Jitter and 75ohm cable length

Back again with a twist. I repeated my experiment with the three cables however I introduced a "reference", by that I mean my CDP. To keep things on a fair playing field, I made a CD-R copy of a decent recording I own, Jazz at the Pawnshop, I then copied the same original to my iPod in WAV format. This time I used my Ears and listened at length to each cable and compared it to the playback of the copied disk to the Wadia 171 iDock. First, it was quite eye opening how different the HAVE/Canare 3' cable compared to the 6' of the exact same wire, something is really going on here. Bottom line, comparing the sound of each cable compared to the CDP, the 3' HAVE/Canare sounded almost exactly as the CDP with the exception of slightly more Base from the Wadi/iPod and may, I need to be careful here in that the Wadia/iPod may actually have sounded slightly better than the copied CD. So, the 3' Have/Canare proved to produce the best sound to my ears with the 6' version and Kimber D60 trailing far behind. I wonder if it could be possible to have the D-60 reterminated with true 75ohm connectors, but for now the front seat goes to the $25 HAVE/Canare. Thanks! Looking forward to your thoughts!
Rpg

Clever experiment, taking advantage of the fact that the CDP has digital inputs!

I have no knowledge as to how practical it might be to have the Kimber cable re-terminated with Canare's, but why bother? If the 3' HAVE/Canare sounds just about identical to playback via the CDP's built-in transport (with no cable and no S/PDIF interface involved), that would seem likely to be as good as it gets!

Regards,
-- Al

The best 75ohm cable I've ever heard has been a Moray James digital cable and this designer swears by 1.5m length. It clearly beat my half meter Canare and Kimber Illuminati cables....in MY system. Here's the twist, the MJ cable was voiced with the same type of Meitner DAC I owned. I suspect part of the magic has to do with system synergy. However, I still use the Moray James cable for the streaming audio feed to my PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC. It has the best bass and soundstage I've heard and recently beat an XLR Harmonic Tech Platinum digital cable. Your ears will guide you to the right destination. I believe finding the right cable/link is key to good digital sound reproduction.

Notes on the 840c

First, it has both balanced and unbalanced outputs. The balanced make for quite an improvement. Choice of cable? Gigantic, as you well know. I'm not a big cable experimenter, but the 'as issued' unbalanced went to the trash and I bought some Mogami balanced.

Secondlly, the digital inputs of the CA840c are somewhat MORE prone to jitter effects from the source than many other players / DACs. To that end, CA has issued several Software Revisions, none of which they'll send you anymore, wanting to (either or both) keep people from bricking there players OR drive business back to the dealer. The last revision I had wanted XP and the computer MUST have a serial port and you need a Null-Modem cable.
I was unable to get an Apple AirportExpress to play properly with the toslink input of the player. Simply too much jitter.

I'd recommend looking at the software rev of the player and examining the downstream cabling used, since that won't be a trivial effect.

Thank you Al and Vhiner. Canare has it's own set of cable and terminations, where HAVE seems to use their choice of cable with the Canare terminations, hence, HAVE/Canare. Specifically, HAVE uses GEPCO International VSD2001 High Definition 75ohm Serial Digital Coax (this is printed on the cable) I'm not sure if Canare uses the same cable, but what I can say, again everybody has system dependent variables, in the end I agree with you (Vhiner)completely, follow your ears and don't drink by the label. As far as my 3' HAVE/Canare, it's the best cable I can not hear and that sums it up for me! Thanks for the feedback!
Rpg