Digital Cable Choice; how critical is it?

Oh forgot something I thought might be useful. Signal recording and analysis tools are getting reasonable in cost, very powerful and somewhat user friendly, certainly user friendly enough for a lot of serious audiophiles. For around $3000 you can get a complete data recording system (sans computer which you already have)and you can progress from wondering & parts replacing to knowing and making informed decisions. I recently bought a Dataq instruments model 730 for work, (I'm sure there are others that are equivalent, I have no tie to the vendor, just wanted to give an example). Three grand is a big chunck of change, but for folks who are heavy into the hobby I think it can save a whole lot of money and frustration in the long run and allow a better final end result. Data is good!

Some say that PC's make no difference.
Some say that digital IC's make no difference.
Like Dalton said; "Opinions Vary!"

In my experience, in moving (in a fairly resolving system with a good transport and DAC) from a well received but modestly priced IC (Apogee Wyde-Eye) to a much more expensive and widely acclaimed IC (Kimber Orchid), the comparative difference was very distinct and clearly distinguishable. In simple terms, I found the difference to be comparable to looking thru recently cleaned windows. Prior to cleaning they were not really dirty, but afterward they were REALLY clear.

It has also been carefully detailed by an AG member with impeccable credentials, that IC length can play a significant role.

As I have stated before, if you have not made the comparison yourself all you have is an uninformed opinion.

My experience is a lot like Jeffcott's. I have had Wyde Eye to Wireworld Gold Starlight and in between and my conclusion is the same as his. I would only want to add that digital cable _length_ made a big difference to my system and an audio pal's. We compared a 1m length of Wyde Eye to 1.5m and the longer length was incontestably better.

Are all of you (Tobias, jeffcott, Jeff_jones) referring to a lack of difference only between 75 ohm cables (either RCA or BNC), or ALL digital data cable including 110 ohm XLR. ST glass, and Toslink (plastic and glass)?
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First of all, difference between digital cables depends on a dac you're going to get. When I had a Bel Canto DAC2, I tried a lot of different digital cables varying in price from $50 to $1000: WireWorld SuperNova 3+ and 5+ Glass Toslink, Acoustic Zen Silver Bytes, Acoustic Zen MC2, Synergistic Resolution Reference, Virtual Dynamics NiteII and Master, Stereovox, and even some Monster. Difference between these cables was alway apparent. I chose Virtual Dynamics NiteII which was the best of the bunch, then I upgraded to Virtual Dynamics Master, which was in a league of its own. There are some dacs though, that don't react to the digital cable changes, so you'll have to try and find out.