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?

audio-b-dog

From what I have seen so far, I am not convinced digital cables make a difference.  This reviewer has made many videos about different USB cables and described how they sound different.  However, when he and his cohorts had to do a blind test, none of them could reliably tell the differences and identify the expensive USB cables.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQfuyioIgKI&t=51s

I am not claiming to be right.  I am just saying as someone with a ~$50k system, I have not yet seen enough evidence to spend $500+ on a USB cable for my system.  

and yes I can easily hear the difference between DACs so I am not some ASR troll.

This will probably work just fine.

https://www.musicdirect.com/equipment/cable/audioquest-forest-digital-rca-cable/

I can't believe you're all still patronizing this guy. He's completely out to lunch you know. Rationalizes everything you say to him!

NOOOO!!!!!! Don't do it. Any basic 75 ohm cable will to the job. Don't drink the Kool-Aide. I did and wasted lot's of money I could have spent on music, dinners, and perhaps larger donations to a charity.

I am not claiming to be right.  I am just saying as someone with a ~$50k system, I have not yet seen enough evidence to spend $500+ on a USB cable for my system.

@kumizi  Why are you looking for evidence?  How about the hundreds of very experienced people here who’ve clearly heard differences?  Do you think they’re all fooling themselves and making it up?  There’s absolutely no reason you can’t just try a cable from Veritas, DH Labs, etc. for little/no risk and hear for yourself.  Or you can just keep looking for scientific evidence. 🙄