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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
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Since we are talking about a digital signal (digits/numbers) and not analog sound you would think any cable would do. However, a bad or weak cable can affect the timing and pace of the digital signal, making your digital clock and jitter control work overtime among other things.
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
gotta disagree guys. my dac/pre (accuphase dc-330) allows multiple connections between it and a transport (accuphase dp-90, in my case). i have connected between the two: 6 9's (.99999996 pure copper) coax, toslink and opitcal cables ( i can also use aes/ebu but my transport doesn't have an ouput for such a connection). with the remote for the 330, i can toggle between the connections virtually instantaneously. there's a big perceived difference among the three connections that even the uninitiated appreciate; the optical always wins. this may be one of 'em subjective/objective mysteries but, nonetheless, everybody, i mean everybody, can hear the difference among these connections. i think maybe some of our inscrutible cosmoligists are right: despite what einstein theorized, the speed of light ain't really constant.
dtf's avatar
dtf
11 posts
 
I think that the placebo effect can be blamed for most of it. Analog cables can be very effected by the impedence match with the components they are connect to, and construction approach. Any properly functioning digital cable would be indistinguishable from any other. The only people benefiting from overpriced digital cables are the manufacturers who make them and the retailers who sell them. Let the retailer take a blind test and see if they can really tell the difference.
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
dtf: yeah, and i bet your wife/girlfriend is indistiguishable from nicole kidman. or is that just the placebo effect?
nilthepill
842 posts
 
I have to say they DO sound different. I don't know why. They DO! I tried 4 different cheap to mid priced cable and they all sound diffrent. I am using the Music meter amd MIT T3 for DVD and CD player respectively. If you cant't tell any difference, probably your system is mid resolution or yor ears might be......
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