What's the best AES Digital Balanced cable you eve

I will second the HiDiamond digital. See my thread in the Cables forum for more details.

Digital3, additional info would be appreciated. What did you have or try previous to this one? What is it you like about the Cullen?

i purchased a aes/ebu cable from patrick cullen on audiogon.great cable and solid value.

Tonyptony,
Good question. I am in the process of A/B-ing these 2 cables. I am also running them in series -- and then reversing them. So far, it looks like the winning combination is the HiDiamond Carbon 2 from the transport into the Tesla D3 into the CDP. I am running XLR. I will have more to say in a few days.

Sabai, I would appreciate getting a comparison of the HiDiamond to the Tesla D3, which it seems you were using earlier.

This is an expanded version of my earlier post about the HiDiamond Carbon 2 XLR (AES/EBU) digital cable.

I have had the HiDiamond Carbon 2 XLR digital cable in my system for only one day. I was going to hold off posting for a while. But right out of the box the sound is so stunning that I am impelled to make some initial observations.

The HiDiamond embarrasses all other digital cables I have had in my system — or have ever auditioned anywhere. In an email I received today from Audiogon regarding the general nature of an initial attempt to post about this cable, Audiogon encouraged me to go into the details regarding my observations. I am glad to do so here.

I have had many other digital cables in my system and have auditioned many others, as well. Some were excellent. So why is the HiDiamond so special? The HiDiamond transmits the feeling of being connected to a real performance in the way the other cables were not able to do. By this I mean that the instruments and voices are fleshed out and made real in a way that brings them right into your listening room and connects them to you on an emotional level through the feeling of being at the actual performance.

So, the music is more than the various criteria we use to describe the listening experience -- the air around instruments and voices, a black background, low level detail, tonality, dynamics, transparency, sound stage, coherence, etc. With HiDiamond a description of the parts cannot come close to the musicality that is portrayed. Talking about the parts is simply inadequate.

There are no parts. There is just a totality -- an utterly transfixing musicality -- a feeling of being one with the ambiance, of being connected to the emotion that the performance portrays. I have tried to put this experience into words but I have inevitably fallen short. Words cannot do this justice.

I have had the HiDiamond Carbon 2 XLR digital cable in my system for only one day. I was going to hold off posting for a while. But right out of the box the sound is stunning. It blows away all other digital cables I have had in my system -- or ever heard. The sense of realness, of being there, is amazing. I could talk about coherence, detail, sound stage, dynamics, tonality and many other criteria we use to describe the sound of cables. But this would not do justice to the HiDiamond.

I'm not sure which cable is used in the Mogami Gold.
You can make your own cable at whatever length you prefer from Mogami 2552 and Neutrik XLRs. The 2552 is specific as a digital cable and is 110 ohms (important). This is cheap enough to use as a standard to compare others. I also use Mogami Neglex 2534 (300 ohms) as a balanced interconnect.

I have tried a lot of digital cables including the Mogami Gold. Nothing came close to the SR Tesla LE D3. This is system dependent, of course. Although I have not tried their digital cable, I think ASI and HiDiamond would also be worth trying.

I agree with Al, (as usual). I can say that I have tried at least 20 different AES/EBU cables in my system. While the Mogami is excellent for the money, I found the Grover Huffman to be the best.

None of the cables I tried were ultra expensive, (up to about $500 or so). The Grover sells for around $120 and is fantastic.

Of course, this was in "MY" system and for "MY" tastes. YMMV...

See my two posts in this thread, the bottom line being that I would be cautious in extrapolating from the experiences of others, unless the components being connected were the same as yours. The effects of a digital cable are highly dependent on the technical characteristics of what the cable is connecting, in ways that do not have a great deal of predictability.

That is one reason why XXqq250's suggestion no. 1 is an excellent one.

Regards,
-- Al

If you try the Synergistic Research Tesla LE D3 Digital in a good system I think you will find that you will have something to say that you would not be able to say about the Mogami Gold. Enough said.

Stealth Sextetis best I have heard. Nordost Valhalla dn Kharma Grand Ref close runners up. Plenty of raves on this site for Stealth. Not cheap, but then again, neither is your Berkeley USB. I would not stint.

Neal

I third Mogami.

I second Elizabeth. I use Mogami Gold as well. Sounds great to me.

There is no answer to this question that will directly help you. I can recommend 3 different paths you can try that might work for you. 1. Call The Cable Company (fatwyre,com) and they will send you a bunch of cables that you can try for yourself and pick the one you like best. 2. Get a well made, low cost cable for now and focus on other parts of the system that will have a bigger effect VS cost on sound quality than the AES cable will give you. 3. Do it the audiophile way (Most Popular). Get a bunch of opinions from magazine reviews and posts like this one, pick a cable that costs way more than the electronics that you are connecting it to, and buy it without listening to it first.