Cost of BNC is mentioned as an issue. For audiophile equipment would not BNC be the lowest cost for digital? An inexpensive commercial grade BNC connector will be better than the most expensive RCA and the same would be true for the cable. All the discussions about SPDIF cables seem to center around fixing issues that would be caused mainly by the RCA?
Why so few devices with BNC's??
It's an ongoing amazement to me how many manufacturers use RCA's for 75 ohm digital connections. Is this really to just save a couple bucks? Lower end McIntosh stuff has RCA's as does most Japanese gear regardless of price. It's not like BNC's are really so exotic, and 75 ohm cables are readily available. In fact, the general lack of inputs is an annoyance. Not everybody wants to use USB or Toslink. Rant over. 😠 Thanks for reading.
[Please, this is NOT a thread to list all the exceptions.]
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in my system i mostly use BNC’s for my interconnects. but it’s not that simple. i use the darTZeel ’zeel’ BNC 50 ohm interface between my preamp and amps, and between my tape repro and my preamp. then i use RCA’s between my phono pre and preamp, and XLR’s between my dac and preamp. 2 of my sources do not have the proper interface designed into them so i can’t use the ’zeel’ 50 ohm with them. the ’zeel’ BNC 50 ohm interface is superior to either RCA or XLR. part of it is the robustness of the BNC connection itself with it’s positive secure mechanical lock, but mostly it’s precise impedance matching between components which greatly reduce signal corruption. RCA and XLR will cause echo’s in the signal. Herve Deletraz of darTZeel uses the ’zeel’ interface for all darTZeel products. there are a few other products out there, such as CH Precision (one of the owners of CH are actually family with Herve) that also include the 50 ohm BNC connections in their products. properly executed, the 50 ohm BNC interface will sound the same up to .5 kilometer. |
IMO there's no sense in even talking about digital coax using RCA's. It's simply a flawed implementation. People can argue about whether it's significant or not, but it's flawed regardless. With proper BNC's it's no longer an issue. Then the subjectivists can simply debate the merits of 70 ohm cables. I've taken the approach of simply not using gear with RCA's in my "serious" setup. If the manufacturer can't be bothered to go to the trouble of having a BNC connector then I can't be bothered to buy their stuff (same goes for AES/SBU ro the absence thereof). There have been a couple exceptions though, where I've gone to the trouble of retrofitting BNC sockets. I did that on my Cambridge CD transport and some other gear in the past. Interestingly there IS a fair amount of gear with BNC's, and it seems to generally be such "boutique" suppliers as Lumin, higher end Schiit stuff, Bryston and numerous others. Mark Levinson or the Japanese? Not so much. |
I think the RCA and BNC thing was a bigger deal 10-20 years ago. My understanding and I have not done the math is the slow edges of SPDIF make impedance matching not as critical. With the interfaces and DACs today most of them should shrug off a lot of jitter. Our speakers are pretty immune unless things get really bad.
Does Dartzeel use 50 ohm for analog too? I just read something about that on 6moons and seems they do. It was supposed to be a technical dissertation. I think someone nose grew a few feet when they wrote it. It started with a flawed premise than used flawed examples to make a case. Not good. Not good at all. We don’t normally send audio 0.5km but 0.1km is not unusual with balanced differential AES. With any single ended, the ground loop from the distance will be too noisy. |
darTZeel only makes analog products except for one integrated amp with a dac in it. the ’zeel’ 50 ohm interface is strictly analog only. Herve Deletraz of darTZeel wrote an article published in the Sept 2001 issue of Stereophile about Impedance Matching in audio. it’s quite technical. but if you doubt the logic of the 50 ohm BNC advantage for analog interconnects, then you should have the tech knowledge to follow it. it’s serious. https://www.townshendaudio.com/PDF/Impedance_matching%20deletraz%20paper.pdf he wrote that article before he launched his audio company where he applied the principles mentioned and included the ’zeel’ BNC 50 ohm interface in all his products. i have owned darTZeel amps and preamps since 2005 and always used ’zeel’ 50 ohm interconnects. compared them many times to conventional interconnects and always preferred the ’zeel’. you have a right to your opinions, but there is real science behind the 'zeel'. |
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