Are there differing qualities of optical cable?
How long is the Cardas COAX? If it's too short, you could be experiencing signal reflections back to the spdif transmitter. I have also experienced differences in quality of toslink cables. The cheaper ones will have a single plastic mono-filament. The better ones will have a high count glass fiber medium. Look at the Lifatec cable, or the upper end Wire World cable. For the COAX, try a 6 foot Blue Jeans cable Beldon 1694A. Or move up to something like a DH Labs D-750 cable. |
@rvpianos To add to what teo_audio has stated regarding coax, I am using coax from my Oppo to Yggy. In fact, Schiit recommends coax (over optical). I asked :) That said, all of my cables are from https://www.bluejeanscable.com/ |
It shouldn't sound different unless the DAC is not handling jitter very well in which case you may need to experiment to find out what works best in your situation. I assume you are playing CDs which should be fine. Just avoid using this DAC for any higher than 18 bit files as it probably just truncates and throws out the least significant bits on any digital music above 18 bit. |
The Oppo does use a switching power supply for the digital board. Some of this switching noise could be making it into that COAX (if you are using the Oppo as a Transport). The toslink fiber cable electrically disconnects the DAC from the transport, so it could be insulating your Gungir DAC from that switching power supply noise. Just a theory. |
