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Jitter and 75ohm cable length

I have read a number of papers on how cable length plays a role in Jitter between transport and DAC. After all of the dust settled I arrived at no sound conclusion, on paper, so I decided to use the ears of my 17 year old budding Audiophile to settle this by LISTENING! My transport is a Wadia 171i (WAV/LossLess files)and my DAC is a Cambridge AZURE 840C. I had three cables in my test, my 1M Kimber D-60 illuminations, a 3' HAVE/Canare and a 6' HAVE/Canare. All three cables sounded good, but in the end the victory landed on the 3' HAVE/Canare by a fair margin followed by the Kimber and last the 6'HAVE/Canare. In my readings I came across a number of articles saying you should use at least 1.5M of cable to reduce reflections in the cable so as to not harm the clock signal, yet an RF engineer said this was a bunch of "Bunk" and 1M would be better, in fact he said the shorter the better. So, forgive my verbosity, what are your thoughts and experience in this area? My 3' $25 HAVE/Canare beat up my $390 Kimber, I believe due to proper honest 75ohm terminations vs standard RCA connectors, and as far as length goes, at least in my system, 3' was by far the best. Thanks!
Rpg
rpg
rpg OP
126 posts
 
In the ending, the Toslink was a poor solution to any 75ohm cable I tried. I don't want to begin suggesting I can do the math on cable length and it's contribution to Jitter, I can only finish this by saying that my 36" length of HAVE/Canare 75ohm digital cable with Canare 75ohm terminations resulted in my Wadia 171i sounding as good as my CDP with only the very slightest of differences, and that is as good in my opinion as one can get. Gone are the spinning disks and hello little music server! My thanks to all that have contributed to this forum!
Rpg
rpg OP
126 posts
 
One last Cliff Note to compress this entire forum. The bottom line is if your using a 75ohm coax between your transport and DAC, it's length should be 12" or less, or at least 1.5M and above, but nothing between these two lengths. I tried everything with the exception of 12" or less. What I found was my 1.75M cable could not compare in sound quality to my 36" cable from the same manufacturer. Now maybe my system is unique in some way. I would trust the words of those who have contributed to this topic, but in the end, trust your ears!
Rpg
beolab
6 posts
 
@almarg 

this a huge thread lift but i have searched almost the whole internet for reliable info if 1,5 meters length for a word.clock BNC 75 ohm cables is the way to go to restist any refections or is the shortest one the better choice like on a circut board?
(I am using dCS Puccini DAC + Puccini Master U-Clock ( word.clock ) + the new dCS Network Bridge Streamer ) 

( The EE at dCS responded the shorter the better and i asked if you did not get reflections and phase loop problem , but his oppinion was shorter the better word.clock sync BNC cable) 

Please replay and chade som light on your thaughts. 🙏🏻🙏🏻

// Fredrik
almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Hello Beolab,

I would proceed based on the comment by the dCS person, which pertains to your specific equipment, rather than on the more general guideline of 1.5 meters.  As I said in an earlier post in this thread:
Summarizing all that has been said, I would put it that a length of 1.5 meters ... stands a better chance of being ideal than any other length. But as have been cited there are many system dependencies and cable type dependencies which conceivably could result in other lengths being better in some cases.  
Also, it's worth noting that the impedances of BNC connectors are more accurate than the impedances of RCA connectors.  And I would suspect that the impedances of your dCS equipment that the cable would be connecting are more accurate than the impedances of a lot of other digital equipment.  Both of those factors will minimize the reflection effects which are a key factor in the rationale for 1.5 meters.

Regards,
-- Al
 
beolab
6 posts
 
Thanks for your advice! 

What is your oppinion on this interesting cable from Van Den Hul 
http://www.vandenhul.com/products/cables/audio-video/mc-silver-it-mk-ii-75-ohm-halogen-free

Have a great Sunday

/ Fredrik
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