Long Coaxial audio run?

So much loss of quality even though it would be a digital signal to the DAC?

The benchmark DAC1 claims to be able to work with a 1000 feet of Cat 5 cable but that is the only one I have seen making such claims. Any digital interface seems to suffer from jitter and longer runs are worse. It can vary from barely audible or subtle to plain bad and each situation is different so it is hard to predict. Good power conditioning seems to help. You need a reclocker or get a DAC that you think can handle it....and test it thoroughly by A/B short versus long runs to satisfy yourself it is doing its job.

Thanks to you both for the most generous advice.

That jitter stuff is, I guess, only OK if you have a career in pole-dancing!

Regards,
8^(

Is USB effected by all this "Jitter" for example a laptop connected to a USB Dac with like a 15 foot USB Cable etc…?

Is USB effected by all this "Jitter" for example a laptop connected to a USB Dac with like a 15 foot USB Cable etc…?

No it should not be - USB is sending "data" without a timing signal.

Jitter has no affect on data. You can copy a CD a million times - it does not matter.

Jitter occurs when A to D or D to A is occuring. Digital works wonderfully provided timing is VERY accurate (or erros are randomized).

Unfortunately maintaining a precise clock over interfaces is not easy - it is much better to do it all on one chip with crystal clock close to the converter. However, the reason for passing a clock signal along a digital audio chain is to maintain the relative timing of the devices. This is so nothing gets too far ahead or too far behind....if for example the DAC got too far ahead then it would end up having no data and music would stop. If a DAC gets too far behind then all the "bits" need to be temporarily stored somewhere in a buffer. Also if you are watching a DVD with video then you want the sound to stay in sync with the video - so relative timing is often important.

With A USB connection the devices can "handshake" - data is sent or resent upon request so buffers do not overfill and no data is lost and no synchronization is needed.

Your only concern with USB is the jitter quality in the DAC device itself. (Note that USB protocols and communications will have periodic bursts and some data packest will be repetive - so there is still a risk that correlated noise from USB communications (and the draw on the shared power supply) reaches the DAC clock...

Shadorne
Thanks, I figured it was very similar to how an HDMI type device works, almost identical.. Quality will be built depending on the end device. So it makes sense that the quality will be in the USB dac itself doing its job more so than the device storing a file.

This is why I actually put that question out, which is why I can't see any advantage to going the route of a standard Coax digital or Optical cable connection converted at the music serving device in the first place, it seems to me it is much more sensible to put a little more money into a USB DAc these days, Eliminate a 300 dollar Coax digital cable for example and replace with a decent USB then just let a standard computer, or music server device do its job on its end and the DAC take on clocking it and allowing the DAC also the actual responsibility to make it sound good!

Seems to eliminate much of the guesswork in cabling, cost, and basically only one conversion done at the input of the USB Dac once data arrives.. I really don't see putting a cheap USB card on a computer that outputs the Digital coax etc.. at the main device, but of course I can understand people with really good old school DACS wanting to keep their old DAC and this is the only way to convert it price effectively.