Do I need an expensive digital cable?

@audio-b-dog 

you could pass along some real-world choices you have made

Apologies for not answering earlier. My music preferences are mainly classical and a bit of jazz.

My real-world choices for digital have been to use silver disks (CD, SACD, Pure Audio Blu-ray) as my primary digital source. As far as possible, I play multi-channel.  My connections from my silver disk players/transports are exclusively HDMI cables.  From each player/transport, one HDMI cable is dedicated to audio only, a second HDMI cable handles video.

When I buy an HDMI cable, it is at least from a brand I recognise and is labelled at least Premium High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet in accordance with the HDMI licence conditions.  This means that it has been independently tested to meet the specified performance of 18-Gbps, at the length supplied.

I only stream (usually from Presto Classical) to check out whether I like a performance (not for the sound quality).  I just use my phone and Bluetooth for convenience, although WiFi is an option.

I have tried to steam live concerts from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall under an expensive subscription, but the Internet does not seem to like Australia  - our National Broadband Network, which was originally to be all-fibre, was messed up by politicians and typically includes some copper to the premises.

In my motorhome, there is a 4.1-channel domestic set-up including a universal disk transport, but no guarantee of terrestrial Internet access!  Satellite access is expensive, as things stand today.  The major Telco claims 97% coverage of the population but misses 97% of the land area 

@soix 

You may have missed the part where I tried a more expensive cable and said that it sounded a lot better. People's guesses as to wise were all over the place.

You may have missed the part where I tried a more expensive cable and said that it sounded a lot better. People's guesses as to wise were all over the place.

Think you’ve got me confused with someone else.  I’m glad you kept an open mind and reaped the benefits from doing so.  Goodonya!

@richardbrand +1 for Presto.  I could not see your virtual system?  You say you use HDMI connections everywhere, if you have a great DAC and your gear supports USB that might work better for your streaming - IIS over HDMI cables is sending the clock over the cable, your DAC's clocking is derived from the source component plus the possibility of noise and jitter.

Presto's material is very often better than CD, and also (when 96 kHz or higher) better than SACD;  SACD is about 24 bit 80 kHz equivalent. Presto has been my primary source for downloads, I live in rural VT, the coax feeding my house runs through the trees and so I lose the internet far too often.

@retiredaudioguy 

My virtual system is so virtual I have not recorded it here .  I suppose I should, because it is very different from usual North American practice!

In my real main system, my DAC function is provided by a Marantz AV8802 pre-processor which contains eight 2-channel AKM dacs.  These natively process Direct Stream Digital (DSD) for a total of 16-channels.  Of these, I use nine when supported by the source, such as immersive disks from 2L - the Nordic Sound.  (Not available from Presto ).

My HDMI cables are only used for HDMI  in accordance with their design goals. 

I know this will be controversial, but I see no point in using IIS (I2S) over any sort of cable, except to avoid HDMI licence fees.  The HDMI fee structure does favour big manufacturers, so I can understand why small manufacturers look for alternatives.  But I2S was designed to connect two chips on a circuit board, and the clock signal attenuates and smears when sent over a cable.

I always listen to SACD (mainly classical) in multi-channel mode, unless it is a rare 2-channel disk.  Same for Pure Audio Blu-ray.  I don't think streaming has got there yet.

In my opinion, there is no point comparing DSD and PCM in terms of equivalent bits and rates - they use bits completely differently.  I don't think any dac handling PCM actually gets close to 24-bit resolution.  DSD is much simpler for dacs to implement.

Having said that, I know many classical SACDs are recorded in high resolution PCM for easy of editing before being converted to DSD for delivery.

Caveat:  None of my comments apply to pop/rock multi-miked recordings where mixing is performed post-performance.