what digital cables for my dac?

First of all, don't use a half meter. I had a very expensive Wireworld Gold Starlight III+ half metre cable with my first separates, but the bargain-priced Apogee Wyde Eye in a 1.5 meter length placed the instruments in the soundstage more clearly. The WW cable was superb in many ways, but length matters. If you're not sure you believe this, there are a good many posts on the subject archived here.

As for a good digital cable at your price, I would suggest the Ven Haus cryo Pulsar. It is almost as good at timbres, warmth and detail as my old GS III+, better at dynamics, and much, much cheaper. Another possibility might be either of the Atlas digital cables available from UHF magazine. They ditched their Gold Starlight in favour of Atlas Opus--again, much cheaper.

VH Pulsar

UHF cables

Whatever you get, though, make sure it's a 1.5 meter length.

Duypham,

I know the use of a longer length seems counterintuitive to those of us who are used to "shorter is better". Shorter _is_ better, for analog cables.

Go to http://www.empiricalaudio.com. Scroll down to the link "Paper on S/PDIF cable length in PSOnline".

In a nutshell, this paper explains that signals are reflected internally in digital interconnects. Good DAC design can minimize these reflections but this is usually not done. In shorter cables, the reflected signal returns to the output very close to the rising edge of a wave, and confuses the DAC about the timing of the signal. The result is jitter. The longer length allows the reflection to return at a time when it is less likely to be confused with signal. The result is more coherent music.

(I apologize for any inaccuracies which may be found in the very brief summary above.)

You can also refer to Chris Ven Haus' Web site, where he specifies that 1.5 meters is optimum length for digital interconnects, and to UHF Magazine number 74. UHF tested different cable lengths and now do not recommend any length shorter than 1.5 meter.

UHF Magazine

I did my own tests and came to the same conclusion. I used 1-meter and 1.5-meter lengths of 75-ohm Apogee Wyde Eye (still a contender for best at its price point). We listened using my TEAC VRDS T1 and Apogee DA-1000E-20, and also a friend's Theta Universal and Kora Hermes. The results were unquestionably in favour of the longer length.

You could try a test yourself and see.

Jack Dotson, there doesn't seem to be very much at that site. The nav buttons don't load anything--no cables, no systems, no speakers... maybe it's my browser.

The cryo treatment of my Pulsar certainly didn't hurt it. One consequence of cryo-treatment is long break-in time, according to Chris Ven Haus. That affirmation was not contradicted by my experience. The cable continued to improve _daily_ over a two-week period of 24-in-24 play.

Tplavas, have you actually tried a 1.5-meter cable? You don't mention it so I thought I'd ask.

Tplavas, I appreciate the reference to Mr. Lavry's article and I shall certainly follow it up. Thank you.

I would just like to point out that "believing" is not the appropriate word in my case. If I understand the word "belief" correctly, it can be used to refer to something that one has not witnessed with his own senses, but has heard reported.

I do not base my statement that a longer cable may be better on articles that I have read. I made up two cables identical in all but length and listened to them with a friend, on our two systems. That makes just four trials, or two comparisons, in my experience.

With our gear, in our rooms, and with those cables, the difference was very clear, so I can say from experience, not from belief, that in these trials longer was preferable. I recommend that anyone who has not heard such a difference base his or her final conclusion on experience too. I only mention my own to encourage others to try it--not to encourage others to spread the word on something they haven't heard. It has the advantage of being a relatively inexpensive improvement; that is, if it works for you.

I have also heard at least one much better system than my own which nonetheless uses a 1-meter digital interconnect. Perhaps the owner would be happier if he tried a longer cable, I don't know. He is certainly happy now.