I have an update after a year. During the year, in addition to having the HD 800, I also added an Amphion monitoring system (Amphion One15 + Amphion Amp100 + Amphion cables) which provides as much insight as the HD 800, if not more! Certain things are far more easier to hear and feel on the Amphions. If something is wrong, it's very quickly made obvious.
So to recap: these are the cables that were tested, all with Neutrik Gold connectors on XLRs and Amphenol on RCA (SPDIF). Still connecting to my DAC (Dangerous Source w/ Teradak LPS).
AES:- Grimm TPR: 2 feet
- Mogami 3173: 10 feet
- Mogami 3173: 18 feet
SPDIF:- Mogami 2964: 2 feet
- Mogami 2964: 6 feet
- Mogami 2964: 10 feet
AES vs. SPDIF: In general I preferred the AES connection over SPDIF.
Short lengths: SPDIF Mogami 2964 (2 feet) and AES Grimm TPR (2 feet) both sounded bad at short lengths. The sound is very harsh with treble bursts on both headphones and monitors. The background is also quite noisy. On the monitors especially, it becomes hard to pinpoint where the sound is exactly coming from. You know the speakers are in front of you and the sound is coming from front, yet it is really unnatural.
The 6 feet 2964 does improve over both 2 feet of SPDIF and AES. Yet the sound is still fatiguing.
Medium length: The 10 feet of SPDIF 2964 and 3173 AES are both improvements over all the shorter cables. Between the two, I prefer the AES as the background is darker. Although, I think the SPDIF might come off as slightly warmer. The image on both versions feels much more natural in comparison to the 6 feet and especially the 2 feet! The fatigue goes down easily over the shorter versions.
Long length: The 18 footer 3173 AES in comparison to the rest sounds the most relaxed. The music sounds so analog and cohesive that it actually feels as if the music has slowed down and you can see and enjoy each second. This does not happen on other lengths or even using USB on Macbook Pro via Audirvana and Amarra. This has the darkest background and makes the other connections and length sound disjointed. There is zero fatigue in both FR, soundstage reproduction, or any sizzle. The BDP-1 with this cable really DEFINITIVELY beats any other transport that I've tried so far.
Initially when I got the 3173, I thought it lacked details in comparison to the shorter cables, but overtime it became quite clear that the shorter ones were adding unwanted crap to the sound and coming off as bright. I can say without hesitation that on my system the 18 footer is the best way to listen.
For the past two months, I was using the 10 footer 3173 on the BDP-1 and using that to evaluate HD 800 with Sonarworks. Sonarworks really helped take off the edge that the both BDP-1 and Audirvana Plus without Sonarworks were producing. Although, I knew that Sonarworks was coming at a price. It didn't feel natural regardless of the filter and dry/wet settings.
4 days ago, I went back to the 18 footer version of 3173 and it felt more relaxed immediately on the Amphions. The more surprising part was that I could actually listen to the HD 800 without Sonarworks and come away fine. There were absolutely no nasty peaks with BDP-1 now. I could tell that the HD 800 had a bit of excess energy in the treble region, but it was done so well that it never felt fatiguing. This is the stock HD 800 I'm talking about! This is coming off of Sonarworks. It made that much of a difference that I would prefer the 18 footer BDP-1 over the Sonarworks on Mac.
Caveat: This might just be an issue on my particular system. I doubt there are other users using both the BDP-1 and Dangerous Source, so its hard to verify.
I know most BDP-1/2 owners here have Bryston DACs to go with them, so perhaps in that stack it might not be as apparent as they were designed with each other in mind.
HOWEVER, there are 2 things that I've noticed and learned about in the past year about whether you will have issues with digital cables or not.
1) With both SPDIF and AES, there will always be reflections to due impedance mismatch because of connectors, regardless of the components used (all Bryston or not). To what extent, depends on the design. I read up quite a bit on DIY Audio website from engineers about this very issue. Surprisingly, it's far less discussed on other forums.
2) Most people have rarely used digital cables anywhere close to 18 feet. This is partly because of the fact that 18 feet of a fancy cable would be in the several thousand dollars considering a meter can go for a few hundred dollars. I think most people use around 1 meter to 2 meter. A lot of manufacturers suggest using 1.5 meters to overcome this reflection issue as the best compromise.
However, there is very little discussion on cable length of something like 16-20 feet, which makes sense when people are stacking components on top of each other. Although, I did manage to find a few people that tested the same thing and they also found the sweet range at around 17 feet.
Why this matters!: Now I know most people are probably very happy with their current BDP setups. In my first few months with the BDP-1 I was using short cables like most people and everything sounded really good. However, it was not until I started getting longer cables that I noticed what a havoc the shorter cables were making. I needed the reference to make sense of the shorter cables.
Perhaps, this isn't a concern genuinely for some setups, HOWEVER, it is impossible to tell/predict if you have been suffering from this problem until you have tried something longer to make a reference. Remember, I thought my system had no defect at the very start as well. It was only when I tried something else could I truly make that assessment.
Suggestion to those interested: I know most Bryston owners spend several hundred to thousands on tweaking their system. If you wanted, you could get something like the 18 footer 3173 AES for around $70. I got mine custom made from Pro Audio LA. It's not expensive at all in the grand scheme of things and could be the thing holding your system back all this time. Plus, you could use this cable for both analog and digital applications in the future. It's a safe investment at a very decent price, especially in comparison to boutique products.
Literature: I haven't posted articles and studies that I've read along the way, however, if you know how to work google you can find it. Some key terms include: jitter, reflection, signal integrity, transmission line, risetime, 1.5 meters, AES, SPDIF. Lots of stuff from the past decade on DIY Audio's website.
TESING YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM: If you want to know whether you can hear the difference between various jitter or not, try this test. It takes 5 minutes and can be very useful:
http://www.cranesong.com/jitter_1.htmlEDIT: Just wanted to add that some might be wondering (as I did) if there are any negatives to using longer digital cables and causing more jitter due to the longer length. In my testing, I think at 18 feet, it is still short enough to not have any loss of information or add jitter, yet it is long enough to overcome reflections. SO ONLY POSITIVES AND NO NEGATIVES on my end. Even if there is added jitter due to the slightly longer run, I can assure you that it is some of the best sounding jitter I've heard.
