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 rower30

Ethernet has VASTLY improve bit error correction chips. Audio DACS benifit...a LOT from this. A one or a zero has no sound, it is just a toggle of logic a DA converter uses to construct the analog waveform.

Missing bits are "filled-in" and interpolated between bits for an analog signal. To that end, the analog circuits are what we "hear" if all the bits get through (and they do to a crazh high level of perfection!). So my ears tend to say that the analog waveshaping circuits don't all make the same decisions with the same bits.