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Digital Bottom Feeding

Okay, I’m bored. I have a good digital front end. Kimber D60 cable, Schiit Gugnier, Audiolab CDT 600 transport. But I’m sitting at home looking for something to do. I decided to see how cheap digital cables compare to my D60 which is a silver cable, quite dynamic and detailed. Over a period of time I acquired a Blue Jeans Digital Coax for about twenty bucks on Amazon, Also their gray colored Silver calble for $24 and a Cable Solutions one meter from Ebay for $38. Later I tried an Audio Advisor Pangea for $95 and a Kimber 30 for a bit over $100. Both of these later cables are returnable at some point. First observation is they are quite good. Judging the BJC coax as better than the Silver with a bigger sound stage. The Cable Solutions is a very capable cable as is both the Kimber and AA cables. The AA Pangea cable has a noticeably greater weight and warmth than the other. Not a great amount but it’s there if your system sounds thin. I’d be foolish to make any absolute statements as to whether these inexpensive cables would sound better than what you have now but all have return policies so why not play while you are under ouse arrest? Some cables are marked directional and some are not. Those unmarked cable should be tried both ways and marked for presence if any. Back when I made cables, directionality was caused when the shielding was attached at only one end of the cable instead of both RCAS. In a single ended grounding, over the year the grounded end mostly seemed to sound best at the source rather than the terminus of the signal. Lastly, I got a sale notice from Crutchfield that the Sony BDP S6700 blue ay disk player was on sale for half price from $200 to just under a hundred bucks. I also noticed that it had a coax digital out. So I got one to try as a transport. Light weight and plastic a plenty. The things sounds quite good. Not broken in yet and is not likely to be soon because there is no function for repeating the disk. I’ll just have to play it as i can and hope it opens up a bit. That said I was surprised at the out of the box performance. All the may not be your cup of tea but I’m having fun. The BJC cable and the Kimber 30 are quite impressive as are the other two. Who knows a BJ Silver might work for you. I took the time to break in all cables for 100 hours. Once broken in, reversing the cable only takes a short time to sound it’s best.
One last thing. I ordered and returned two digital cables in the $350 price range. The BJ cable beat both of them. 
fredcdobbs
mahler123
3,362 posts
 
So if I had to summarize the message of your thread, it seems to be that sanely priced gear can give very good sonic results.
Personally, I have found that this especially true in digital, as opposed to analog, audio.  I have helped people who are music lovers but are daunted by High End sticker prices put together systems that they were totally happy with.
It gets harder in the analog realm.  An inexpensive turntable/cartridge into a budget integrated amp with built in phono preamp just doesn’t give anywhere near the satisfaction of a decent budget CDP/DAC or streamer into that same amp, imo.  In order to get something decent in analog, you have spend more, not necessarily into Michael Fremer land more, but significantly more than a decent digital set up.
mesch
3,510 posts
 
I agree with the cost comparison between digital and analog front ends. With analog, at the budget end, the TT/arm/cart can approach 50% or more of the system cost to not be the weakest link. 


mesch
3,510 posts
 
I should add it has been my experience that, if one considers the environment within which the system is to be used and uses due diligence in selecting compatible components how good a budget system can sound.
mesch
3,510 posts
 
I also should further add that even the most expensive of my systems might be considered budget by many here.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
I would agree Mahler. Past a certain price point, not exceptionally high, digital is more about getting the flavor you like as opposed to getting more detail out of the bits. With a vinyl setup, the diminishing returns point is much higher. If your flavor is vinyl though, you may be happier with a lower end vinyl system than a high end digital.


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