1. Home
  2. digital
  3. 197593-137065

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?

audio-b-dog
richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,436 posts
 

@audphile1 

my Meitner DAC upsamples everything to DSD1024 

Which is the right way to go, in my opinion.

The ESS dacs in the Bluesound can natively handle DSD1024 but the unit is restricted to DSD 256.  This is consistent with converting DSD to PCM at 192-kHz and feeding that to the dacs.  Cannot find where I read that they do this ...

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,083 posts
 

With chip DACs your working within the limitations of the chip. There’s a reason why ESS based Bluesound is limited to DSD256. 

I am not a fan of ESS based DACs in general. The sound of these DACs in my experience is direct and leans clinical and analytical. There are exceptions and the final result depends on implementation and analog stage.
Soulnote DAC is ESS based. I heard it at a show and it was very good sounding. Yes super detailed and open sound but managed to not veer into the matter of fact, analytical presentation too much. At the end of the day ESS based Soulnote and Bluesound are completely different animals. Simaudio Moon is ESS based as well if I’m not mistaken. Matter of preference. I wouldn’t trade my Meitner for an ESS DAC. 

erniesch
18 posts
 

I’m a network engineer retired after 20 years. Most of those years reading packet traces on token ring, Ethernet and others.  When using a cable to broadcast digital data packets, there’s no sound to it.  Error correction is built in to the transport. Both coax and fiber optic cables don’t improve sound by the useless expense of “high quality” choices.  It’s damn silly to believe that it does. Packets of data don’t sound.  Buy a $5 cable from radio shack, spend $500 on solid silver wire. .  I won’t make one bit of difference.  Those Who argue that are ignorant about how the data transport mechanism actually work. 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,083 posts
 

Makes perfect sense to connect your radio shack streamer with a $5 radio shack Ethernet cable. The synergy there is undeniable. 

audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
878 posts
 

@audphile1 

The Moon 280D does have an ESS DAC, but I don't think of it as lean. I find it a bit on the tubey side. Although I did hear it streaming a bit lean on some Debussy piano music I listened to,

I think what makes the Moon 280D "punch above its weight" is that although it uses an early ESS chip, the analogue software is the same as high-end Moon streamers. Anyway, I'm quite satisfied with it, and I won't be buying anything better unless I get another large inheritance, like the one that enabled me to purchase the Sonus Faber speakers and Moon 280D, which was kind of an add on because I was only supposed to be buying speakers. 

I am listening to an old recording of Frinec Fricsay and the pianist Geza Anda play Brahms' Second Piano Concerto. It sounds great through the ESS DAC. Again, I think it's what happens after the DAC that makes the Moon 280D sound good. And whatever I own sounds better than anything else. Remember the song "Love the one you're with."

More to discover