Customizing sound through digital interconnect

Hi Amfi, please elaborate the following section:

"...and it is possible to introduce new spurious waves by the summation of reflected waves with smeared waves. You do not necessarily hear a "tick", because this is only one packet of 44,100 signals per second, but if it happens often enough it will change the tone."

I know only a few things about digital data conversion/transmission because I'm a totally uninitiated person with regard to this subject, but if a 16-bits DAC is fed with 17-bits information, I think there would be severe timing problems, if this is possible at all.

Chris

Dazzdax, think of digital bits as square waves rising off the noise floor. The noise floor can be raised by reflections and other random noise in the interconnect. The tops of the square waves can be smeared by skin effect. The noise is random, and can sometimes sum up to form another wave that makes it past the threshold (and is read as a bit by the DAC). It may be read as a very jittered 1 where a zero should be. But in any case, it can't be good.

Amfi, so if a digital cable sounds "different" than other digital cables, even if the sound has a more "natural" presentation (warmer, more fleshed out midrange, silkier highs and greater PRaT), this cable isn't a very good cable in theory because of the time smearing? The next question is: how can one determine if a digital cable is a "good" cable? Most audiophiles are judging by ear whether a cable sounds good or not and not by using oscilloscopes.

Chris

Dazzdax, you and I and everybody else knows that cable, no matter what type of cable, can not improve the sound - it can only degrade it. As to how you judge a good cable ... well you listen :) I don't go by oscilloscopes either, I go by what I like. Generally if I can hear more detail (not to be confused with treble emphasis) and better dynamics, I know i'm on to the right product.

Amfibus
your perception of the type of distortion caused by cables is accurate in how it can effect the audio signal. I have found cables to be very sensitive to vibrations caused by the system itself ( feel your cables while the sytem is playing at a realistic level).I was surprised to feel a ton of vibrations going through mine and could only surmise it could effect the audio signal. VD uses some special damping materials the help control these vibes, I also think that solid core cables are less likely to smear the signal than multi-stranded cables ( creating less errors and distortion in the process).I agree that no cable is perfect, but cables that use proven technology help minimise these interactions on the audio signal.Hope this helps Dennis