience running a digital signal into an asynchronous DAC. I'm going to try it and let you know what I hear. Some people in this forum are open minded enough to be interested in hearing the result, because it's something they've accepted that they don't know about. I am not a person who accepts things on authority. I have always been like this. I have to question with my own mind and my own mind must be satisfied that I've covered all the permutations. In this case, my mind tells me that nobody has answered my specific situation. I'm sure people have dropped off because they don't care. But now that I've gone this far in the experiment, I'd like to finish and report my results. As far as you giving me three options for companies who take returns on cables, I was really asking in a less direct way if you've ever dealt with any of these companies. Because companies say they'll take things back and then it's not so easy when you actually try to return something. No worries. I'll suss this out on my own. |
@audio-b-dog I did not list companies I’ve not dealt with. I think you’re a little grumpy tonight. Chill out. |
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