Thank you Al and Vhiner. Canare has it's own set of cable and terminations, where HAVE seems to use their choice of cable with the Canare terminations, hence, HAVE/Canare. Specifically, HAVE uses GEPCO International VSD2001 High Definition 75ohm Serial Digital Coax (this is printed on the cable) I'm not sure if Canare uses the same cable, but what I can say, again everybody has system dependent variables, in the end I agree with you (Vhiner)completely, follow your ears and don't drink by the label. As far as my 3' HAVE/Canare, it's the best cable I can not hear and that sums it up for me! Thanks for the feedback!
Rpg |
Back again with a twist. I repeated my experiment with the three cables however I introduced a "reference", by that I mean my CDP. To keep things on a fair playing field, I made a CD-R copy of a decent recording I own, Jazz at the Pawnshop, I then copied the same original to my iPod in WAV format. This time I used my Ears and listened at length to each cable and compared it to the playback of the copied disk to the Wadia 171 iDock. First, it was quite eye opening how different the HAVE/Canare 3' cable compared to the 6' of the exact same wire, something is really going on here. Bottom line, comparing the sound of each cable compared to the CDP, the 3' HAVE/Canare sounded almost exactly as the CDP with the exception of slightly more Base from the Wadi/iPod and may, I need to be careful here in that the Wadia/iPod may actually have sounded slightly better than the copied CD. So, the 3' Have/Canare proved to produce the best sound to my ears with the 6' version and Kimber D60 trailing far behind. I wonder if it could be possible to have the D-60 reterminated with true 75ohm connectors, but for now the front seat goes to the $25 HAVE/Canare. Thanks! Looking forward to your thoughts!
Rpg |
Magfan, I had to send in my unit once for repair about a year or so ago where the transport had problems loading a disk. When I received the unit back they provided a note where they said in addition to the repair they upgraded some power supply caps so the unit, as they say, "reduced the in-your-face presentation" (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean). No mention was made of a firmware upgrade, but I am suspicious they did upgrade the firmware but wanted to keep it low-key. My current version is; 01/069/1.1 is this the latest firmware you are aware of? I have all of the facilities to upgrade but have never received information that one was available. I did call CA and they told me there was only one upgrade since the CDP was released and it as they claimed did nothing to improving the sonic qualities of the unit and was specifically targeted for the Apple AirportExpress claiming the Jitter from it was so severe at times the 840C could not get a lock, so they somehow through the firmware update opened the window and made the unit more forgiving of received data. Is this how you understand the issue? Am I on-base about this or had I been fed a bunch of bunk? Lastly, do you know if the version I have is the latest and if not how do you find it and what is it supposed to improve?? Thanks!
Rpg |
Kijanki, if one suspects they have a Jitter problem with their system, how might it manifest it's impact on the analog output. I had read an article indicating that high Jitter would make vocals sound overly warm, which actually may be desireable? Is there anything else you can add to the impact of sound reproduction? Thanks!
Rpg |
Can someone here give me a hand with the math and it's implications with respect to two different cable lengths from the exact same manufacturer. Much of the math in this forum is in meters, the typical standard. One of my cables is 3' in length and the other 6' in length and strangely they sound different. Specifically, the 3' cable sounds very fast slightly bright (or hyper detailed) where the 6' cable sounds a bit warmer, maybe slightly rolling off the top, or maybe just cleaner at the top. I've talked about these cables earlier choosing the 3' cable as the champ, but now I'm finding the 6' cable easier to listen to. How can this be explained and may the 6' rout look better on paper and on the ears - thanks!
Rpg |
Al, thanks, I appreciate your work in helping me understand this. I think in the end, as I may have mentioned, the 6' cable is easier on the ears. With this cable manufacturer, I can order any length, is there an "ideal" length, or are there too many system dependencies to determine this?
Again,
Thanks! |
Al, thank you very much - most appreciated! |
Another twist. I noticed that my web of IC's (All unshielded Kimber silver SE and one balanced)could use some housework, so I spent quite some time rerouting and spacing the cables resulting in what I would call "neat and tidy. Then it happened, the great sound I had achieved through many learnings on this forum were gone, my transport sounded lousy and in the end I was back at the beginning! I discovered something about my DI-IC, it does not like to be close to any AC lines or any lines for that matter as well as not liking to be forced into a configuration that does not follow it's natural form as manufactured. Long story short, I ended up finding my 3' cable slightly outperforming my 6' line because I "think" I was able to doge the bullets mentioned even though the cable is double sheilded (it was very close). Now I'm wondering, after all of this effort might a Toslink cable be a better solution? I currently possess only one midgrade Toslink IC and it's in my AV set-up. I have heard that the process of converting the signal to light and then reconverting it back to an electrical signal at the DAC results in low bandwidth problems, but might it be immune to most of the potential problems one can encounter with wire? Interested in your thoughts. I'm heading off to my AV set-up to assess what kind of nightmare I'm looking at in retrieving an Acoustic Research Toslink cable. Thanks all! |
In the ending, the Toslink was a poor solution to any 75ohm cable I tried. I don't want to begin suggesting I can do the math on cable length and it's contribution to Jitter, I can only finish this by saying that my 36" length of HAVE/Canare 75ohm digital cable with Canare 75ohm terminations resulted in my Wadia 171i sounding as good as my CDP with only the very slightest of differences, and that is as good in my opinion as one can get. Gone are the spinning disks and hello little music server! My thanks to all that have contributed to this forum!
Rpg |
One last Cliff Note to compress this entire forum. The bottom line is if your using a 75ohm coax between your transport and DAC, it's length should be 12" or less, or at least 1.5M and above, but nothing between these two lengths. I tried everything with the exception of 12" or less. What I found was my 1.75M cable could not compare in sound quality to my 36" cable from the same manufacturer. Now maybe my system is unique in some way. I would trust the words of those who have contributed to this topic, but in the end, trust your ears!
Rpg |
