The "expensive" Purist Genesis Luminist digital cable is considered their first step into their very high end. I bought it used, so it should be burned in, but I will leave it in my system and see how it sounds after a period ot time. I am not sure why it sounds better than the other cables, since the Moon 280D has an asynchronous DAC, but that is above my pay grade. John Atkinson?
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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emi and jitter can both cause harshness in the rendered audio signal -- in the treble and mids -- and give a sense of lack of focus, a loss of spatial cues, imaging specificity, and weak bass regardless if a dac is asynchronous or not, the signal needs to get from a to b -- the clock signal is but a small subset of what is being relayed by the cable -- and a poor cable can certainly harm the signal and as a result, make the music sound worse, subtly or not so subtly each system has different resolution, each listener has different hearing acuity... there is simply no shortcut to trying different cables and setups, to see if it makes a noticeable or meaningful difference in YOUR system same thing with everything -- equipment, room setup, cables, front end digital isolation, linear power supplies, cartridge and tt setup, mechanical isolation, and so on and on
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What is kind of funny, and shows my sound inclinations, I did not find the sound from the analogue 50 ohm cable unpleasant. Everything was inflated, including the soundstage and especially the bass. Part of it probably had to do with my expectations. Wow! I was listening to a free cable not designed to work digitally and the sound was big, big, big. When I put the high-end digital cable on, everything came into focus. Oh yeah, I said to myself, that's what it's supposed to sound like. Tight and clean. Bass punchy rather than big. An overblown, wooly bass has long been my weakness. Anyway, that's why I said that I thought the 50 ohm audio cable sounded good. The better digital cable brought everything into focus. If you only have $14, however, the $14 cable will work. |
@audio-b-dog you don’t know you have an issue until it’s fixed. |
I think good cables are one of those things most people do toward the end of setting up a system. It can vary wildly and probably nobody on this thread has purchased really high-end cables throughout their stereo. I will not play my CD player that much, so I would have been happy to get away without spending much on the cable. So, you and others convinced me to at least give it a try. I set my budget at $150 and bought a used cable. It sounds pretty good. I did see 1 meter digital cables for well over a thousand dollars, and I don't think anyone on this thread has spent over a thousand dollara on a meter of digital cable. Or maybe one person. But, anyway, I set a budget and found what I think is a decent cable. And I'm glad you talked me into buying it. |
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