Why do digital cables sound different?

I want it to be placebo, but in my instance I hear a difference between digital cables between my Squeezebox Touch/Philips 963sa and Eastern Electric Minimax DAC.

I, and my wife who is not a hobbyist, can clearly hear a difference between optical, coaxial and rca -> XLR (aes/ebu). With the coax sounding the worse of the group... thats right, I've preferred generic tosh to a $100 coax in this setup.

And 11 years later . . . !

Recently upgraded to a new Benchmark DAC1. Amazing, especially for the $$.

Anyway, I've tried three different cables to see if I hear a difference. Granted, none of them qualify as expensive - all were less than $75, but I'll be darned if I hear any truly discernible difference. They all sound great - BUT - I think there's a tiny improvement with a standard interconnect and not the one designed specifically for the digital coax in/out from my cdp to the DAC. And I think even that may be my imagination since the apparent improvement is minuscule at best.

Cables!! Jeez!!

Once again, this thread rears its ugly head! Some threads never die. Let the fun begin. 8^)

Hi Danielho,

The other type of digital audio cable is the optical cable. Optical digital cables are the premier choice for transferring digital audio signals between components. They do not use RCA style connectors; instead they use what are called Toslink (or EIA-J).

These cables use pulses of light to transmit data, instead of copper wire. Since they are immune to interference from electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference, the signals do not degrade and weaken over long distances. Distortion caused by resistance, inductance and capacitance is eliminated, with the result that the best reproductions of digital signals are made possible.

Even though optical digital cables are more expensive, for true audiophiles looking for a superior experience with audio, nothing beats optical digital cable technology.

Since these cables get damaged when bent, they fail to work optimally if installed incorrectly...

Good day...

hdmi cables

Marc258 - I wonder if you read anything on this thread before posting. Toslink is not superior. Toslink is not more expensive. All is system dependent.