2. digital
  3. 139886-13434

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


karmapolice
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
mxkmxcv
“And no, you don’t have to listen for days to begin to appreciate the difference, our recall ability is about 15sec to my knowledge, so if you can’t immediately hear a difference, than any difference you hear latter on is not real.”

>>>>I did not know that. Do you have anything to support the 15 sec rule? I swear my aural memory is a lot longer than 15 sec. Perhaps even weeks or months. Of course I might have a photographic memory.
yeti42's avatar
yeti42
35 posts
 
Belden 4794R SDI cable from BlueJeans works very well for not too much money if you have BNC on at least one end an adaptor doesn't compromise thigs too much if you only have RCA on the other. It's a bit on the stiff side mind, you can't bend it too sharply. I used one in preferance to Chord Sureline or Fairway digital cables. Disc drive was Naim Core, DAC either Rega DAC-r or Chord 2Qute. Compared to the Chord cables it livened up the Rega and allowed some emotion to be heard from the rather sterile sounding 2Qute.
roberjerman
2,086 posts
 
@mzkmxcv : +1! You might be the only sane person on this site! Kudos to you for bringing up the $10K amp challenge! I agree with you on this! Same can apply to DAC's! And wire, too! The MAJOR difference in SQ is first and last (and always) the SPEAKER! Not the preamp, amp, DAC, wire! Sadly, people have a tendency to hold on to irrational beliefs, even when they have been shown incontrovertible proof proving the opposite!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Sorry to inform, but there’s no such thing as proof in this game. Evidence, yes. Proof, no.
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