Do I need an expensive digital cable?

@audio-b-dog 

I don't think you are set up to make sensible comparisons between SACD (which is natively multi-channel DSD) and PCM sources.  PCM includes CD quality and higher resolution formats.  As such it can be two-channel on CD and most streaming services, or multi-channel.

If you really want to compare the same recording played back through several digital formats, buy a release or two from 2L.no which includes both hybrid SACD and Pure Audio Blu-ray disks in the same package.  You immediately eliminate all the uncertainties about streaming.

For less than the cost of most cables, you can buy a Sony universal disk transport which plays CD, SACD and Pure Audio Blu-ray as well as DVD and 4K video disks.  It comes with an HDMI cable.

In my opinion, by far the greatest improvement in sound quality comes when you add extra channels to a good 2-channel system.  The further improvement possible from DSD over CD is immediately apparent in quiet passages of classical recordings - simply play a hybrid SACD and switch your transport/player to the CD layer.

Hi-res (which is just PCM with higher sampling frequency and/or greater bit-depth than CD-quality) also blooms in multi-channel.  Pure Audio Blu-ray goes way beyond SACD for number of channels, going from 5.1 for SACD to 32 virtual channels for Dolby Atmos.

You owe it to yourself to grab a pack or two from 2L.no and find a dealer that can play them through a resolving system.  Here's what a typical 2L.no pack contains:

Hybrid SACD
MCH 5.0 DSD
Stereo DSD
RedBook PCM: MQA CD

Pure Audio Blu-ray
2.0 LPCM 192/24
5.0 DTS HD-MA 192/24
7.0.4 Auro-3D 96kHz
9.0.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz
mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3
Region: ABC - worldwide

One day, streaming might catch up, but until then ...

@richardbrand 

I meant to say MQA for Tidal. And I do have a multi-disk player, the McCormack UDP-1. It was A rated by Stereophile and is still a very good multi-disk player. I have been comparing SACD and DVDA to my streamer. 

Now, somebody could say that I can’t really compare unless I own a much higher end streamer and a new multi-disc player. Sorry, there has to be a cut off line somewhere. At least for me. If Elon Musk had the interest he could make the ultimate comparison. Most dudes with a lot of money are too busy making a lot of money to be interested in audio.

Also, I often write when I am listening to music and unless the sound is jarring in some way, I kind of don't care about the overall quality. My Moon 280D sounds quite good at 96kHz and above.

@audio-b-dog 

I meant to say MQA for Tidal

I think that what anybody writes here is important, because it is so easy to take comments out-of-context.  How would you re-phrase your earlier post in light of your pretty dramatic change in meaning?:

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.

Keeping the Qobuz, and letting the wife go, is certainly a radical solution 

Meanwhile I note that your disk player does not handle Pure Audio Blu-ray which is where many truly high-resolution audio formats can be found.

Your last paragraph appears to answer your own question. No, you do not need an expensive digital cable.  Unfortunately, others reading this thread run the risk of being misled by confusion between digital audio formats and separately by confusion over delivery mechanisms (disk versus streaming), and then by comparison of streaming services.

@richardbrand 

Rewriting my post, I would merely change the word DSD to MQA. I have read about the differences between various streaming formats, but I'm not interested enough in the science to totally retain it. I am much more interested in the sound. And actually a more expensive digital cable did help my system. The whole question was based on the fact that my streamer has an asynchronous DAC with its own clock. 

In regards to Blu-ray recordings, I never see them. I have no idea where you get them, unless the music is attached to a film. A suggestion, though, @richardbrand , from my experience you tend to look at flaws in systems and even in other people's writing.

I don't know if you can enjoy your own system if you are so concentrated on what is wrong. At some point, I say, just sit back and enjoy it. It's never ever ever ever going to perfect. I don't think perfect exists in audio. I can show you articles from 20 years ago where a reviewer said that he had found the perfect sound, only to change his mind in the next latest iteration.

I don't know about you, but money will always be my biggest constraint. When I was younger a friend of mine said she had the Van Cliburn syndrome. She quit playing music because she would never play as well as Van Cliburn. I took it to heart. Enjoy things even though you know they're not perfect, or perhaps not even close.

@audio-b-dog 

So now we have

I don’t have an HDMI choice, so I have no idea about it being better. I have, however, been experimenting with DSD MQA 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 MQA 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.

MQA is delivered via PCM, but is essentially a lossy format.

As of July 24, 2024, Tidal has officially dropped support for MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) and 360 Reality Audio formats, replacing them with HiRes FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) for high-resolution streaming

In Australia, Pure Audio Blu-ray disks (mainly rock music) were sold by just about every record store until on-line sales took over.  I have shown you where to buy some several times now.

You say

money will always be my biggest constraint

but you also say 

I'm not interested enough in the science to totally retain it. I am much more interested in the sound

In my opinion, your biggest constraint is not money, it is your disinterest in scientific explanations which seems to prevent you from spending wisely.