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
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
mzkmxcv,

Question for you: Do you purchase everything based on specs alone or you trust your senses? If the former, then you are definitely not only in the minority but most likely not getting your best bang for the buck. If the latter - which sounds unlikely, then you need to get your hearing checked. 
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@Kalali

If specs show me that any further reduction in jitter would be inaudible, then I wouldn’t spend time nor money looking at a re-clocker or anything, as it’s not theoretical, but actually impossible for there to be any audible improvement if the current jitter is below the noise floor.

For say speakers, I’ll look for speakers that measure close to ideal, and then try to demo (as if my room is overly reflective or narrow, I wouldn’t want a speaker with a super wide soundstage for instance, as that would cause too many reflections; the same goes for a narrower soundstage in a wide room).
celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
It’s not a question whether jitter, per se, is inaudible. The question is whether jitter manifests itself in the audio reproduction of a digital source that is audible in terms of the dimensionality and realism of instruments and vocalists localized therein. Countless companies, as confirmed by critical listening sessions, have demonstrated that reducing jitter to psec levels in digital audio streams greatly improves the sound quality in high-end audio systems. This is largely incontrovertible.
celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
“I wouldn’t want a speaker with a super wide soundstage for instance, as that would cause too many reflections...”

The above statement clearly shows we’re dealing with a newbie to high-end sound reproduction. I take back my comment about his being a nerdy troll. My apologies. 

Stereophile has several publications that explain the nuances of sound reproduction in high-end audio systems. I recommend mzkmxcv check out those sources. 
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@celander

I have shown that psec levels of jitter is indeed need, but it’s already >300psec for 16-bit.

Also, no, jitter doesn’t alter the reaslism of instruments/vocals, the type of jitter we are talking about is a rise in the noise floor, or distortion-like peaks of low-level. Meaning, it’s like a bit of static added in. And again, this whole conversation was about the how a new Toslink cable make a drastic reduction in jitter. Keep in mind how I showed even the budget-ish DragonFly DAC can reduce even immense jitter well below the noise floor anyway.

Also, here are some measurements of different Toslink cables: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/05/measurements-toslink-optical-audio.html?m=1

Including a freebie one, an intentionally poorly made one, an all glass one,etc.

Guess what? They are 99.9% identical, and jitter all below 100dBFS. So yeah, I stand further by my claim that the poster simply fell prone to placebo.
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