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?
The Bluesound Node Icon Streaming DAC uses two ESS Sabre dacs, one per channel, which can natively handle DSD up to DSD1024. Nevertheless, I suspect the Bluesound down-samples DSD to PCM, thereby losing information. It has a maximum input rate of DSD256. Even reading the dac Data Sheet does not tell the whole story of how DSD is handled, though it can tell you how it is not handled |
@audio-b-dog I am surprised the “New Moon Daughter” was originally an analog recording in 1995. I’ll have to get that record. I happen to like that album and I still have the original cd that I bought when it was released. |
@richardbrand it might support native DSD played from a device connected via USB and potentially via network. I never owned Bluesound anything. I know my Meitner DAC upsamples everything to DSD1024 using Ed Meitner’s FPGA. Everything sounds pretty good though this DAC. |
chatgbt on "New Moon Daughter" 1. The Original Recording (1994–95)Cassandra Wilson recorded the album for Blue Note in the mid-90s. That woody, shadowy atmosphere you hear? That’s tape. 2. The Pure Pleasure ReissuePure Pleasure is known for:
For New Moon Daughter, the label indicates mastering from the original analog tapes, making it an AAA chain (analog master → analog cutting → vinyl). They don’t usually hedge language. If digital were involved, it would be noted. |
We did start with a digital cable, but I've started several forums that end abruptly. As long as people are still interested, why not keep going? My feeling is that these forums are for audiophiles to talk to each other. If I'm wrong, I could figure out what we're talking about and start a new thread. |
