2. digital
  3. 139886-13434

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


128x128karmapolice
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@melm

I will be the first to say I don’t have a golden ear, my $4000 towers speakers don’t sound much better than my $300 bookshelves and my $15 headphones don’t sound much worse than my others costing far more (all are well reviewed/measured, so it is simply on my ability to differentiate being poor). The good thing though is that doesn’t matter as the signal is 100% identical for music.

I have seen measurements showing jitter in Toslink, but they were showing >100kHz and even in the MHz range, so it has no influence on music.

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Proper digital cable should be 75ohm many are not, sometimes 50 or 100ohms.

Also rca’s connectors are not proper 75ohm So Blue jeans Cables and many others say
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/75ohmrca.htm

BNC are proper 75ohm, but there are two types, make sure it the 75ohm not the 50ohm.
http://www.cctvinstitute.com.br/images/pasted%20image%20640x560-crop-u8521.jpg

It said these can effect jitter if all (cable and connector) are not 75ohm.


Cheers George
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
I have seen measurements showing jitter in Toslink, but they were showing >100kHz and even in the MHz range, so it has no influence on music.

Most jitter measurements are not useful if not even bogus. One number is insufficient unless there are plots to back it up.   When I reduced jitter from 22psec to 7psec with improvements to my Synchro-Mesh reclocker, the difference was easily audible to me and my customers.  You can never have jitter too low or inaudible IMO, at least not with todays technology.

It said these can effect jitter if all (cable and connector) are not 75ohm.

Very true, although the losses, dielectrics and even the conductor materials also have an effect.  The ONLY coax cable to be using is a BNC-BNC.  If you must have RCA connectors, use BNC to RCA adapters that are 75 ohms on the BNC end.  I verified last year that even Belden 1694A is not close enough to 75 ohms. I had used it as a reference for tuning my products and had to go back and retune all of them when I got an aerospace quality cable that is quite close to 75 ohms.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Post removed 
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
Anyone who thinks "bits are bits" are fooling themselves. If that is the case try a toslink cable from best buy & compare it to a true 75 ohm coax cable. I've done it / The difference is not subtle. I'm also sure that Steve's " Synchro-Mesh reclocker" would improve the sound even more. Just saying there are improvements to be had with the bits. 
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