[Sonny]

Ok, so, since I have an 18th month old and another on the way, I find very little time to listen to SACD or CDs, let alone vinyl.  Lately, I've been listening to the Touch a lot using both coax and toslink from my Touch to Bifrost DAC.  I currently have just the cheap mono price coax and premium toslink.  I had a Black Cat Veloce before and didn't really have time to A/B.  So I sold it. 

Now, I am wondering if the following:

-Stay with my monoprice cables (cheap and does the job)
-Get nice coax cable
-Get nice glass toslink

My problem is I feel it crazy to spend more than $70 on a digital cable since my Bifrost is only $449 and my Touch is $299.  I am looking at the value thing here.  The set up feeds into a Pass X1 pre and a Pass X250 amp.  Then to my DIY speakers.

Comments and advice????

Thanks
T

[wisnon]

A Silflex 3ft glass Toslink is $70.

Signal cable digital silver resolution 2ft is $59 on sale and $15 more for 3 feet.

Pity you missed the bin sale at liberty cables as decent coax cables were going for less than $10!!

Dont spend more than this.

[Sonny]

A Silflex 3ft glass Toslink is $70.

Signal cable digital silver resolution 2ft is $59 on sale and $15 more for 3 feet.

Pity you missed the bin sale at liberty cables as decent coax cables were going for less than $10!!

Dont spend more than this.

I agree...I was looking at the Liberty Sales, but couldn't get in on time! 
How does the Silflex Sound?

[walkern]

I've tried an assortment of toslink and RCA coax digital cables over the years, and one thing I've noticed is that I needed to spend more $ on a toslink cable to get the same quality sound as with a coax cable.  I too have a Touch, and am using toslink (older but pricey and well built Audioquest model) to feed my Dac It.  I've got an RCA based cable feed from my disc transport (an old Pioneer Elite DVD player that works REALLY well in that regard), and it clearly sounds better than the Touch feeding the DAC, UNLESS I swap cables, at which time the reverse is true.  The coax based digital cable I've discovered that I think is incredible without spending an arm and a leg is the Supra Trico.  I've had some expensive coax digital cables in the past, and this one has beat them all.  You can source it from Madisound. Here is a link: [urlhttp://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/interconnects/supra-trico-rca-single/][/url]

Hope this helps.

Neil

[wisnon]

I agree...I was looking at the Liberty Sales, but couldn't get in on time! 
How does the Silflex Sound?

Never heard it, but they are often touted as the best for a reasonable price...sometimes at ANY price. GLASS fibres.

[krikor]

My experience matches Walkern in that the cost-to-performance ratio is in favor of coax, but then I've never dropped any long green on toslink cables to know what they are capable of as the price climbs. My favorite digital cable is still the original Illuminati Datastream coax (if you can find one), but it is not easy to use given that it is solid and you have to bend it to fit between the two components you are connecting and it has HUGE true 75 ohm connectors (doesn't fit well on the Touch). I preferred this even to the old ST glass interface and AES/EBU balanced when I was running a PS Audio Ultralink DAC/Lambda Transport rig.

Currently I have my Touch and Wyred4Sound DAC-2 connected with an older Canare digital coax which is a great value in my opinion. I prefer it over my Dayton GOC glass fiber Toslink (no longer available at Parts Express).  Here's a couple current options I'm considering (I'm done for the foreseeable future spending money on mega buck cables):

Blue Jeans Cables: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/digital-audio/index.htm

Canare Digital Cable at Markertek: http://www.markertek.com/Cables/Audio-Cables/Digital-Audio-Cables/TecNec/SPDIF1-5.xhtml

Two things to consider with a coax cable - the type of connector and length of the cable. You want a 75ohm cable but RCA jacks are by nature of their design not 75 ohm (interesting read here: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/75ohmrca.htm). Thus the preference for BNC connections when possible, which are 75 ohm.  And you want a cable at least 1m long, or better yet at least 1.5m, even if you do not need that length. This helps reduce "reflections" which can increase jitter (another interesting read here, though I don't really claim to fully understand this: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm).

Shot of my favorite digital cable, the original Illuminati Datastream:

[Sonny]

Thanks all for your advice and recommendations.  I think the "general" consensus here is that 75 ohm coax is better than optical, for price/performance ratio, is that right?
I will look into the options mentioned, but has any heard or use the Emotiva version?

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/interconnects/products/xdrca

[richidoo]

A TOSLINK transceiver is fed the electrical SPDIF signal. It converts it to light with added jitter. Then converts back to SPDIF with more jitter added. So optical is technically an inferior medium. Of course a SPDIF cable or trace could be poorly designed or run next to a switching power supply and net even more jitter than the optical, but usually coax sounds better.

As for the value of digital cables, it is tempting to believe bits is bits and the cable is not as important as an analog IC, but it is crucial. I use Veloce Black Cat cable, which is reasonable performance/price. JPS Ultraconductor2 digital cable is also reasonable price for excellent performance. I have used my Blue Jeans coax wires (Belden 1505 coax) for analog and digital interconnect. I wish they sounded better because nobody has better build quality. But they do offer other wire options now which I have not heard.

[Sonny]

Ok, so i puled the trigger on a 1.5 meter Zu Ash, hopefully it will be awesome and worth it.
Will let you guys know how it compares to the monoprice coax and optilink.
anyone with any take on the Zu Ash?

Tuan