Digital Cable

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pre65
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#16

Post by pre65 »

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The Stratmangler
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#17

Post by The Stratmangler »

Thing is Mike Homar (Shian 7) has made up a number of of SPDIF cables using telecoms coax and WBT connectors (which WBT purport to be 75 ohm at the required transmission frequency).

So are BNC connectors necessary ?

Not seen Mike posting regularly anywhere lately - you still keeping an eye on the forums Mike ?
Chris :happy3:
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pre65
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#18

Post by pre65 »

Yep, Mike made one for me, it's WBP at the DAC end but phono at the transport end. Seems you need a special tool to terminate the cable properly.

Mike also sent me a big bag of mixed co ax cables that Virgin use which I have used in various projects and also some DIY interconnects.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

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al newall
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#19

Post by al newall »

The Stratmangler wrote:
So are BNC connectors necessary ?
Don't seem to be necessary. But i noticed a positive difference when i fitted a BNC socket to a CD transport. Therefore i will use them.

Cables.
Never heard expensive ones.
I have two DIY cables made from cheapish Maplins stuff. I definitely can hear a difference, but i'm never quite sure which is the best all rounder. So i tend to use the ones with the posh connectors. Maybe its the connectors that make the difference.:shock:

Also have some of Mikes cable samples, which i confess i haven't tried as yet. :oops:
Much to learn there is.
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JackOfAll
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#20

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Last edited by JackOfAll on Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Ali Tait
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#21

Post by Ali Tait »

andrew Ivimey wrote:I've just cottoned on to what Chris (and Dave) were saying. That is silly. I've just bought two (I know, I know but I can also use them as audio cables if my tellyco-ax sounds better).

But why should it!!!???? Ali says that for £45 you get a subtle improvement. I have heard interconnects that sound different and some that amazed me by the improvement they bring to the sound but how can all those 11111111 & 00000000s get lost or speeded up, slowed down or altered???? Es ca possible? Vraiment??
Well yes, but what I call a subtle improvement, some might say is night and day :)

I did think it was worth the outlay for the improvement gains. I too was using one of Mike Homar's digi cables, and good as it is, the Supra is better to my ears.
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Nick
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#22

Post by Nick »

JackOfAll wrote: The funniest..... Someone goes and spends $$$$$'s on those WBT RCA connectors which supposedly does have a 75R characteristic, and plug it into a jack that doesn't. Makes me chuckle, anyway. At least the Canare plugs are cheap if you want to waste your money.
Yep, the point of BNC connectors is they are designed to maintain a constant impedance, and so if used with matching cables on both sides should avoid reflections from the transitions. I don't see how that can be done with RCA whatever the cost (unless they end up the same as BNC, in that the cable dialectric butts up against the connector dilectric) and they are rotationally symmetric.

If anyone remembers 10BASE-T networks and the effect of missing terminators
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#23

Post by Neal »

Agreed, the AES3 standard on which SPDIF is based does spec BNC though, the choice of RCA was just for compatibility reasons. I agree with Clive how can you spec an RCA for 75R impedance then plug it into a standard RCA socket is a a bit of a laugh! I've used BNC between squeezebox and DAC and audible there is an improvement so if I would recommend to fit them if possible.
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