Get yourself a CeriousTech Lumniscate cable and specifically an AES/EBU cable if your SSP or preamp will support it. Utterly transformative. Not inexpensive but prices fair in the context of the massive bump in SQ. I use from my Antipodes K22 player out to my Lyngdorf MP-60 and out to my Accuphase A-80.
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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Thank you for all your inputs. The reason I ordered the Purist Genesis Luminist digital cable was that it received decent reviews in the mid-tier category. My budget was around $150 and that's how much it was. It wasn't a cheap Audioquest that @audphile1 said would not be better than the $14 one I ordered. Why did I need a budget if I could return more expensive cables? Because if it sounds better, I'll probably keep it, and right now my wife/accountant is in no mood for stereo expenses. I spent a lot of money over the last few years on Sonus Faber speakers and the Moon streamer, plus while we were into the giddy tens of thousands, my dealer threw in a lot of expensive cables. So, I'm pretty much on a stereo budget now. Real world, folks, for any of you who have wives or children or grandchildren, as I do. Let's see if either 70 ohm digital cable performs better than the 50 ohm analogue cable I'm now using, and which sounds awfully good. I'm now listening to Bernstein conduct Shostakovich's 7th symphony, and I couldn't be happier. But, of course, I was happy listening to music on my $300 rig when I was 20. |
Expensive is relative. If you’re stressed out about a cable being the weakest link, stick with a professional cable like the Canare LV-61s with Nuetrik BNC Terminal and use an Canare 75 Ohm BNC to RCA Adapter. This is much preferred to using pre terminated RCA because most brand preterminated RCA’s can’t be true 75 Ohm. You can get a custom made lengths at a very reasonable price and use that as a solid baseline. Cables testing takes alot of experience and a very long time trial to really understand what it’s doing to your sound. The main variable is you and what kind of sound and level of clarity you’re looking for. With more experience you’ll define for yourself what is an expensive cable. Me, I use to think $150 was expensive but I’m way past that. That said, I still use Canare Cables in my system due to synergy. |
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