Recommendation for Digital Coax


Looking for a good digital coax to go from my Bluesound Node 2i to my first stand alone DAC, an Aqua La Voce S2. Preferably something that won't break the bank.

dadork

Big +1 @ghdprentice that optical adds two additional and unnecessary conversions .

@mesch good choice and think you’ll be pleased. Make sure you pay attention to the directional arrows, which on my cable are faint and hard to see. I inadvertently installed it backwards once and my system literally sounded broken until I figured out my mistake. Ugh.  Please report back with your impressions if you would.

Optical is the most accurate, efficient way to transfer data from point a to point b, undisturbed.

If you are looking at optical to be used for data transfer, such as computer, then yes, optical is the cleanest way to get data from one point to another.  However, even optical has distance limits.

That being said, optical is not perfect.  The problem is that the LED emitters just cannot light up fast enough to create a perfect square wave pulse.  Lampizator did tests on this and compared it to several COAX transports.  The waveform from optical ended up being this very distorted curvy waveform (almost like a sine wave).  He was amazed that the receiver could translate this into pulses at all.

Under listening tests, optical can sound pretty okay with a good glass fiber cable.  However, even a cheap copper based coax like the Blue Jean Beldon will have more life and engagement in the music.  Everyone can have their own opinions and some may prefer optical in their own system.

 

A big thanks to @ghdprentice  and  ​​​​@auxinput. Your explanations make sense. I did some reading last night but there is so much conflicting info on the net. One sight had me nearly convinced the opposite was true. Thank you as well @soix . I followed your recommendation and your link. They are on the way. I dislike having to get a six-foot length as Medusa behind the gear can get unruly. I know shorter is available but why take a chance with the concerns expressed by @auxinput.

 

Thanks all for the responses.