Audiofun, I'm a big Bidat fan, so it's very entertaining for me to read your thread. When was your Bidat upgraded the last time prior to sending it to John? I had mine upgraded to latests form back in 2006. I wonder if you can share your thouhgts on John's latest upgrade.
As far as digital cables going I've been using ebay version of glass toslink with my Bidat for several years. It's a unique glass toslink that outperformed Wireworld Super Nova 5. It's directional and sound very different from other dozen of identical cables I bought from ebay. I have no idea why though... Anyhow this toslink was not quite in the same league as Marigo Apparition 5.7 or Reference 2 cables (though it outperformed Apparition 3A) it had a very interesting midrange that added some special touch to female vocalist, something that I couldnt live without. Ive been using this cable as my main digital interconnect until I discovered Belkin Digital Synapse cable. It's so good that I don't think I will ever replace it with anything else (I mean with Bidat DAC). It acts as some sort of filter that get's rid off high frequency noise and allow you to hear recording the way it was intended to be heard (isnt what we always say when we try to justify the purchase?). It's like highest quality analog playback without any digital emphasis. The most interesting part is that I never felt like I had a digital flavor in my system until I heard this coax. You won't know that until you hear it. Another interesting aspect that worse mentioning is upper bass and lower midrange. I think this is the most critical frequency spectrum that adds body to vocalist and controls my comfort level. Bidat has this range covered better than any other DAC Ive heard.
As far as digital cables going I've been using ebay version of glass toslink with my Bidat for several years. It's a unique glass toslink that outperformed Wireworld Super Nova 5. It's directional and sound very different from other dozen of identical cables I bought from ebay. I have no idea why though... Anyhow this toslink was not quite in the same league as Marigo Apparition 5.7 or Reference 2 cables (though it outperformed Apparition 3A) it had a very interesting midrange that added some special touch to female vocalist, something that I couldnt live without. Ive been using this cable as my main digital interconnect until I discovered Belkin Digital Synapse cable. It's so good that I don't think I will ever replace it with anything else (I mean with Bidat DAC). It acts as some sort of filter that get's rid off high frequency noise and allow you to hear recording the way it was intended to be heard (isnt what we always say when we try to justify the purchase?). It's like highest quality analog playback without any digital emphasis. The most interesting part is that I never felt like I had a digital flavor in my system until I heard this coax. You won't know that until you hear it. Another interesting aspect that worse mentioning is upper bass and lower midrange. I think this is the most critical frequency spectrum that adds body to vocalist and controls my comfort level. Bidat has this range covered better than any other DAC Ive heard.