Do I need an expensive digital cable?

@audphile1 

You're kind of half right. When I write I have to do a lot of thinking about things that come from both my conscious and unconscious. So I often stop,  waiting for something from my unconscious. Then music lubricates the gears or fires up the synapses or however you want to think about it. Also, if I am listening to something i know well, then I don't need to give it my full attention.

In the afternoon when my brain is too tired to write, I often explore new music. Tomorrow when my wife will be gone, I will stream Robyn's new album very loud to feel my three woofers shaking the room. But I've also been exploring recordings of the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the pianist Fazil Say. I found a recording of them playing together. New recordings are almost all digital so I'll never hear them from an analogue source and my Moon 280D reproduces them quite well.

@audio-b-dog got it. I’m half right. You write when you’re unconscious. MQA is DSD and you have 3 woofers in a stereo setup. 
I’m gonna go have some coffee to stay conscious. Enjoy your weekend!

That would be subconscious. Or - maybe not.

Stay engaged when you write—make sure what you’re sharing is meaningful and useful to fellow Audiogon members. Listening to “Soweto Sorrow” from “Carnet de Routes: Suite Africaine” by Aldo Romano & others can help you relax and get into the right mindset.

From my experience experimenting with higher-end cables, analog interconnects matter more than their digital counterparts. You can check with AI if you want to explore the theoretical side behind this.

Within the digital realm, I²S cables seem to matter the most. I’ve compared everything from a $5, 6-inch well-shielded I²S cable (decently made in Germany) to a DH Labs HDMI 2.1 cable and Veritas Optimus used for I²S, and the sound quality difference was night and day. However, when comparing a stock Schiit USB cable to a DH Labs Mirage, the difference in my system was barely discernible. A similar result was observed when comparing a $30, 75-ohm Mogami RCA digital cable to a $300 DH Labs D-750—the difference was subtle.

In contrast, the analog side shows much more pronounced changes. Moving from a $40 Mogami XLR interconnect to a $300 Veritas Magus resulted in a significant improvement in sound quality. Stepping up further from the Magus to the $600 Veritas Argentum R brought another level of improvement, though not as dramatic as the initial jump. It seems that R, L, and C properties, along with construction quality and cable geometry, have a much greater impact on sound in the analog domain than in the digital one.

@lanx0003 

I live in the mostly mid-tier cable world from Audioquest. I inherited a half-meter pair of high-end (more than a $1,000) RCA cables. I use these between my preamp and amp. Since all the other cables are not close in quality, I don't think the priceya Kimbers do much.

I have no doubt that if I could afford to buy high end in almost any well-known cable brand (when I look at them in comparison, they all seem to use the same basic materials and techniques) my system would sound better. But $20,000 plus on cables is not going to happen. 

Just one note on whether an expense (that you can afford) is worth it. When we A/B cables or anything else, we listen very closely for minute differences we then exagerate in our minds. My bottom-line is this: Would I know the difference if I left the house for half an hour and came back to my stereo. Would I notice if one streamer (for example) was playing instead of a more expensive one.

When I bought my Moon 280D streamer, I could not tell the difference in a five-minute test between it and much more expensive streamers. If the sales guy prompted me to listen to the cymbal decay or whatever, I might have noticed. But I don't think I would have noticed at home, even when I was listening to a piece with both my conscious and unconscious minds. In other words, not worth the extra $6K.