Digital Coaxial cable recommendations

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by thetman, Mar 6, 2019.

  1. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Mytek has BNC connectors.
     
  2. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Sure, some does, and some has a full slate of more common "pro" options -- BNC and AES. But most digital audio equipment for the home market doesn't. Honestly, I'm a little surprised it hasn't become standard for home digital audio. Yeah, the BNC jacks are a little bigger but I'm sure they can be made to fit most of the typical casework pretty easily and not much more if at all more expensively than RCA.
     
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  3. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    The frequencies of S/PDIF, ~3MHz, are still not high enough that we need to involve characteristic impedance (which is composed purely of the capacitive and inductive components of the cable), as a home digital audio cable is not long enough to be considered to act as a transmission line. These frequencies have a wavelength about 50 meters long in coax cable, a much longer wavelength than our cables. We aren't going to upset power delivery by attenuation from mismatch loss.

    If you are running AES3id digital coax for a kilometer, then BNC and qualified cable is advised.

    The terminators would have to upset the balance between L and C to affect the characteristic impedance anyway.

    If you want more math than is enjoyable about RF transmission, Microwaves101 | Transmission Lines
     
    Ingenieur, h46e55x, Jim N. and 2 others like this.
  4. TheVinylAddict

    TheVinylAddict Look what I found

    Location:
    AZ
    You're on the right track - being a digital cable you don't have to break the bank - then consider it's ultimately a 1694A RG6 cable Belden 1694A Technical Specs - and with that knowledge you can easily shop better prices. The BJ does have a nice, lower capacitance connector though, really no need to shop if you are looking for very good quality. (I own BJ 1505F and LC-1 cables for my analog..... other brands for 1694 currently)
     
    Designsfx likes this.
  5. DrZhivago

    DrZhivago Hedonist

    Location:
    Brisbane Australia
  6. SONDEKNZ

    SONDEKNZ Well-Known Member

    I have RCA (only) COAX DIGITAL OUTPUT on my Rega CD transport.

    My Chord Qutest has both BNC (R & L), OPTICAL INPUT and RCA COAX INPUT options.

    Without getting into a discussion about which BRAND of cable - and bearing in mind that ADAPTORS are available - which OUTPUTS and INPUTS should I use for best CD sound?

    (I don't have the means to try every combo......)
     
  7. SONDEKNZ

    SONDEKNZ Well-Known Member

    (Rega also has OPTICAL OUT...)
     
  8. Grateful Ed

    Grateful Ed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    If I had the choice I would go coax if for nothing else that it’s a more robust connection than optical.
     
  9. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Marketing. Profit. Because people pay those prices!
    I simply LOVE Blue Jeans because they explain everything clearly (I'm an engineer). And they were the only ones I saw to talk about eye pattern testing of HDMI cables.
    As an engineer I'm highly sceptical that exotic cable constructions can influence the sound significantly. As a scientist I have to admit to few tests thereof, and also note that grounding and shielding and antenna effects could influence certain systems and not others. And also note that everyone's hearing is DIFFERENT, people!
     
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  10. Grateful Ed

    Grateful Ed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    Big fan of Blue Jeans as well. Very high quality products with lots of info and no BS. The only reason I have AudioQuest Evergreen RCA interconnects is because the piece of furniture my amp is in isn’t deep enough for the rather large BJC LC-1 plugs.
     
  11. Swann36

    Swann36 A widower finding solace in music

    Location:
    Lincoln, UK
    Hi all this is a very interesting topic ... anyone had experience or comment upon my proposed purchase of a Graham Slee Lautus single cable interconnect that he sells ... 3Meters to connect via RCA from CD transport to DAC ..

    For those that don't know Graham Slee is a small UK manufacturer who sells direct so the 3m cable is only £110 which i guess is similar to Blue Jeans and i have no connection directly to them except i do have a GS Gram Amp2 SE as my phono stage on my TT ..
     
  12. noway

    noway Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2020
  13. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Well said Mike.
     
    Mike-48 likes this.
  14. Boltman92124

    Boltman92124 Go Padres!!

    Location:
    San Diego
    I have an old Tributaries silver plated video/dig cable. Forget the model #. It has a yellow jacket. The build quality is really nice. I also have 4 sets of their SC-300 IC's which are also very nice sounding. Tributaries is good stuff.
     
  15. niles300z

    niles300z Member

    Location:
    maine
    Good thread. I've got some 1694 and some high end video cables i will try. Any merit to keeping them over 2meters? Something about reflections. Regarding sound differences. I must say I haven't heard big differences but I am a believer that everything matters so I am going to keep listening. That's part of the fun of this hobby for me is trying different things almost every day. However it makes for a messy room and it can be a lot of work.
     
  16. Hellboundlex

    Hellboundlex Well-Known Member

    In my limited experience, the quality of the clock on the output device is the most important factor for whether a cable is going to be an issue. In my recent project, which was Raspberry Pi based, I used two different S/PDIF adapters. The first worked, but had issues with 192khz, sometimes, that went away with using a proper 75 ohm cable (nothing expensive, belden 1694 cable). The second, "better" one had two clocks (for 44.1 and 48 multiples) and worked regardless of cable (I still use the nicer cable).

    So, yes, be sure to get a good cable. You will have better luck for jitter with coax, better luck with avoiding ground loops with toslink. Go with coax.
     
  17. Silverwolf

    Silverwolf Occasional Esoteric Freak

    Bought a QED Reference from an authorised dealer relatively cheap (£50 for 1m), as it had been ‘opened’ but not used. Claims to have 75 ohm connectors which had been mentioned upthread as being important. Wasn’t expecting much, but needed extra length and took a gamble. I had a Gotham cable beforehand.
    Was very surprised it made a positive difference. Everything was just more there, with an increase in soundstage. In my modest system, I use my Dacmagic Plus on ‘min’ phase setting for badly mastered CD’s as it seems to boost the midrange and bass slightly, but with a loss of treble, and a little clarity and soundstage - perfect I guess for bad mastering. With the QED in this setting has much better soundstage and a bit more clarity. No idea why, I’m sure someone will tell me it’s expectation bias, but whatever, it works for me!
     
  18. CMT

    CMT Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sebastopol, CA
    But is there any particular reason to prefer a digital coaxial cable to a digital optical cable? I'm wondering about this because I've just realized that my CD player has optical coaxial ports (I wasn't aware until today that there WAS such a thing).

    Like the thread starter, I have a CD player connected to my integrated amp with an optical cable to use the DAC in the modern amplifier rather than in the 30-year-old CD player. Come to think of it though, if I were to connect the two machines using a pair of digital coaxial cables, which DAC would I be using??? These things are so confusing.

    So: 1. Which DAC if connected with digital co-axial cable. 2. Any reason to think I'd get better sound one way or the other?

    Sorry, I don't mean to redirect the thread but, essentially, if a digital coaxial connection WOULD be desirable over an optical cable, I'd have the same question as the thread starter. WHICH digital coaxial cable and I'd be thinking about up to about the same price range.
     
  19. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    What model of integrated amp do you have? It may have an option to select your digital input. In fact, I'm pretty sure it must.
     
  20. talkingh

    talkingh Vibes Controller

    Location:
    London
    Think you are limited to 24/96 with optical cables
     
  21. I've been using an Amazon Basics 0.90 meter Coaxial digital cable to which I put a ferrite filter on its end (before the A/D converter S/PDIF connector) and it works like a charm even at 192/24, not a single glitch in over a year, and imaging and overall sound is great given the price of the components. These are a Sony X-800 UHD BD/multiplayer and a Topping D50 D/A converter.
     
  22. jfine

    jfine Forum Resident

  23. PhilCo

    PhilCo Forum Resident

    Location:
    san jose
  24. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    Your CD player has dual digital inputs (toslink and spdif) and dual digital outputs (toslink and spdif).

    The DAC within you PD-HS7 is used:
    -when you spin a CD and output the audio over the RCA analog ports
    -when you connect a digital audio device to the digital inputs and output the audio over the RCA analog ports to your integrated amp

    The DAC within your PD-HS7 is not used:
    -when you spin a CD and output the digital audio over the digital output ports
    -when you connect a digital audio device to the digital inputs and output the digital audio over the digital output ports to your integrated amp

    You have control over which input is selected in your Outlaw RR2160.
    You have control over which output is selected in your Pioneer Pd-HS7.
     
    CMT likes this.
  25. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta

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