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Digital Bottom Feeding

Okay, I’m bored. I have a good digital front end. Kimber D60 cable, Schiit Gugnier, Audiolab CDT 600 transport. But I’m sitting at home looking for something to do. I decided to see how cheap digital cables compare to my D60 which is a silver cable, quite dynamic and detailed. Over a period of time I acquired a Blue Jeans Digital Coax for about twenty bucks on Amazon, Also their gray colored Silver calble for $24 and a Cable Solutions one meter from Ebay for $38. Later I tried an Audio Advisor Pangea for $95 and a Kimber 30 for a bit over $100. Both of these later cables are returnable at some point. First observation is they are quite good. Judging the BJC coax as better than the Silver with a bigger sound stage. The Cable Solutions is a very capable cable as is both the Kimber and AA cables. The AA Pangea cable has a noticeably greater weight and warmth than the other. Not a great amount but it’s there if your system sounds thin. I’d be foolish to make any absolute statements as to whether these inexpensive cables would sound better than what you have now but all have return policies so why not play while you are under ouse arrest? Some cables are marked directional and some are not. Those unmarked cable should be tried both ways and marked for presence if any. Back when I made cables, directionality was caused when the shielding was attached at only one end of the cable instead of both RCAS. In a single ended grounding, over the year the grounded end mostly seemed to sound best at the source rather than the terminus of the signal. Lastly, I got a sale notice from Crutchfield that the Sony BDP S6700 blue ay disk player was on sale for half price from $200 to just under a hundred bucks. I also noticed that it had a coax digital out. So I got one to try as a transport. Light weight and plastic a plenty. The things sounds quite good. Not broken in yet and is not likely to be soon because there is no function for repeating the disk. I’ll just have to play it as i can and hope it opens up a bit. That said I was surprised at the out of the box performance. All the may not be your cup of tea but I’m having fun. The BJC cable and the Kimber 30 are quite impressive as are the other two. Who knows a BJ Silver might work for you. I took the time to break in all cables for 100 hours. Once broken in, reversing the cable only takes a short time to sound it’s best.
One last thing. I ordered and returned two digital cables in the $350 price range. The BJ cable beat both of them. 
fredcdobbs
10 responses Add your response
mahler123
3,318 posts
 
So if I had to summarize the message of your thread, it seems to be that sanely priced gear can give very good sonic results.
Personally, I have found that this especially true in digital, as opposed to analog, audio.  I have helped people who are music lovers but are daunted by High End sticker prices put together systems that they were totally happy with.
It gets harder in the analog realm.  An inexpensive turntable/cartridge into a budget integrated amp with built in phono preamp just doesn’t give anywhere near the satisfaction of a decent budget CDP/DAC or streamer into that same amp, imo.  In order to get something decent in analog, you have spend more, not necessarily into Michael Fremer land more, but significantly more than a decent digital set up.
mesch
3,481 posts
 
I agree with the cost comparison between digital and analog front ends. With analog, at the budget end, the TT/arm/cart can approach 50% or more of the system cost to not be the weakest link. 


mesch
3,481 posts
 
I should add it has been my experience that, if one considers the environment within which the system is to be used and uses due diligence in selecting compatible components how good a budget system can sound.
mesch
3,481 posts
 
I also should further add that even the most expensive of my systems might be considered budget by many here.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
I would agree Mahler. Past a certain price point, not exceptionally high, digital is more about getting the flavor you like as opposed to getting more detail out of the bits. With a vinyl setup, the diminishing returns point is much higher. If your flavor is vinyl though, you may be happier with a lower end vinyl system than a high end digital.


lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,443 posts
 
“An inexpensive turntable/cartridge into a budget integrated amp with built in phono preamp just doesn’t give anywhere near the satisfaction of a decent budget CDP/DAC or streamer into that same amp”.

+2, @mahler123.
I went through this very recently. After living with a good digital front end for a while, I got into Analog so I started out with a reasonable investment of $5K with TT/Cart and outboard phono. After living with this setup for a month, I went back to my digital and realize the analog sound was nowhere close to my digital.

You have to spend considerably more with Analog for an emotionally engaging musical experience.
melm
1,075 posts
 
The OP missed the best inexpensive USB cable out there. Monolith by Monoprice USB Digital Audio Cable. Silverplated solid core. Needs some break-in.  Compare to Audioquest.
fredcdobbs OP
128 posts
 
Well, it’s fun to play. I wonder how a $95 Sony 6700 transport coupled with a Schiit Modi DAC for $99 and one of these bargain cables at a total investment of about $225 would compare to more expensive CD players. Hmmm. Don’t have the cheap DAC to make it happen.
The Sony is a compromise. Small, light, no illuminated screen and a plastic facia and cd drawer. I miss not having a repeat as I break in digital cables. I have no idea what the longevity would be. My Audiolab CDT 6000 is quite a substantial unit and seems to be very reliable durable so far, in addition to being good sounding.
I grew up with vinyl and had a couple thousand records at one point. I also hated the robotic sound of early digital music. Now in the age of digital it would be hard for me to go back to the fuss and worry of vinyl playback. In the old days I destroyed a few cartridges after a half bottle of wine. Also, Analog playback didn’t help poorly made LPs sound better.
soix
9,456 posts
 
You might also try an Apogee Wyde Eye digital interconnect that runs only $45 for 1m on Amazon.  I prefer it to my Stereovox XV2 that I believe is a successor of sorts to the D60.  Nicely detailed and very natural sounding to my ears.  FWIW if you’re still bored.  
mahler123
3,318 posts
 
Earlier in this thread I related the difficulties of trying to help friends/family set up what I considered a decent sounding analog system on a tight budget.  My experience for my own system is closer to that of @laltik.   I really welcomed CD, as I hated all of the faults with vinyl, but after a while I wanted to be able to play lps that had not yet been digitalized, so after first buying the budget entry stuff from Project, I upgraded until I had about the same $ as @lalitk  invested in a vinyl front end.  Each upgrade brought successive improvements that were not trivial.  However, by the time I had done that, all of the music that I was missing because it had not previously been digitalized eventually appeared on CD, and as I (re)acquired these recordings on CD it was no comparison, the digital bested vinyl buy such a wide margin that I gladly sold off my vinyl rig (at a profit, due to the vinyl resurgence) and will never look back.
   Still, I get the requests from friends and family who know that I am an Audiophile and want to be able to play the lps that they have been storing in their basement for the last 4 decades.  Frequently they think that their budget such be the same as when they bought their first turntable and so I try to direct them to Pro-Ject.  



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