Why does my DAC sound so much better after upgrading digital SPDIF cable?


I like my Mps5 playback designs sacd/CD player but also use it as a DAC so that I can use my OPPO as a transport to play 24-96 and other high res files I burn to dvd-audio discs.

I was using a nordost silver shadow digital spdif cable between the transport and my dac as I felt it was more transparent and better treble than a higher priced audioquest digital cable a dealer had me audition.

I recently received the Synergistic Research Galileo new SX UEF digital cable.  Immediately I recognized that i was hearing far better bass, soundstage, and instrument separation than I had ever heard with high res files (non sacd),

While I am obviously impressed with this high end digital cable and strongly encourage others to audition it, I am puzzled how the cable transporting digital information to my DAC from my transport makes such a big difference.

The DAC take the digital information and shapes the sound so why should the cable providing it the info be so important. I would think any competently built digital cable would be adequate....I get the cable from the DAC to the preamp and preamp to amp matter but would think the cable to the DAC would be much less important.

I will now experiment to see if using the external transport to send red book CD files to my playback mps5 sounds better than using the transport inside the mps5 itself.

The MPS5 sounds pretty great for ca and awesome with SACD so doubt external transport will be improvement for redhook cds


128x128karmapolice
Also, I mixed psec with ns. Going from 22psec to 7psec is not audible. Some studies/trials have been done, and human audibility of jitter is >10ns (~20ns one study found), which is 10,000psec. And again, any good DAC would get rid of jitter to beyond audibility in the first place.


I've heard this mantra over and over.  You are believing the marketing BS.  It is audible. Here are the customer feedbacks to prove it:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.msg1687192#msg1687192

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.msg1709284#msg1709284

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.msg1709326#msg1709326

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.msg1709507#msg1709507

The studies that have been done by AES and others are flawed. I have read them and pointed out flaws in all of them.

As for the DAC reclocking: in your dreams. The only DAC that I have encountered where a customer thought it was totally immune to incoming jitter was the Benchmark DAC3. This result was probably clouded by his system which was likely not resolving or low-noise enough.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

audioengr,
What you say makes sense. Do you have a recommendation for a high quality audiophile BNC to RCA adapter?

High-quality, not really, but you can get 75 ohm adapters at Markertek..com. They are a bit short for some component jacks, but they perform fine.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

all my cables are frosted with voodoo
and my little dance i do at teh 4 equinoxes
page used to do this before every show
i heard
canibefrank, Seems easier to buy a better cable. Life is harder when you're poor.