Stereovox HDXV ($100.00), it's a great cable. If you'll call John Pharo at The Cable Company, 1.800.fat.wyre, they'll be a great help. Their website is: www.fatwyre.com. They even have a cable library where you can check cables out and try them for a week or two. It's great deal. |
2 cables that have seemd to have garnished a lot of good feedback are the Stereovox HDVX which I think goes for around $100 and Chris Venaus' Pulsar cable which depending on type of termination desired or if you want the cryo version whill come in around your budget target. |
Nick, I'm sure there are many good choices to be had that I've not heard, but my research into cables at this price point led me to the Stereovox digital cable. All the reviews portrayed this as a cable with a stellar price/performance ratio. I have found it lacking nothing, being neutral, revealing, and very well harmonically balanced, especially for the modest price. |
In the pro world Apogee Wydeye would be considered good enough. But what do they know...!:)
steve |
Try a Canare digital coaxial cable from Markertek. They are inexpensive, very well made, and sound as good as anything that I have heard. |
Apogee Wyde Eye is the best low-price cable I know. I had one for a long time. I've just moved up to the Ven Haus cryo'd Pulsar and it is terrrrrrific. Smoooth, with detail detail detail, no edge. It takes a long time to break in but the upside, as you leave it burning in 24 hours in 24, is that you come home to a noticeably better cable every single day for about 3 weeks. No kidding. And it doesn't even sound bad out of the box!
Just make sure, whatever digital cable you buy, that it is at least 1.5 meters long. |
I dont know enough to comment on a brand, but I do know that a solid cable -vs- a braided one just sounds better |
I am going to look into the Stereovox HDXV more. It seems like just the thing.
Has anyone experimented with the 1m vrs 1.5m lengths.
Steve's logic makes sense with the sampling rates.
But the logic of the less cable the better also makes sense.
Can anyone shed some light here.
Here is the article:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
Cheers,
Nick |
Ok, I just gotsta know. Have any of you tried to tell one digital cable from any other in an honest blind test?
Maybe I'm deaf or my cd side stinks, but I can hear big differences in ic's and speaker cables but can hear none at all with digital cables. |
I have two tributaries digital cables. One is 1m and the other is 7ft. I can hear differences there, so I have no doubt that the type of cable and connectors used will make a difference.
Cheers,
Nick |
Well to those of you whom can't hear a dif. you're lucky.I have the $1200 Sy.Re.active model and it's like a component up grade.---Compared to the 5 other dig.cables I have in house.---The lesser ones go into HT application.I have an abs/ebu and an rca only---both 1mt.ea. |
Buy a used Audience digital cable. All the others are very good too. The difference being you can resell the Audience if you don't like it, the others don't seem to have a big resale value.
Happy Listening. |
Agreed, but was wondering if any of you had done an honest blind test to verify that there is a difference. The mind plays tricks on us all, and that is in no way intended to be insulting. Really just am very very curious if anyone has done a legitimate & repeatable test using sound experimintal methods.
|
Jeff_jones, I have performed the test you ask about. I used Apogee Wyde Eye in 1-meter and 1.5-meter lengths. I made the cables up using Canare RCA connectors and 2% silver solder. A pal and I did listening tests using his Theta transport and Kora DAC, and my TEAC transport and Apogee DAC.
The difference was notable in terms of sound source positioning and delineation, depth and width of soundstage, orchestral focus and cohesion. In general terms, the music was less confused, more coherent, with the longer cable. We had no doubt that longer was better.
Higher quality cable does make a difference. In some ways I preferred a 0.5-meter Zu Ash to a 1-meter Wyde Eye. However the 1.5-meter Wyde Eye would have been my choice even over the more expensive Zu, if the Zu cable were just a half meter long.
Chadnliz, the Steve you refer to is of course Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio. His moniker here is audioengr. |
Another inexpensive cable you might want to try is the Bettercables Siver Serpent Digital. 30 day money back policy and only runs around $80/meter.
About a year ago I had one meter lengths of the following cables and tested them by using the dual digital output of my transport, going back and forth. Illuminations D-60, Bettercables Silver Serpent, Canare L-77, Cardas Lightning. I wanted to hear a difference between cables, but differences I thought I heard were proven wrong as I could not differentiate when a friend did the switching and I did the guessing. Long story short, I kept the Silver Serpent and Canare cables and am satisfied that for my ears (and equipment) they are every bit as good as the more expensive cables. |
Goodness, Jeff_jones, I'm shocked. Are you saying my test wasn't honest? ;o) Why, I'm the soul of accuracy in all things.
Actually, kidding aside, I would welcome the description of anyone else's minutely rigorous blind A-B test. The results in the test I describe above were so obvious and clear to me and my pal that we felt we needed to go no further into testing. The difference in sound quality was large, the buying decision was plain as day. One pleasant surprise was how good an economy cable like the Wyde Eye could sound, as long as it was the right length.
Jeff_jones, would it be a bother for you to post a detailed procedure for conducting the kind of repeatable blind test of digital cable lengths you might find legitimate? I might learn something from this... |
Hi Guys,
Just wondering, between the Moray James Digital coax and the Stereovox which do you think would be better?
Cheers,
Nick |
I'm with Tobias--when it's there--well, it's there.I have been burning in a no name(that I can remember);cable for 7 days straight.--You know, a 750 value for 125,used)-Then I went back to the big buck Syn Rea. cable. You just kind of jump out of your chair--- only the hearing impaired can't hear the dif.Actually the music was playing during this cable change and when you come out from behind the rack the dif is "there"-tons of it. |
Tobias - think my last note was submitted before your note was posted, certainly didn't mean not honest as in not truthful.
Anyway, there is an old saying that I like, "In God we trust, everyone else needs data".
An honest blind test would be something like;
1. You have someone connect cable x in your system and write that down.
2. You listen & write down whether you think you are listening to cable x or cable Y.
3. You walk away and have the other person flip a coin, heads they swap cable x for cable y, tails they don't.
4. You repeat steps 2 and 3 enough times to be comfortable with the results (random chance says you will be right 50% of the time so you want a few reps. to take away the chance of being fooled by probability). Someone who remembers the statistics formulas could give you an estimate on the probability of accuracy based on sample size, if anyone does the test maybe we can get a statistician type to chime in.
5. If you are right 100% of the time, it would be hard for a reasonable person to argue with you. If we really wanted to be anal about it, the same kind of test should be independently verified once or twice, but since this is probably less important than cold fusion I say that is overkill.
Best Regards. |
While there are many changes that are the kind where it does "this" better/ and "that"; not quite as well. Then there are changes that just make you smile. I like to smile and don't feel the need for blind testing to confirm why I'm smiling.--My ears;my money; my smile.This hobby can drive you crazy mixing and matching---when you find what it is that makes you smile;don't fight it--enjoy it.---It's ok to do this with both eyes wide open; and nobody trying to water down that smile; is good thing. |
In the case of my cable test, the difference was so obvious that there was no hesitation whatsoever in saying which one was better and why. There were absolutely no disadvantages in using a 1.5 meter cable, only advantages.
I went to some expense and trouble to do the test so that I could be sure there was no self-deception, spending extra money to make up a second cable I was not sure I would be using. This was worth doing, to me, because the result claimed was counterintuitive. In all my previous experience, shorter has been better. However that was the case with analog connections, not digital. My previous tries with digital cables had involved improved cable quality, not different lengths.
Still, I am glad to know how a blind test should be set up. When the pal who helped me with the last test gets back to town, we ought to set one up with the same cables again, and see if we learn anything new. |
Avguygeorge- AOK.
Tobias - If you ever do fiddle with this, it would be neat to hear from you. It is a bit exciting in a nurdy way to start to prove whether something is fact or fiction. You probably won't be immortalized by the scientific community as you should be, but real data might start to elevate this type of discussion beyond;
"Yes I can" - (those other guys must be deaf or Bose lovers or both)
"No you can't" - (there's one born every minute) |
Hey when I hooked up my solid core digital cable my wife was in the next room and asked what I did, I said nothing, she told me it sounds better!...I then told her I swapped cables and she said she hated to have to tell me that she heard a better sound, as her arguements about upgrades took a bit of a nose dive from that day on lol! |
Chadnliz, that's funny! Your wife sounds great--it takes a big person to admit that audiophile fussbudgetry brings results. I got lucky myself--I knew it the evening my s.o. told dinner guests that every time I changed something the music sounded better.
Gee, come to think of it, I never thanked her. I better get her a disc... |
Hey guys,
What do you think would be better between the following cables:
-Moray James Digital
-Virtual Dynamics David
-Stereovox HDXV
Thanks, |
each one will offer something differnt and its your ears that have to be the happiest but for what its worth a buiddy of mine had a few of Moray's cables and he bought my I2digital (as you know a close neighbor of HDVX) from me and it became his reference digital cable until he sold his dac. I enjoyed the I2 while I had it but I really like my VD Master series I'm using now. I think you have 3 good choices and you must make the final decision. Hell its your system, your ears and your money... |
Thanks Rgd,
Ideally I would like to buy all of the cables and try them. But I can't really afford to. I was just hoping someone who was tried them could offer a brief description on each.
eg: X cable is very neutral and open, while Y cable is more detailed, etc...
Then I could pick which cable I think would work better in my system.
Thanks
Nick |
HEY Nick,
Try Usedcables.com, they usually send a few to swap and audition, then you send back what you dont want. Just tell them what you are using in your rack and they will give you their best "synergy" recomendations |
I thought about usedcables.com.
But I live in Canada, and there is tax, brokerage, and possibly some duty issues I don't want to deal with when sending multiple cables back and forth.
Cheers, |
