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Why does my DAC sound so much better after upgrading digital SPDIF cable?

I like my Mps5 playback designs sacd/CD player but also use it as a DAC so that I can use my OPPO as a transport to play 24-96 and other high res files I burn to dvd-audio discs.

I was using a nordost silver shadow digital spdif cable between the transport and my dac as I felt it was more transparent and better treble than a higher priced audioquest digital cable a dealer had me audition.

I recently received the Synergistic Research Galileo new SX UEF digital cable.  Immediately I recognized that i was hearing far better bass, soundstage, and instrument separation than I had ever heard with high res files (non sacd),

While I am obviously impressed with this high end digital cable and strongly encourage others to audition it, I am puzzled how the cable transporting digital information to my DAC from my transport makes such a big difference.

The DAC take the digital information and shapes the sound so why should the cable providing it the info be so important. I would think any competently built digital cable would be adequate....I get the cable from the DAC to the preamp and preamp to amp matter but would think the cable to the DAC would be much less important.

I will now experiment to see if using the external transport to send red book CD files to my playback mps5 sounds better than using the transport inside the mps5 itself.

The MPS5 sounds pretty great for ca and awesome with SACD so doubt external transport will be improvement for redhook cds


128x128karmapolice
erik_squires
15,861 posts
 
1. The power of suggestion2. Noise - One cable may be better at rejecting noise than another3. You had a dirty plug and this cleaned it out4. Better impedance matching. Not all cables are up to spec.

While lots of people pooh pooh optical cables, they are ideal for PC outputs as they utterly reject ground loops as well as EMI/RFI noise.

One hidden issue in digital transmission is ground loops which can and do occur and seem to increase jitter levels so high that it causes audible degradation. In an ideal world, all DAC's are isolated from this but not all are. This is also made much worse with switching power supplies like a laptop's wall wart or PC. Sadly, DAC's do not have any indicator of this. There's no light that says "ground loop" or "excessive jitter" and honestly I'd feel a little comforted if they did.

There's no reason to believe that any coaxial cable would be better than any other at reducing ground loops though, my comment was just about how and why Optical can be far superior.

Best,
E
dynaquest4's avatar
dynaquest4
445 posts
 

A thought.... who praises the significant, if not impressive, improvements in sound quality that can be achieved by buying very expensive "high end” cables?

Two groups. One - Those that manufacture, distribute and sell these products at a serious profit and Two - those who were talked into drinking the Kool Aid and would NEVER fess up to being fleeced. Actually there is a third group. This group are consumers who gulped the Kool Aid and are victims of the insidious audio placebo effect that causes you to believe you hear the advertised, albeit impossible, sound quality enhancements.

Since virtually no consumer does, or has the capability to perform, an instantaneous AB test (the only kind that are really valid) on the old/new equipment, his (now biased) expectation will allow him the pleasure of experiencing superior performance – even when there is none.


path73
11 posts
 
@dynaquest4: very quick AB lets you pick up changes but it may be advisable to validate that by switching after longer periods of time, typically several days with interruptions and sleep to get a fresh ear on it.

Another thought: if heavily processed electronica music is used to optimize your system, you will never end up with an accurate result. It is sometimes shocking to realize that loved albums are really not that good...
boxer12
8,655 posts
 
Dyna, Only 2 groups?

I'd add one more more... The group that actually can hear a difference.  
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
If placebo effect means better sound what’s wrong with that? 😳 I’ll take two at twice the price.
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