dac cable question

[ross]

OK, so I've decided to take the plunge into downloading music, and as a first step will buy a dac, probably a caiman, to step up the performance of my cdp. The question is, what cable am I best to get to link the cdp and dac.? They both have optical and coax connections.
Or should I find another tree to bark at?

Thankz

 

[tomek]

Many people (including me) reports that coax cable sounds better than optical and that longer coax (1.80-2m) sounds better than shorter ones.

I am using 1.8m (6 feet) coax from bluejeanscbles, IMHO very good value for money:
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

 

[wyjsar]

Belden 1694A - cheap, to specification, it is all you need. http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=40_3&products_id=3

 

[Jack Barriere]

Try both. You be the judge. I prefer optical on my CDP but on my dvd player use coax as its far away from the DAC. Both sound great in my opinion.

 

[sq225917]

Co-ax for me, never found longer sounded better. if both the dac and cd player have correctly implemented sockets and the cable is 75ohm length should make no difference.

 

[stu pitt]

Which is better depends on the source. Theoretically, an optical cable should sound better, as their is no impedance mismatch, electrical interference, or ground loops. Both components are electrically isolated from each other.

However, there are some pretty poor optical cables out there that induce jitter on their own through poorly fitting/designed connectors, poor materials, etc.

All things being equal, I'd say a good glass toslink cable would introduce the least amount of it's own sonic signature. I bought a $25 glass cable - Sonicwave - that works great for me. Not sure about their availability outside of the US. People have had very good results with the van den Hul and Wireworld optical cables.

In optical cables, glass easily beats anything else.

There was a review/shoot out in 6Moons a while back. Google search 6Moons toslink?

My advice is to get a few of each type and see which works best. Get a return policy from the dealer or buy second hand.

 

[Robert]

Either should do the job perfectly fine, though I don't know how good the Beresford performs having never tried one.

What CD player are you using?

 

[tomek]

Somebody on the Squeezebox forum measured jitter of Squeezebox Touch.
Normal SBT with optical was around 1000ps and with coax under 200ps.
Well configured and tweaked (only software tweaks) SBT without wlan and with good linear powers supply can achieve even 50ps.

The problem with optical cable is probably double conversion from spdif to optical and again from optical to spdif. This is not making the digital signal better.

The cable length - with optical doesn't matter, with coax IMHO usually longer (~2m) sounds better, but before my SBT my SB Classic sounded best with very short (30cm) coax.

Just make some tests and believe your ears, not me

 

[stevew_w]

To agree with some of the replies here. Any low loss 75 ohm coax cable will do the job e.g Maplin XS52G. Just make sure the plugs are fitted correctly at each end. Electrically a longer cable is better.

However optical has the benefit of electrically isolating the two bits of equipment. I find a glass optical link better going from computer to DAC. These can be purchased for around £10 the £100+ ones make no difference.

As you could buy both types for around £20 in total get one of each and give it a go.

 

[ross]

Thanks guys, ,thats just what I need to know.

The idea is to get into an apple notebook and download thro the dac.

Eventually.

 

[Patrick Dixon]

if both the dac and cd player have correctly implemented sockets

Yeah but they won't. :-(

 

[sq225917]

Yeh, they'll likely be pointless RCA sockets instead of the BNC that they should be.

 

[ross]

Co-ax for me, never found longer sounded better. if both the dac and cd player have correctly implemented sockets and the cable is 75ohm length should make no difference.

So what do you mean, correctly implemented?

And how to correct them?

Tkz

 

[sq225917]

The electrical SPDIF specification calls for coax cable and 75ohm connectors. RCA plugs can't be 75ohm, neither can the sockets, the geometry doesn't allow for it. So any RCA/SPDIF cable is compromised even before the off. Whether this is manifestly audible is a matter for discussion.

There's nothing you can really do to fix it. Just make do with them being 'slightly' out of spec.

 

[Jack Barriere]

How RCA became the standard is beyond me. Cable TV uses a form of BNC to great affect. We all know Naims preferred connections DIN and BNC which work as intended for the given situation within a Naim system.

 

[tomek]

Canary claims, that their RCA plugs are 75 Ohm.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/ is making digital cables with Canary plugs

 

[sq225917]

They are damn close, and that's the cable I ended up with. The blue jeans Digital with Canare RCAP plugs. Only an ohm or two out of spec... ;-)

 

[stu pitt]

How RCA became the standard is beyond me. Cable TV uses a form of BNC to great affect. We all know Naims preferred connections DIN and BNC which work as intended for the given situation within a Naim system.

Agreed. RCA is such a compromised connection compared to XLR and DIN. Sucks that I only have RCA connections on my integrated amp.

 

[tomek]

They are damn close, and that's the cable I ended up with. The blue jeans Digital with Canare RCAP plugs. Only an ohm or two out of spec... ;-)

How have you measured the impedance of the Canary plug ?

 

[sq225917]

Can't do it without stripping the wire.