Why do digital cables sound different?

What an honest and measured response Macm just made. I think that the differences my be ones of impedence,between different cables and also the connectors, I have as yet to hear any improvement that even begins to jusitfy the Costs involved.

Since we are talking about a digital signal (digits/numbers) and not analog sound you would think any cable would do. However, a bad or weak cable can affect the timing and pace of the digital signal, making your digital clock and jitter control work overtime among other things.

gotta disagree guys. my dac/pre (accuphase dc-330) allows multiple connections between it and a transport (accuphase dp-90, in my case). i have connected between the two: 6 9's (.99999996 pure copper) coax, toslink and opitcal cables ( i can also use aes/ebu but my transport doesn't have an ouput for such a connection). with the remote for the 330, i can toggle between the connections virtually instantaneously. there's a big perceived difference among the three connections that even the uninitiated appreciate; the optical always wins. this may be one of 'em subjective/objective mysteries but, nonetheless, everybody, i mean everybody, can hear the difference among these connections. i think maybe some of our inscrutible cosmoligists are right: despite what einstein theorized, the speed of light ain't really constant.

I think that the placebo effect can be blamed for most of it. Analog cables can be very effected by the impedence match with the components they are connect to, and construction approach. Any properly functioning digital cable would be indistinguishable from any other. The only people benefiting from overpriced digital cables are the manufacturers who make them and the retailers who sell them. Let the retailer take a blind test and see if they can really tell the difference.

dtf: yeah, and i bet your wife/girlfriend is indistiguishable from nicole kidman. or is that just the placebo effect?