Can a digital cable have different connectors?


I purchased a Chord MScalar to use with my current and future DACs. Unfortunately, the MScalar only has optical and BNC outputs. While this is fine because my current DAC has a BNC input, many other DACs I’m interested in does not.  Seems like SPDIF cables can have different terminations like RCA or BNC.


Can a digital cable work with one end terminated with BNC and the other end another type of connector?

kennyc

You should look for a BNC only digital cable and then use a BNC-to-RCA adapter for the one end going into an RCA connection.  This actually works out better than if the cable was terminated with an RCA plug.

Get a digital cable that is BNC on one end and RCA on the other.

DH Labs Silversonic makes a good one.

you can also get an RCA/BNC adapter and try it.

no issues at all

Thanks to all. It was very confusing.
I wasn’t sure if I’d have to shelf my MScalar if my upgraded DAC didn’t have BNC inputs.

I’ll probably move forward with purchasing WAVE STREAM BNC cable.  I’ll ask them if they will terminate to RCA on one side which seems sonically better than an an added layer of an a BNC to RCA adapter.  Although I have a soldering iron, not sure if I have the skills to re-terminate the WAVE STREAM BNC to RCA myself using a high quality RCA connector like from WBT - seems doable.

op

don't over think this

i use bnc/rca adapters on my tt2 hugo and m scaler setup they work perfectly fine

 

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The connector quality can make a big difference in my AQ Diamond they use very expensive telegartner ethernet connectors $30 each vs what most use $5

super precision and with the super high purity Silver a excellent interconnect 

it does take around 300 hours to fully settle in similar to their Diamond usb I am pretty happy with  there is always better ,but how much do you want to spend ?

hdmi used as I2S is probably the best I use that with upsampler .using Wireworld best $400 a meter is reasonable.

I’ll ask them if they will terminate to RCA on one side which seems sonically better than an an added layer of an a BNC to RCA adapter

I have done lots of tests with these types of terminations.  In all cases, a cable with BNC termination plus a BNC-to-RCA adapter sounded superior to a cable just terminated with an RCA plug.  The RCA has a much lower impedance and I found that you just lose high frequency detail in the music.