Best digital cable below $500

I don't believe in the "system dependent" rap. A great cable (especially digital) is a great cable. Worthy contenders in this category I'd include i2 digital, Audience, Ridge Street Audio MSE Gen II and the new VenHaus.

I'm very happy with a balanced Tara Decade digital cable between my Data Basic II and Gen Va. Since you seem to like Tara, why not try their Air digital?

Audio Magic Excalibur II works well in my system. Museatex DCC transport to DATA converter.

The best digital cable is one that maintains a consistent impedance that is characteristic of the devices being connected to it. On top of that, it should offer low series resistance, wide bandwidth, low dielectric absorption, minimal skin effect, low loss, etc... If the components being used are of a true 75 or 110 ohm input and output impedance, finding a suitable cable shouldn't be too difficult. Given that most components and cables don't really offer the impedance rating that they are advertised at, the search becomes more difficult and a "little bit" system dependent.

Having said that, i would recommend looking up an article that Stereophile ran about a year or two ago. This pertained to end-terminating digital cables with a resistor in order to minimize the influence of signal reflections / vswr related issues. My experience is that this can be quite beneficial to what is an already excellent cable. AS a side note, my Brother, Father and i had all selected cables designed like this without even knowing it. We did this by comparing several different cables within the confines of our systems and all came to the same conclusions. That is, a cable with a low reflected coefficient sounds better than a cable that doesn't. Sean
>

Best Digital Cable I ever heard was the Marigo Labs Apparition 5.6 - stunning!