Another cable question

@bikeboy52 one more thought based on my personal experience…making vinyl and digital sound the same…do not chase that. Acknowledge the fact that the vinyl will most likely sound different. If you do get your vinyl and digital to sound the same, you will most likely be discouraged from playing records because why would you, with the associated maintenance and care plus inconvenience to get up and flip the record when you just barely relaxed and got the whole soundstage thing going, bother with vinyl if both types of media sounded equally good? Another aspect of trying to achieve the same level of performance from vinyl and digital is you’re going to end up neither here nor there unless you have more or less unlimited funds.
Just something to think about. I know the thoughts to focus one a single type of media/technology, in my case it’s the streaming, crosses my mind very frequently.

@bikeboy52 I'm both a DH Labs and Aurender dealer. I like the Mirage USB cable a lot for the money. I even purchased a Synergistic Research Galileo SX USB cable, as I do utilize the Galileo SX line for most of my loom. I could not tell the difference between the two, so I sold the Galileo SX USB cable off. That said, since the Pontus reclocks signal anyway, you may want to consider using a coax cable instead of USB. The origin clock inside the N200 is quite good, and reclocking it with the Pontus is likely even better. In my experience, Coax and AES have been my continued source interface, producing a thicker, more effortless sound, as I find USB to be more fragile and brittle with Aurender.

That said, for interconnects, the DH Labs Air Matrix Cryo interconnects are really quite good for the money. I prefer it over their more expensive pure silver Revelation and equate its performance to be close or equivalent to the $2K+ Synergistic Research Atmophere Level III cables. Cerious Technologies Graphene Matrix interconnects are also quite good and can be had for $700 or less on the used market. They retail for $1400, though. Any other cables I'd recommend go even higher than that. Both suggestions will be much more open and revealing than your Absolute Copper. I used a few of them early on in my journey and found them to be too rounded on the top and closed in / stuffy.

Another thought for cabling on digital - power might be even more important than the interconnect. The digital signal is incredibly delicate, and proper delivery of current without any peaks will result in a more revealing and more fatigue-free experience.

Last, the N200 is quite a good unit, and one of my favorites in the Aurender line, but it may not deliver the body of a $50K vinyl rig. I've compared the N200 to the N20 to the N30SA (all of which I've had on my floor at one time) and will say that the N200 gets you really far compared to most other streamers, the N20 gets you awfully close to reference level, and the N30SA at reference level is typically not worth it for 90+% of audiophiles. If I had never heard the N30SA, I would be quite happy with the N20. It takes some pretty serious critical listening to discern between the two. The difference is much more obvious when comparing the N200 to the N20.

Hope all of this is helpful.

Juan
Bliss Hifi

@audphile1 Thanks, very sage advice. I started streaming with a inexpensive Marantz unit. The idea being I,d stream while puttering around the house or was out in the backyard, well that was three streamers ago now and I almost never spin Vinyl cause Im gettin lazy. But the funny part is that I had a blood clot back in 2018 that almost took me out. Doctors advice for the rest if my life, “get up and move every 15or 20 minutes “ so not only do I prefer the sound of Vinyl, listening to it may let me enjoy it longer. Truth of the matter is too that my limited bankroll may make it pretty tough to achieve a vinyl like sound streaming anyway, thanks again Audphile1! @blisshifi and thanks, very interesting advice also.

Hello, I usually get these notifications via email so I’m behind on responses. I have used a lot of cables throughout my 30yrs of audio. I highly recommend you try silver cables in your system. Just because the cables are pure silver, you shouldn’t expect a certain type of sound as I’ve heard solid silver cables sound very different from each other. But in my experience, a well designed silver cable should give a very open sound with higher resolution. I personally use solid silver cables in 75% off my front end sources in the 3 systems I have setup. So the bottom line, try silver from a few different companies till you find the cable that sounds right in your system. There are some companies that sell very good inexpensive solid silver cables. I would try them instead of spending high prices for a cable you might not like. Do a search on forums to find pure solid silver cables. 

@soix , +1. I use AZ Silver Ref 2 throughout, and they are the most open, "natural", extended cables I’ve used thus far. I’d never thought a cable could seemingly widen the soundstage, but here we are. The AZ definitely do not have the stereotypical silver sound of "brightness". It’s all in the implementation. This is coming from a full loom DH Labs Revelation silvers, which are no slouch at all, but are comparatively constricted sounding only when in comparsion to the AZ Silver Ref 2.

The AZ Silv Ref 2 definitely match well coming from my Lumin T3, which is already smooth, relaxed (but plenty detailed)... In all honestly my digital rig is now 90-95% of my analog. Digital sources sound better, but analog sources (e.g. older LPs or Tone Poets) still sound better on my analog rig (Aidas Gala Gold -> Ovation -> AZ Silv Ref 2 -> Zestos Andros Deluxe 2). Anyway, these AZ Silver Ref 2 come up on sale now and then. I got mine WAY lower than MSRP, which is honestly more than I would ever pay for interconnects. My other DAC, RME-ADI2, which I use for general 2 channel / movies, fairs quite well with another set of silver cables, the Vogue Silver Strand silver RCAs, which accentuate detail without harshness, but are not in the same league as the AZ Ref 2.