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Why does my DAC sound so much better after upgrading digital SPDIF cable?

I like my Mps5 playback designs sacd/CD player but also use it as a DAC so that I can use my OPPO as a transport to play 24-96 and other high res files I burn to dvd-audio discs.

I was using a nordost silver shadow digital spdif cable between the transport and my dac as I felt it was more transparent and better treble than a higher priced audioquest digital cable a dealer had me audition.

I recently received the Synergistic Research Galileo new SX UEF digital cable.  Immediately I recognized that i was hearing far better bass, soundstage, and instrument separation than I had ever heard with high res files (non sacd),

While I am obviously impressed with this high end digital cable and strongly encourage others to audition it, I am puzzled how the cable transporting digital information to my DAC from my transport makes such a big difference.

The DAC take the digital information and shapes the sound so why should the cable providing it the info be so important. I would think any competently built digital cable would be adequate....I get the cable from the DAC to the preamp and preamp to amp matter but would think the cable to the DAC would be much less important.

I will now experiment to see if using the external transport to send red book CD files to my playback mps5 sounds better than using the transport inside the mps5 itself.

The MPS5 sounds pretty great for ca and awesome with SACD so doubt external transport will be improvement for redhook cds


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mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@audioengr  
 
I didn’t say the DAC would eliminate jitter, I said it would reduce it to beyond audibility. 
 
Just take a second (pun intended) and just think how short a nanosecond is, and then a picosecond. Sorry, but no, we can’t hear a difference. And again, any customer feedback is irrelevant. There is positive customer feedback on using pebbles scattered across the room to act as diffusers.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
mzkmxcw, it sounds like you're a genuine skeptic so why don't you just admit YOU don't hear a difference instead of discarding other people's opinions. There are a couple of other threads in progress right now debating similar arguments and there will never be a consensus on these topics.  
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cleeds
5,986 posts
 
mzkmxcv
... any customer feedback is irrelevant.
In the real world of business and commerce, customer feedback is vital. Dismiss it at your peril.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

I didn’t say the DAC would eliminate jitter, I said it would reduce it to beyond audibility.

In your dreams.

Just take a second (pun intended) and just think how short a nanosecond is, and then a picosecond. Sorry, but no, we can’t hear a difference.

I know exactly how small a nsec and psec is, 10-9sec and 10-12 sec.

Who is we? You mean you I think.

I get this all the time on the forums. People with unresolving, noisy systems that think they have something great. All it takes is an inexpensive preamp to prevent you from hearing most of these differences. I have had systems for a decade that can discern easily the difference between a wav file and FLAC, AIFF and even uncompressed FLAC files. I can easily hear the difference in files with different offsets. You probably don’t know that this is. Some people reading these posts have much better systems and they can benefit from my advice.

I have been designing digital systems and managing design groups for 42 years as an EE. I know what I’m talking about.

Just got another feedback today:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.msg1715109#msg1715109

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Jitter is well documeneted. However, comparing jitter between DACs has nothing to do with if you are using a $20 generic digital cable (coax or optical) or a $4000 Nordost one.

It certainly enters into it. If the cable is really poor, the jitter added will swamp what the DAC will deliver in terms of jitter. See these plots:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154425.0

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

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