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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
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audio-b-dog OP
788 posts
 

@richardbrand 

I may be a little farther out on this theory than you are. Cosmologists now talk about the universe expanding (at an accelerating rate) because space is expanding. When I was a kid, a long time ago, people thought about the universe expanding because matter from the Big Bang was still hurling "outward" pushing the envelope of space. I do not hear any cosmologists saying this anymore. They say it's space expanding and that expansion is creating new matter. Could it not be possible that the Big Bang was actually an expansion of space which in turn created energy and matter?

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,380 posts
 

@audio-b-dog 

From my experience a well-recorded CD sounds better than SACD

You have an astonishing ability to generalise from your own highly biassed 'experience'.

The audio chain you listen to CDs on appears to be completely different to the one you use for SACDs, from the player on.  If you contend that a well-recorded CD played through a very expensive DAC sounds better than SACD played through an ordinary AV system, most people would probably agree with you - at least if you only use two channels.

But take a well-recorded hybrid SACD and compare it with the CD layer on the same disk, played through the same audio chain where both are in their native mode (DSD versus PCM) and the improvement over CD can be astonishing.

I'll just note that for the price you paid for your 'digital' cable, you could have bought a universal disk transport (including Pure Audio Blu-ray and multi-channel SACD) and an additional HDMI cable.

I'll also note that the only way you can get native SACD output from your McCormack is via six analogue outputs for 5.1 or 2-channel sound.  Trying to output SACD via S/PDIF can only be done with lossy conversion.  No surprise CD sounds better if that is what you are comparing.

Please try to refrain from posting highly misleading generalisations based on personal observations from extremely poor experimental designs angry

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,380 posts
 

@audio-b-dog 

Could it not be possible that the Big Bang was actually an expansion of space which in turn created energy and matter

That is almost what I tried to say, except that energy is conserved in our current understanding of our universe (and probably other multiverses).  The common picture that the big bang exploded into some existing space like a firework is considered wrong.  The big bang created an expanding space (negative energy), which in turn creates matter (positive energy) to conserve energy as it expands.  There's somewhat more matter in the observable universe than the ounce you need to kick-start a big bang.

Mass is a form of energy.  If all the mass in your body was converted, the explosion would be about 200,000 times bigger than the Hiroshima bomb.

audio-b-dog's avatar
audio-b-dog OP
788 posts
 

Okay, let's turn to the concept of entropy for a moment. Theoretically the universe will become a mass of particles without form. Perhaps you could state that better, but you get the idea. Considering that the universe is estimated to be about 14 billion years old, it seems to have taken on more and more form over the  years. I know that there are formulas that show form like galaxies, solar systems, and snails, not to mention humans, are offset with a "greater" amount of entropy. But how does one measure a dissolution of form against one human being? By mass? It's a ridiculous calculation in my mind. I believe that there is a creative component in the universe which science has avoided because of the slippery slope to a god. With 95% of the universe unknown, couldn't there be a creative element that is also unknown, although we might be looking at its results?

hoodjem
67 posts
 

 

I am in the process of evaluating seven different digital (RCA SPDIF) cables to find the best synergy in my system with my new DAC (LTA Aero). 

 

These seven cables are—

Kimber D-60

MIT Terminator III

Shunyata Gamma

Voodoo Silverstream

Cardas Parsec

Have Canare LV-61S

DH Labs D-750

 

For whatever reasons or explanation, these seven cables sound moderately to significantly different from each other.  

 

Maybe there is a logical, measurable, electronic, or metallurgical reason why they do not sound the same. Maybe, but that does not interest me. 

All I have perceived is that they sound different:  some better and some worse to my ears (with no correlation to price). 

 

If they all sounded the same, then I would simply get the least expensive one. But they do not. 

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