Recommendation for Digital Coax


Looking for a good digital coax to go from my Bluesound Node 2i to my first stand alone DAC, an Aqua La Voce S2. Preferably something that won't break the bank.

dadork

Showing 3 responses by auxinput

1 meter is not a good recommendation for a digital coax cable as it will always have problems and compromised high frequency resolution.  I always use and recommend 2 meter, but many say 1.5 meter.

DH Labs D-750 is a good base to start from.  From there, check out Acoustic Zen.

My Nordost Silver Shadow is 1M and absolutely no issues… none. I have used it on two different  players to several different DAC’s and a streamer for many years. Works 100% of the time with no compromised high frequency issues.

A 1 meter digital coax cable will work without any problem.  If you really want to run a 1 meter, that's fine.  It may sound good to you, but I have done a TON of r&d and testing with different types and lengths of S/PDIF coax.  A 1 meter cable will always have compromised when compared to a 2 meter cable.  If you have tried both a 1 meter and 2 meter and still cannot hear differences, then either your hearing is not sensitive enough or your system is not high resolution enough to reveal the subtle differences.

 

The Kimber D60 cable mentioned above is likely a very excellent option as it is a pure silver solid-core conductor.  It is about the same price as the Acoustic Zen Absolute 75 ($750-800).  These cables are 4 times as expensive as the DH Labs D-750, but will perform significantly better.

The Blue Jeans Beldon digital cables are good if you only have less than $30 to spend, but they are really not that great of a cable compared to the more expensive options.

 

Optical is the most accurate, efficient way to transfer data from point a to point b, undisturbed.

If you are looking at optical to be used for data transfer, such as computer, then yes, optical is the cleanest way to get data from one point to another.  However, even optical has distance limits.

That being said, optical is not perfect.  The problem is that the LED emitters just cannot light up fast enough to create a perfect square wave pulse.  Lampizator did tests on this and compared it to several COAX transports.  The waveform from optical ended up being this very distorted curvy waveform (almost like a sine wave).  He was amazed that the receiver could translate this into pulses at all.

Under listening tests, optical can sound pretty okay with a good glass fiber cable.  However, even a cheap copper based coax like the Blue Jean Beldon will have more life and engagement in the music.  Everyone can have their own opinions and some may prefer optical in their own system.