I' easily discern differences between usb and I2S cables in my setup. Specifically, tried a less than $200 OFC I2S vs. Concentus Ximius, an all silver cable, well worth the extra cash, this with Denafrips Gaia to Musetec 006 and Laiv Harmony. A lesser quality cable may work well enough for demonstration/short term purposes but if you have very revealing setup you want cable that will allow full potential of that equipment to be heard.
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I’ve recently been through the same search for an I2S connector and decided on buying from Ricable who are an Italian cable company. I highly recommend their SUPREME HDMI MKII Digital Video Cable HDMI 2.0 Bandwidth 29 Gbps and Audio I²S interconnect that costs 74 Euro for a 1/2 metre (c. 20 inches) plus add 25 Euro for shipping, see Ricable HDMI I2S Interconnect where I ordered online. I use it to connect a PS Audio Perfectwave CD/SACD transport and Denafrips Venus 15th DAC and it has performed excellently with me now being close to 500 hours burn-in on the Venus 15th DAC and HDMI cable. I bought mine February 16th and it arrived quickly via Fedex by February 20th. Ricable offer a 60-day trial period for those who buy directly from Ricable with a a refund or replacement of the purchased Hi-Fi product (unfortunately for the USA there is a return fee). Ricable also provide a lifetime warranty. There are a lot of interconnects and DIY cable options to see on their website and prices are competitive, hope this helps in your <$200 search. |
DH Labs would also be my recommendation. I bought one for my Rockna server/dac combo. I later tried a RAL cable. Both units have 2 i2s connections, so it was pretty easy to go back and forth between the two cables. At first I thought I heard an improvement with the RAL cable, however I did another comparison after I had them both for a while and really couldn't tell the difference. I chalked that one up to confirmation bias. |
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