I can't tell the difference

@Rrog, I was expecting something and when I first plugged it in I convinced myself I heard it. But I later did a blind test and it was a wash. We were splitting hairs to decide which was "better" and then we ended up picking the sb3 half the time. I'm relatively new to this hobby but this will forever make me skeptical and a firm believer in confirmation bias. Show me the blind test results! :)

I know I heard a difference when I upgraded from B&W 601s to the CM5s and I know I heard a difference when I went from a Rega Brio to the Primare I21. The CM5s added a ton of detail and realism (instruments sounded more "correct"), and the Primare improved the presentation significantly -- sound stage was more focussed and notes seemed to be sustained for the correct amount of time, where the rega put more emphasis on the beginning of notes, but didn't seem to sustain things properly (especially noticeable with horns). I couldn't blind test these due to practical reasons, but the differences were too large to bother.

The DACs just literally sounded the same.

@Richard_Stacy Yes, it is getting fun! But also expensive, ha.

@Jult52 -- I was using an audioquest optilink-A and audioquest sidewinder RCAs with the v-dac. During the blind test I had a bargain bin RCA cable from the sb3 to the amp.

@jult52, could you point me to some documentation that describes how a cable could impact the spdif transmission? I'm no expert on the spdif protocol, but if it is anything like the TCP network protocol, there will be integrity checks built in on the sending and receiving side (transport and dac) that go a very long way to make sure what is sent is what is received. I'm very sceptical of the idea you could tell the difference between 2 properly functioning cables used for spdif transmission.

@jult52, I suppose the comparison to tcp isn't too valid as spdif won't be a two-way handshake. However, I'm still skeptical. In order for there to be a transmission error in the digital domain, the physical medium must be modified beyond a given threshold (voltage level or light measurement?) to have any impact. Yes it's technically possible, but if it's happening with any regularity I imagine the results would be painfully obvious, in which case you'd deem the cable defective. Using an optical cable would avoid the potential for surrounding electronics to impact the transmission, but based on error rates I've read in passing this likely does not matter either.

mustard...you are going to get yourself in trouble trying to apply logic to all of this! the "believe your ears" thing you have going with the blind tests is really the only way to evaluate this effectively. spdif cables will sound dramatically different, whether they should or not i don't know but they will. i actually would say that a digital cable can be the most influential cable in a system. i took great care in selecting mine and it has paid off nicely. i am graced with ignorance so i have little choice but to just give this stuff a listen.