A Lesson Learned and The Value of a REALLY GOOD Digital Cable-TUBULUS!

While I've been SACD-centered lately (and rediscovering redbook) with a refurbished Marantz SA 1 player (which has truly been most enjoyable-I feel like a young audiophile again), I keep in mind that I have an Eversolo T8 streaming transport (that also delivers Hi Res downloads) hooked to a Denafrips Venus II 15th.  I was USB for years.  I even had it on this setup.  I tried I2S.  I heard lots of potential lurking under the surface.  Not wanting to dive into the deep end of the pool, I bought a DH Labs Silversonic 2.1 HDMI.  It is, in most ways, better than my other HDMI cable.  A videophile friend who cuts no corners brought over an Audioquest Thunderbird 48 HDMI cable.  I have to say that cable was pretty nice.  When he told me the price, I nearly spit out my coffee!  There was no denying that the improved noise management and highish silver content generated increased dimension, detail, textures, and frequency response along with a natural warmth when called for.  I liked it, however, comparing recording for recording, my hi-res download system still couldn't quite catch my SACD player.  

I have always known digital cables were important.  I've had expensive coaxial and USB cables from several companies.  Sometimes I swear they impact the sonics of a system more than interconnects do (but not speaker cables).  What happened next, I seriously didn't envision it.  I figured, "This should be an improvement, and for the price, it better be!", but it went beyond that.

Enter the Tubulus Concentus I2S digital cable.

I've had this burning in my system for a while, ever since the Audioquest Thunderbird experience.  This is where music servers, whatever they may be, are nice.  You can burn something in for hundreds of hours without mechanical wear, and that's what I've been doing.  The cable should have had some break-in already, because it's a used cable (following my cheapskate tendencies), but I don't know how much.  Cables settle into a system as well.  Used or not, you can't rush that one.  Currently, I'm at around 100 hours.  I do expect further changes.  

Let's say I find a company that offers DAC mods.  I then send in my DAC, and $800 later (I'm using the suggested retail price of the Tubulus), it returns with the sonic improvements I'm experiencing right now.  First of all, I'd think the guy was a genius.  Second, I would find the sonic improvements somewhat of a bargain for the asking price.  Yet, with a cable, it feels like highway robbery.  I just have to remember, we pay for the end result.  This end result is a bargain.  I hate to say that, but it is.

The increase in space, ambience (the tails of which fade into blackness), dynamics, control, definition (everywhere), the sense of being there, music that is separated from the speakers in a way that seems almost magical.  I couldn't believe it.  Yet, it does all of this with remarkable ease.  An absence of strain.  It just "happens".  

In the past, I tried DDCs with computers and noted an improvement.  That improvement failed to exist with the Eversolo T8 transport, which costs less than the DDC I was using!  It does a fine job.  This Tubulus Concentus I2S cable is doing what a $2200 DDC couldn't.  I can't deny it, I am impressed and at the same time left without an explanation.  What I can say is, NOW my hi-res downloads put up one heck of a fight against my SACD and my vinyl.  THAT shocked me.  Due to a digital cable.

I have degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.  My profession for many years has required the use of my Mechanical Engineering, but I apply my EE to audio constantly.  I designed and built (after saying I was going to do so for a very long time) a power conditioner that displaced everything I've ever used, some of which was well over $2K, with fewer filtered outlets.  There are frequencies causing junk in our AC.  By knowing them, filters can be built that eliminate this noise in stages.  This can be calculated, explained, and executed.  This digital cable... I am an EE who believes that cables sound differently, some better, some worse, and for many reasons.  We just can't entirely explain them.  I hear "they measure the same", yet I believe they measure differently, if we just knew what to measure and how to do it.  I can come up with a few explanations from the engineering world that could explain why the Tubulus Concentus does what it does; however, I will not torture you with those here.

All I can say is, lesson learned.  I have bought many expensive cables in my life.  I have become partial to Cardas.  Regarding digital cables, I've always been hesitant to go BIG because of digital's ever-changing standards.  My hi-res downloads appear to be the equal of SACD and the best vinyl editions I have; it's just that each format (the components used impact it as well) presents a different "take" on each recording. 

The Tubulus Consentus I2S digital cable is for me, a game-changer, and that's putting it lightly.