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Customizing sound through digital interconnect

Hi all, I would like to know your opinion about the following. Many audiophiles dislike the thought of tailoring a system's sound through cabling. I personally do not belong to this majority. I do use cables to "customize" the sound of my system. I know this could be achieved with interconnect and speaker cables and also power cords. But is it to a certain degree also possible to taylor a system's sound through the use of digital interconnects? In what way could a digital interconnect "alter" the analog sound? Another related question is: can someone design a digital interconnect so that it sounds more warm/less warm, more detailed/less detailed, more 3D/less 3D? What are the measurable parameters to guide you through this design process?

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 4 responses by dazzdax

dazzdax OP
599 posts
 
It is still a mystery to me that a digital interconnect cable can alter the "frequency response" and frequency/amplitude behaviour of music signal while it is only transporting 1's and 0's. Can anyone explain this? Any expert in the field of digital transmission maybe? Thank you.

Chris
dazzdax OP
599 posts
 
Hi Amfi, so you are saying that by altering the shape of the square wave you can change the sonic characteristics of the digital interconnect? Please elaborate. According to the theory digital data stream is either corrupt or not. Digital is discrete, analog is continuous. By changing digital data stream one is not able to predict how the analog music signal will sound.

Chris
dazzdax OP
599 posts
 
Hi Amfi, please elaborate the following section:

"...and it is possible to introduce new spurious waves by the summation of reflected waves with smeared waves. You do not necessarily hear a "tick", because this is only one packet of 44,100 signals per second, but if it happens often enough it will change the tone."

I know only a few things about digital data conversion/transmission because I'm a totally uninitiated person with regard to this subject, but if a 16-bits DAC is fed with 17-bits information, I think there would be severe timing problems, if this is possible at all.

Chris
dazzdax OP
599 posts
 
Amfi, so if a digital cable sounds "different" than other digital cables, even if the sound has a more "natural" presentation (warmer, more fleshed out midrange, silkier highs and greater PRaT), this cable isn't a very good cable in theory because of the time smearing? The next question is: how can one determine if a digital cable is a "good" cable? Most audiophiles are judging by ear whether a cable sounds good or not and not by using oscilloscopes.

Chris
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