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digital or analog cable more important?


dreamwhisper

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yeah I remember reading somewhere that the reason why toslink was favoured over coaxial for some people (providing they have that available input) was because more jitter was introduced/quality lost in conversion of the signal to toslink than to coaxial

this opened my eyes a bit; apparently quality is lost/jitter is introduced depending on what input/conversion you use?

hence why I brought the Transporter's data conversion up

I thought this was common knowledge, but perhaps I'm misinformed

If the information above is true, it doesn't make sense to convert the digital signal unnecessarily unless you need it for something else (like wireless transmission, or perhaps if the specs for jitter rejection are better, like a Digital Lens or D2D-1)

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...assuming that cables are important, (I don't want to get arguments started)

Is the quality of digital cables as important as the quality of analog cables?

EDITed for clarification hahaa

I tried 5 different COAX (bulk rca audio, belden 75ohms, DIY unknow, VD and Stereovox.

They all gave a significant difference in the sound. ...but I do not know if all the cables were under the standard 75 ohms. Anyway, it is necessary that the DAC circuit itself is calibrated in 75 ohms and the same thing for transport.

The perceived subjective differences were similar than analog cable.

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SPDIF is a system; the transmit circuitry, the cable/connectors and the receive circuitry. If you are using RCA connectors, you have deviated from 75 ohms right there. Most transmit/receive circuits are also not terminated correctly (regardless of equipment price). The cable length also matters. Jocko, etc. all think that 1.5m or greater is the minimum length. Dan Lavry thinks it should be as short as possible. I would tend towards the >1.5m. Of the cables you tried, the Stereovox has a good reputation for being technically correct. You can search diyaudio and diyhifi.org for more technical details. Dan Lavry posted on hf in a cable thread regarding the length issue, but Jocko is/was an RF engineer and knows what he is doing (if you can get him to tell you :)).

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