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Opinions on lower priced digital that can compete

With the high end or maybe even enter into the range of "giant killer", if such a thing exists. Has to be coax, looking for something that does not add any character of its own to the mix. Should not be either light or full in any part of the frequency range. Should not be extra zingy or slow. Shouldn't push the soundstage further forward or further back, yada yada yada.

In the "budget" range I've been getting info on

Stereovox XV2
Cardas Neutral Ref
Signal Silver Digital
Apogee Wyde-Eye
Zu Cable

Don't know if there are any others in this ballpark worth considering, and having the (non) characteristics I'm looking for.
tonyptony
tripper
223 posts
 
Apogee pretty much does it all and has the deepest pedigree, but not as sexy as Stereovox. If the music comes first give them a try. Of course, one may work better than another in a given system. The Apogee seems to work well in a variety of systems. You might try DH Labs as well.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Tony,
Cable performance is system dependent. Don't draw too many conclusions from magazines and/or other reviews unless their components/room are identical to your own.

To quote Paul Simon, "One man's ceiling is another man's floor".

Good luck
deecee's avatar
deecee
100 posts
 
You may want to try Chris VenHaus' Pulsar with Copper/Gold WBT NextGen RCAs (vhaudio.com).

They worked well in my setup (and the price was right)... generally I found that changes in digital cables seemed to only effect soundstaging and (to use an audiophilic term) "air" - space around the vocalists and instruments.

It seems that better cable matching enhances the "you are there" illusion.

Of course, system matching is what the hobby is about and YMMV.

Happy Listening!
tonyptony OP
617 posts
 
Great input from the gang here, as I expected. :-) There are a bunch of good folks on the 'gon. To help further, I have two places where I need a decent digital cable. The first will go from my Marantz DV9500 to my heavily modified EAD mutlichannel processor. Purpose is to support 90% movies and music DVDs, and 10% SACD MC music (I would normally use the direct analog inputs to the EAD for SACD MC).

The other place is (maybe a bit more audiophile-esque) from my Proceed PDT-3 to my (again, heavily modified ) EAD DSP-7000 Mk.III D/A.

Hope this helps.
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