2. digital
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digital output crackling

I've just purchased on Audiogon, a magnan digital coaxial cable to run from my cd player to a dac. When I connected last night, the signal was "crackling" I took the cable to work today, and hooked up a cd player into an audio board and the sound was fine. Could a cable sound right with analog to analog, but not into a dac? Doesn't seem right to me. The input on the dac is analog as well. Could it be that I did not have the rca's connected fully? Any thoughts would be apprecieated
larryrosen
5 responses Add your response
undertow
1,033 posts
 
I had a similar issue and found out when I jiggled the Connection on the back of the dac it would knock out the crackle. Could be the RCA fitting on the cable or the shield on the Jack itself moving or something weird.. . I found another cable worked okay and I guess that it could have just been the connection was not tight enough interferance fit with that specific combo of RCA Female/male on those units?
cytocycle
1,043 posts
 
Check your connections you should be running from the COAX digital output on the CD player to the COAX Digital input on the DAC.. A digital Coax cable is 75ohm versus an analog 50ohm cable. but either way you can't mix connections.

If you are swaping from an older between the same components..then check the solder connections on the new cable, maybe they are shorting...

Otherwise hopefully someone else will have a better answer.
Good luck
Chris
larryrosen OP
83 posts
 
Cytocycle, I am swapping out an older cable for this newer, and of course, more expensive one. I have not had a problem with the older cable.
cytocycle
1,043 posts
 
You DAC could be a high output (more than 2volts) and could be overdriving your Preamp (especially if you have a tube preamp). Check the input volt specs on your preamp and contact the DAC vendor to see what the output is...
rcprince
3,070 posts
 
When you say the signal was crackling, was this while a disc was playing or without a signal going through the DAC at the time? If the latter, it is normal to hear that digital crackling, at least with my DAC. Otherwise I'm not sure what the problem is--how can you have an analog input on a DAC, though? Most DACs only have digital inputs.
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