I'm assuming your point is rhetorical, as it should be, because you're right. First of all, assuming -- assuming -- a DAC with a decent bit of RAM and a re-clocking function, transport and cable are irrelevant, so long as you are actually getting all the bits. The Squeeze Box is a bit perfect transport. So is an inexpensive CD player from Best Buy. Is the latter jittery? Ya betcha; but that's the DAC, not the Transport. You can overbuild something until it is a Hummer, but that doesn't really mean it's better...it just means you feel better. This is not rocket science. People claim to hear all sorts of things, including Bybee filters, Tice clocks, and very expensive cables. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Chuck Hinton, McIntosh's technical rep, recommends using low voltage outdoor lighting cable, 14awg, for speakers. This with $10k amplifiers and even more expensive speakers.
Shoot-outs are interesting. On pro audio circles -- and these are people who actually understanding audio and make it their living -- for instance, the Lavry DAC beats out all the competition, except, by a slight margin for some, Lavry's $8,000 DAC. It's even considered to be on par with an Audio Prism $9.5k DAC. I bought mine on sale for $855. However, when you turn to some audiophile circles, people find they prefer this or that, or need tube "buffers" and battery PSUs, etc. According Lavry himself and others...for a 3 foot or under run (my digital cable, from Blue Jeans Cable, is 2 feet) of cable, assuming a well-made DAC, the cable itself is pretty much irrelevant. Throw your money at room treatments, EQ, room correction systems, etc. instead. dpayeur;137399 Wrote: > Hello all, > > I do not mean to start a flame war here but could someone please > explain to me the difference between a 20$ and a 350$ cable for digital > signals (coax or optical). I do not have a golden ear or anything but I > have a good ear, and a degree in electrical engineering. > > I do understand the need for well made, high quality, well shielded, > low resistance, low capacitance cables when transporting weak high > frequency analog signals that are very sensitive to noise, like > component video, or analog audio. Even then the advantage of a 300$ > cable over a 50$ WalMart one is unclear to me. I also understand the > need for a high gauge cable for speakers. Then again, I'm pretty sure a > 12 gauge extension cord is sufficient, but not as elegant... > > But when dealing with a digital signal, isn't it right to assume that > if any of the signal gets there without obvious (and sometimes > violents) drops and interruption then the signals is *100%* intact. Why > pay more than needed for cables. I mean, my 5$ EIDE unshielded hard > drive ribbon cable has been delivering terabytes of digital data > without much trouble for years now. > > Please enlight me about all this. How could a bit of data be added or > dropped without screwing the whole sample in an audible way (even with > error correction). > > Maybe I don't have the right audiophile gene (or the right wallet) :-) > > thanks > Donald -- highdudgeon SB3->Lavry DA10->Nuforce 9.02s->Harbeth Monitor 30s/Skylan stands. Simple and satisfying. In a larger room, I would move back to larger speakers, subs, and probably RCS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ highdudgeon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2195 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27452 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
