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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


karmapolice
chrisg1000
30 posts
 
To add to my thoughts- I was so convinced there would be no difference I purchased a $30 cable. This was not some fancy audiophile cable. 
I would equate the difference to swapping speaker cables. I have no idea what a test would show, but clearly different speaker cables sound different even using the same material and gauge. 
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@chrisg1000

Speaker cable can have difference in say interference (twisted cables help for longer runs), so yes.

@nonoise

Sorry, but none of that is factually sound. Test equipment can indeed not hear, but it can measure everything that we are hearing, and we use human trials to see what audibility thresholds are. If I brought everyone on Earth 1 by 1 into chrisg1000’s room to listen to the different USB cables and not a single other human on the face of the planet hears a difference, does that mean that chrisg1000 simply has the best hearing on Earth, or the more logical conclusion that it’s placebo? Jitter is the only difference with digital cables, and his DAC easily reduces it so that it’s 100% non-existent in 24bit content (even if playing 32bit, no one can hear lower than -130dBFS.  

There is nothing about our hearing that we can’t measure.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
11,105 posts
 
Test equipment cannot measure everything we hear. To say we're at the apex of our ability to capture and measure everything that we can hear is absurd. That you can correlate to a numeric value and collate the data must give you goose pimples but you're over simplifying an incredibly complex mechanism: our ears and the ability to hear.

All the best,
Nonoise
chrisg1000
30 posts
 
Yeah, sorry dude. You’re nuts. It’s not placebo. It’s quite the opposite. I expected  it to be the same and it was not. 
This has nothing to do with good hearing. 
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@chrisg1000 
 
I’m nuts yet you hear a difference you cannot explain? See, this is very typical, audio forum discussions that result in name calling.  
 
It could be a grounding issue with the amp which is affected by the power of the signal given over digital cable.
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