I’m going to make a coax SPDIF cable suggestion that’s really quite terrific- Canare CV-77S terminated with Canare crimp on 75 ohm RCAs or BNC. Every bit as good as an Audioquest Carbon SPDIF coax I had in my system for a couple of years.
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?
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I don't have an HDMI choice, so I have no idea about it being better. I have, however, been experimenting with DSD vs PCM by playing the same album on Qobuz and Tidal. I think I mostly prefer PCM for its better delineation of instruments. It also handles attacks better. However, every now and then DSD seems more airy and I prefer that on a few albums. My accountant wife says one has to go. I think I'll keep Qobuz. |
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@audio-b-dog there’s no DSD available to stream from Tidal or Qobuz. I think you meant to say hi-res vs red book. |
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