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The Importance of the Digital Cable

Good Sunday evening dear friends,

This point of discussion has been on my mind of late, as I have listened carefully to the results. This is a bold statement and discussed ad nauseam here I am sure, though I feel others may be encouraged to explore this more deeply as we share our experiences here.

I’ve had several digital cables, ranging from several coax, to toslink. I have not yet tried a dedicated AES/EBU XLR.

Listening to the Denafrips Pontus, a ladder DAC, fed from an Oppo UDP-205 as transport, I was compelled to try a few different cables, because the results were not as good as expected. I played a few albums; XTC ‘Nonesuch’ - a rather hot recording from the 90’s but very interesting and politically out front. Then an Everett Harp CD that highlights his wonderful sax playing. Then Robben Ford and The Blue Line, the album being ‘handful of Blues’.After that some Arjit Singh, and Tarkan (Turkish music).
The cables running from the DAC to the Pre/amp are Transparent Ultra XL (original). I like these cables because they have a very natural organic sound. They do lack some of the detail up top of some of the best in class and perhaps are a less exciting that some, but over all I love the naturalness, slight warmth in mid-bass, scale and soundstage of their sound.
But things didn’t sound quite right. I can always tell when something isn’t quite right, because it’s harder for me to get involved in the music. Some of the quieter words were too vague, and there was just a general fuzziness and vagueness overall. The soundstage was flatter and resolution of detail was lacking. The Pontus as you know, is a very good DAC, so I knew something was off.

I had the Canare digital cable in place, and decided to switch it out for my Black Cat Veloce. Wow! The sound transformed. Now the DAC truly shined. All the detail returned. The sound was certain and clear. The soundstage was very wide and the vagueness replaced with clarity. The music was now exciting and involving.

This begs the question, how can a digital cable make such a difference? After all, it is transporting a digital binary signal?
Please share your experiences.
AK
4afsanakhan
classdstreamer's avatar
classdstreamer
173 posts
 
Hey OP,

A British Audiophile recently published a video related to your topic--on the space between the streamer and DAC--and he also runs a Pontius. So you may want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tKWWs-OMxw

I'm in the process of upgrading my streamer. My new streamer has USB and coax out, while my old streamer has only optical out. My DAC accepts all three connections. One interesting takeaway for me from the video above was to make sure to audition the USB connection. Although most audiophiles here seem to prefer a coax connection over USB, it's possible that my combination of streamer and DAC may be best over USB. We'll see. I'm still in the process of listening critically. 
4afsanakhan OP
134 posts
 
Hi Bigkidz. I understand why you might not see such a major impact from cables, because you build your components tailored to your overall system requirements and probably taking into account measures around noise elimination. That’s so cool that you build your own components. I’m guessing you are a manufacturer, but won’t put you on the spot and ask ; )
The dedicated all-in-one streamer is definitely the future in my modest opinion . A top notch streamer with everything integrated also includes cabling throughout the signal path, so such a solution is beneficial. But its nice to have the flexibility of changing the DAC as we know that DACs sound so very different in the way they present music and i feel are such a key component with audio. I can usually tell the difference between a ladder DAC and Sigma Delta type DAC. The R2R DAC has a certain ease to the sound - very un-forced. Its a big open soundstage and the sound extends and is focused a bit farther back, so perhaps a bit more laidback sound. However the detail is still all there, just a little less thrust forward.
Thanks Classdstreamer, I will review that video. 

I find it so surprising that these digital cables can have such a major impact on the sound. It goes to show that some of these frontiers we are bridging here as audiophiles can not be easily explained, although the noise factor, cable refections, and metallurgy / topology are key. Audio is a complex pursuit, but I guess that is part of the joy. I am now understanding that, as you note above,  components interact in different ways with seemingly inconsequential changes to configuration, especially with cables. Makes one ponder on some of the other future-think ‘tweeks’ pursued by folks such as Miller Carbon. So easy to guffaw at these ‘out there’ quantum physics type of things because we don’t understand it. But the changes can be profound when we get everything in synergy. My guess is Miller Carbon’s system sounds pretty incredible.
4afsanakhan OP
134 posts
 
Tomic601,

Thanks for that great comment;

‘what a nice thing to upgrade that cable for you - class act ! ‘

Yes CFarrow is exceptionally generous and I am very grateful. I will report on my findings when I get it installed. 
You are right, it is a wonderful voyage and I am getting ever closer to the objective of ‘high-end’ sound. 
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,949 posts
 
@cfarrow 
You're a class act.
Good on you.
cfarrow's avatar
cfarrow
101 posts
 
Will get it sent out by the end of the week, the SilverStar is a nice upgrade over the Veloce and BlackCat cables are a lot of bang for the buck!  I have a Esoteric N-05 all in one Streamer Dac but like my system better with my Ypsilon Dac in the chain via a Shunyata Sigma digital cable.  
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