Arnett - 18 feet is totally unnecessary and you can do a LOT better than Belden 1694A. Many years ago when I still had a set of inexpensive cable from 1964A. I have a giant spool of it. I finally concluded that it cannot be done.
If you want a fantastic sounding cable, get the 4 foot BNC-BNC cable with RCA adapters from my website for $250. It is literally unbeaten. Use the pull-down on this page:
http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/off-ramp-converter
Here are some reviews:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=115008.msg1208227#msg1208227
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=115008.msg1208373#msg1208373
The optimum length of a digital cable is entirely a function of the risetime of the signal on that cable due to the driver in the source device. The analysis is in my white-paper here:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
If you want a fantastic sounding cable, get the 4 foot BNC-BNC cable with RCA adapters from my website for $250. It is literally unbeaten. Use the pull-down on this page:
http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/off-ramp-converter
Here are some reviews:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=115008.msg1208227#msg1208227
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=115008.msg1208373#msg1208373
The optimum length of a digital cable is entirely a function of the risetime of the signal on that cable due to the driver in the source device. The analysis is in my white-paper here:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
Steve N.
Empirical Audio