Digital Cable Choice; how critical is it?


I am a beleiver that analog cables play a big part in a system's sonic performance.

I am giving consideration to adding an external DAC to my system, for the first time. Always using a single box digital source, I have no experience with digital cables.

I really am a music guy & not a computer/techie guy. So, considering that the digital information that runs from the DAC to the Preamp is 1's & 0's or bits & bytes or whatever they are called; how critical is it to the sonic perfromance that I use an elaborate digital cable, as I have done with my analog interconnects?

Is the sound quality affected with the use of different cables, while still in the digital domain?

Your experience is appreciated
barrelchief
Post removed 
Neil (Nsgarch): My remarks could have been more clear....Please let me clarify. My first ICs were Apogee Wyde-Eye and I used both 75 Ohm and 110 Ohm, with a CEC TL2 and an Audio Logic M34. Between the two Apogee ICs I really did not discern much difference, with only a very slight preference for the 110 Ohm. Both cables were 1 Meter in length. I then moved from the 110 Ohm Wyde-Eye to 110 Ohm Kimber Orchid, which was longer at 1.5 Meter. I would not choose to state that the length was a significant factor, but the improvement in clarity and detail in moving to the Orchid was very revealing and very suprising. Until that time I was in the camp of 'can it really make that much difference?'.

I have had only minor exposure to ST-Optical as my transport does not currently have a working ST-Optical output. My only experience with ST-Optical in my system was with another transport and that experience was that ST-Optical was suprisingly good.
Jeffcott,
Although the Cyberlight mentioned above is fiberoptic it needs RCA or XLR connections on your transport and DAC. It sends and receives light signals at its terminations.
I really am a music guy & not a computer/techie guy. So, considering that the digital information that runs from the DAC to the Preamp is 1's & 0's or bits & bytes or whatever they are called; how critical is it to the sonic perfromance that I use an elaborate digital cable, as I have done with my analog interconnects?

Apart from clocking issues...I really can't see how it can make a difference. Either the bits all arrive or some of them don't.....you will soon know if some don't as you may get some nasty pops or clicks.

As for clocking.....a cable, being a passive device, physically cannot add "jitter". Length and electrical properties will of course modify the absolute timing and shape of the clock signal but a constant shift is NOT of concern, as audible jitter issues come from VARIATIONS in the clock signal between ticks. Furthermore, some jitter is not a problem provided it is small enough and random....i.e NOT influenced by some highly correlated influence such as oscillations in a power supply with bass response or induced correlated RF noise from somewhere.

Jitter is more component related than cabling. Changing from optical to SP/DIF might make a difference but the cause is most likely due to RF interference or the accuracy with which components either generate or interpret these two different signals.

If your clock signal is accurately re-clocked in the DAC (rather than a slave to the transport) then you have nothing to worry about (except your DAC)

....just my two cents.
My experience has been that most digital cables do sound different and that it's not necessarily a matter of cost. Please remember that a bit stream (0's and 1's) is NOT traveling down the cable, but an analog waveform with peaks and valleys that gets sampled and turned back into 0's and 1's. So anything that can effect an analog cable can effect a digital cable. In fact, some of the best digital cables I have heard (at least metal S/PDIF cables) are really analog cables at heart. So keep that thought in mind when auditioning cables. FWIW, the best performing S/PDIF cables I have heard are the Audio Note Pallas, the Locus Design Core, the Apogee Wyde Eye, and the Kondo Sounds Labs KSL-LP, most of which are terminated with RCA's (in my case).