Bummer ELCO digital cable

I have found that with digital cable, it is mostly a matter of what MATCHES the current transport and dac in question. I have had silver digital cables (not elco), that sounded horrible on a Krell transport, but sounded great on a Theta. I have also mega-buck digital cable sound less than appealing on some combinations, and very nice on others. In my experience, digital cable is even MORE sensitive to system matching that interconnects. For example, everywhere I put Cardas interconnects, it sounds smooth, no matter which dac or preamp. But digital cable - it's all over the place. Finally, I would give it about 100 hours before getting too dissappointed. I have had brand new cables that I paid $2000 for and almost shot myself after hooking it up, but a few days later, it started to show it's true colors (yes, i think cables are colored :)

I'm with Audiofile9. Give them a chance to break in. I've
had cables that sounded "broken" right out of the box sound very nice after being broken in.

I agree with Audiofile9 and Rogerroger, however, the first Elco Digital Cable I bought was so good right out of the package so I went and bought another one. These cables are currently use for my wife's H/T. While I hate to admit, they
seem to work as good as the digital cable (yamamura and stealth varidig) in my audio system.

I agree with the other posts as well. I am currently using ELCOs ultimate digital cable(also silver) and it did sound good out of the box but better after a break in period. If it doesn't get any better after a few days contact Benedict or Andrew at ELCO and see what they suggest. Those guys are great. I have recabled my whole system with ELCO cables and I am very happy with the sound.

Hi,
I too u have the Elco Ultimate digital cable that sounded good right out of the box but then started to improve after about 3 weeks and continued to do so for the next month! I've compared it to many other famous brands and I felt that the Elco Ultimate was worth every penny I paid. Silver does take time to burn in and gets better as time goes on! However I agree with the other post, if after 3 weeks to a month, if you still don't like it, then contact Benedict or Andrew who are always willing to help out! You might even want to consider then to upgrade to the Ultimate through their money back return policy! I've no experience with the Elco Silver but I had a friend who had it and didn't like it after a while. I then told him to consider the Ultimate which he did. He returned the Silver and got the Ultimate and is very happy now! One thing I've noticed is that the Ultimate is neutral to a certain extent that makes it system friendly based on my evaluation of it! Should you need to know more, please feel free to email me or you can view my review of the Ultimate at Audioasylum.
All the best!
Rgds,
Ramesh

I am running 2 systems with digital separates and jitter reduction devices, so I always have at least 4 digital cables running at any point in time. This has given me the "opportunity" to experiment with a lot of digital cables and my experiences are in line with audiofile9's comments above. I have not tried the Elco but have tried at least 2 or 3 silver or silver based cables and personnaly did not like them. They didn't sound bad, but they were colored and I prefer different colorations. I have gotten the most consistently good results with the Harmonic Technology Copper cable but that does not mean it will work for you. For a cheap cable that is very revealing, I suggest you investigate the Mapleshade digital cable. While its construction quality and appearance are a joke, I have found it to be as transparent as the silver cables I have tried but a little more laid back. That said, it is not a "forgiving" cable like, say a Monster Datalink, Apogee, etc.

Try running them in for approx. 150 hours. You do not need to have the volume up, just run a signal through the IC and have the selector on your amp (preamp, whatever) to that position. My solid core silver analog IC's (different manufacturer) went from shrill to smooth in around 125 hours of use and sounded horrible out of the box. Hopefully you will be able to return them, if they do not work out in your setup after being broken in.

UPDATE- The cable sounds sooooo much better than it did before. I'm happy again! Thanks for the feedback.