Best cables to utilize Dac in Hegel 80


In process of purchasing a Hegel 80 and really want to know how to get best sound out of the DAC in the Hegel. I will have it connected to an Oppo 105 and most of my music will be streamed via Oppo/computer but I want to utilize the DAC in the Hegel as better. My question is am I better to get RCA cable or go optical? I was told that you would get better sound quality going optical rather than RCA? Looking at purchasing Nordost speaker cable and cable. Pretty new to all this so a little confused. Thanks for your help in advance.
morty74

Showing 1 response by kijanki

It is hard to answer since it is always a system thing. Coax should be better but is sensitive to ambient noise and affected by transmission line effects (reflections in the cable). Toslink is immune to ambient noise and reflections but might suffer from the system noise, because of longer transitions. You have to check for yourself. In either case cable can screw-up sound by producing time jitter of the signal. Jitter will convert to noise proportional to signal level. When comparing cables look for smoother cleaner sound and better imaging.

Coax should be shorter than 1ft or longer than 1.5m. In first case cable is not long enough to produce reflections but in the second case it is producing reflections (from the end of the cable on impedance boundary) that will miss edge that initiated it (otherwise it might add affecting shape of transition)