Why do digital cables sound different?

Drubin: No. This is a case where "bits is bits" -- while the bitstream obviously carries the musical information, one cannot point to particular bits say, "here, these are the ones carrying the high frequency content". A role that digital cable may play, as has been pointed out earlier, is in the area of transmission line theory. Impedance mismatches may result in distortions in the waveforms representing the bits (!) resulting in errors in clock recovery, resulting in DAC jitter, resulting in harshness in the sound. These problems can be overcome by using a proper 75 ohm coax cable, sufficient bandwidth in the driver and receiver circuits, and DACs that use well-designed buffer logic to accept the data off the SPDIF interface and reclock it back out without jitter. This technology, found on $49 Discman players provides "skip-free" operation so that Discman player while walking, running, bumping into things, etc. Relative to TOSlink, the issue is the bandwidth of the electronics driving the optical transmitters and receivers. If the BW is too narrow, then distortion of the digital waveform ensues, leading to jitter if proper buffering and reclocking circuitry is not used. I agree with previous posters: once you have a reasonably well made optical or 75 ohm coax cable, there is NO value in multi-hundred dollar esoteric audiophile digital or optical cables.

It all boils down to this, all cables distort/degrade/alter the original signal. The best cable is no cable. The best cables, regardless if they are cheap or expensive, are the ones that transport the signal with the least distortion. It seems silly to argue digital cables have no effect on sound, as CornFedBoy above states when switching between various cables, differences are heard because each cable changes the original signal by adding various distortions, Sam

Drubin, you claim to be open minded.I say not open minded enough. Wrap your open minded brain around some of these observations and tell me what you come up with: In none of the posts concerning this subject( with the exception of mine ) is there a single direct reference to a musical observation as it relates to cable effects. I say, do a lot more listening , educate your ears, worry less about understanding the technical issues and more about understanding the beauty and meaning of music, recorded or not. That is what opens one's mind to better understanding the unexplainable, and much of what we are talking about here is unexplainable in my opinion. Concerning what set off your BS detector: I have recently tried various digital cables between my EAD Transport and DAC. I heard without a doubt a very similar change in the sound of my system when I used the Kimber silver digital cable as I do when I use KCAG between pre and amp or between DAC and pre. I don't claim to be able to tell you why that is only that I heard it. To me it is plausible that there is some connection here that we simply can't explain based on our understanding at the present. Obviously the manufacturer has certain design philosophies that carry over from one line of cable (analog) to another (digital); perhaps the materials used (silver)are the issue. I am confortable with the idea that there is something going on here that we just can't document yet. You see, my brand of logic tells me that something that is so often bandied about in so flip and simplistic a manner, such as the idea that "bits is bits" can't possibly do justice to the wonderfull complexity and subtlety of music. Like Karl I feel that the more I know the less I understand. Just friendly comments and hopefully food for thought.

Dekay, I believe they are one in the same, that Illuminati and Illuminations, name change for some reason and I believe less expensive.

Thanks Pops. David.