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Why do digital cables sound different?

I have been talking to a few e-mail buddies and have a question that isn't being satisfactorily answered this far. So...I'm asking the experts on the forum to pitch in. This has probably been asked before but I can't find any references for it. Can someone explain why one DIGITAL cable (coaxial, BNC, etc.) can sound different than another? There are also similar claims for Toslink. In my mind, we're just trying to move bits from one place to another. Doesn't the digital stream get reconstituted and re-clocked on the receiving end anyway? Please enlighten me and maybe send along some URLs for my edification. Thanks, Dan
danielho

Showing 1 response by gopher

gopher
499 posts
 
I want it to be placebo, but in my instance I hear a difference between digital cables between my Squeezebox Touch/Philips 963sa and Eastern Electric Minimax DAC.

I, and my wife who is not a hobbyist, can clearly hear a difference between optical, coaxial and rca -> XLR (aes/ebu). With the coax sounding the worse of the group... thats right, I've preferred generic tosh to a $100 coax in this setup.
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