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Why a "digital" coax cable?

Sorry for the noob question, just trying to learn...

What is the difference between a 75ohm digital coax cable and a regular ol' RCA/RCA interconnect?

For instance, would there be a noticeable difference (improvement) between a digital interconnect and an Audioquest King Cobra for connecting the digital out from my Squeezebox (or CD, DVD, etc) to the digital coax input on my integrated amp? If so, how come?

Thanks all!
joncourage
shiva
181 posts
 
I can tell you the physical differences between the two. A so called digital cable has a solid core copper wire such as that in a TV cable. It can handle alot of bandwidth. Most but not all interconnects are generally braided copper wire. Can they handle as much information as a coax, I don't know. I'll leave that to those who know.
sid42
302 posts
 
While this doesn't really answer your question, I have discovered that there sre some cd's a friend of mine has made for me that won't play back if I use a digital cable. So I run a digital cable, and additional regular cables into another input to accomodate this problem. Anyone else notice this?
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drubin
3,275 posts
 
Sid, when you say "into another input", to what component are you referring?
unsound
7,333 posts
 
Each cable has its own impedance characteristics. Does your integrated have its own DAC? At the risk of suggesting the obvious: If not, use an analog cables between analog ins and outs. If yes, try the analog outs into the analog ins with analog cables, then try digital out to digital in with the digital cable. Use what sounds best.
rwwear
2,873 posts
 
The additional input would be the analog inputs on a processor I'm sure. What else could they be?
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