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

@westcoastaudiophile 

Bad jitter sounded good at first because it made the soundstage wide and romanticized notes like loosy goosy tube gear does. A better cable tightened up the sound and I realized I'd been seduced by the "smear" of jitter. The better digital cable is a Purist Audio Design Genesis Luminist. The less expensive one has no name and I can't find my order. You can just look at the cables and see that the terminations are cheap. The cable body is a cheap plastic without decent sheilding underneath. There is a difference.

 

grunge1000
101 posts
 

@audio-b-dog . I never realized that jitter had "a sound" Did you measure the jitter? What was the jitter before you changed cables? After you changed cables?

Thanks,

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

@grunge1000

Sorry, I can't measure jitter. Maybe it was some other sort of interference with the signal. I'm not a measurement guy. I use my ears. The difference between the 50 ohm analogue interconnect and the 75 ohm Purist Audio Design Genesis Luminist was hard to miss. I don't think you'd need to be an audiophile to hear it.

In the reviews I read of the Purist cable, I bought something called the "entrance to the high-end." It was mentioned that the cable I bought errs on the "musical" end of the spectrum. More expensive cables would have a tighter sound and be more "analytical." Anyway, for my test, I'll just have to trust my ears, which is what I always do.

This cable will be rarely used when I use my transport to play a CD. I rarely do that.

grunge1000
101 posts
 

Thanks @audio-b-dog 

rbstehno
1,630 posts
 

Why would you use anything but usb if you want the higher sample rates and dsd which sounds better than cd 16/44? Toslink usually has weaker specs than coax and coax has weaker specs than usb and usb is terrible. Ethernet and i2s are better sounding than using usb. The data going  into my dac from my streamer is in the form of dsd256 and the better i2s cables make a difference.

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