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.
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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Well your ears work. That’s good news. |
I think my streaming is decent enough. I heard a new Linn streamer that is three times as much and sounds better. I know that streaming can be better, but a better streamer is not in my budget. Partly because i think my analogue system is close to the best out there, even though I don'e have a $100,000 turntable and $50,000 phono preamp. I think that I've hit the point of diminishing returns. So, I play records a lot. |
@audio-b-dog I wasn’t suggesting a new streamer. I think there might be more potential to uncover with your Moon. |
I don't think the Moon needs better cables. The dealer who sold it to me made sure I bought good XLR cables. I think the Moon sounds very good. I will test out the CD player against 44.1 kHz streamed files to see which sounds better. I have read audio threads in which people have said that CDs sound better than 44.1 kHz files. There is no doubt that any digital files with higher resolution sound better than CDs. I have a few new threads in mind, but I need to find the time and energy. |
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