[Music Matters]

When I first got my BDP-1, I had an old 110 ohm digital cable by XLO that I had used previously - and successfully - with other hardware. When I used it with the BDP-1 into my DAC, I was not pleased with the dynamic range. Bass punch was lacking - the sound was thin. Since I had Straightwire cables in the rest of my system, I called Straightwire's Steven Hill. He suggested that I obtain their 110 ohm Info-Link cable. I bought a 1 metre length. I am here to tell you that cable made a HUGE change in the sound, as in WOW. Steven said that with various combinations of hardware and digital cables, there can be signal reflections generated between sending and receiving units (BDP-1 and DAC) that can cause degradation in sound. He was absolutely right about degradation of the sound. The dynamic range is now wide open and the sound is so fluid, smooth, and wonderful. Soundstage and dynamic range are both expansive. So the choice of digital cable is CRITICAL based upon my experience.

One other point Mr. Hill made to me. He strongly recommended using the 110 ohm AES/EBU implementation where feasible because he said the bandwidth is much greater compared to the 75 ohm RCA or BNC implementation. So I have stayed with only the balanced AES/EBU 110 ohm digital cable. Enjoy!!

[Big Red Machine]

Probably no benefit to using an AES cable if only the DAC end has the xlr connection and the other is a Touch or other device with SPDIF, correct?

When I first got my BDP-1, I had an old 110 ohm digital cable by XLO that I had used previously - and successfully - with other hardware. When I used it with the BDP-1 into my DAC, I was not pleased with the dynamic range. Bass punch was lacking - the sound was thin. Since I had Straightwire cables in the rest of my system, I called Straightwire's Steven Hill. He suggested that I obtain their 110 ohm Info-Link cable. I bought a 1 metre length. I am here to tell you that cable made a HUGE change in the sound, as in WOW. Steven said that with various combinations of hardware and digital cables, there can be signal reflections generated between sending and receiving units (BDP-1 and DAC) that can cause degradation in sound. He was absolutely right about degradation of the sound. The dynamic range is now wide open and the sound is so fluid, smooth, and wonderful. Soundstage and dynamic range are both expansive. So the choice of digital cable is CRITICAL based upon my experience.

One other point Mr. Hill made to me. He strongly recommended using the 110 ohm AES/EBU implementation where feasible because he said the bandwidth is much greater compared to the 75 ohm RCA or BNC implementation. So I have stayed with only the balanced AES/EBU 110 ohm digital cable. Enjoy!!

[Music Matters]

Right. The BDP-1 will output either 110 ohm through its AES/EBU jack, or will output 75 ohm through its SPDIF BNC jack. In order to have proper implementation, the 110 ohm interface will have to be connected to a DAC with a similar AES/EBU input; same for the 75 ohm with either BNC or RCA terminations. If your DAC does not have a BNC input (oftentimes the 75 ohm jack is RCA), you can either use a BNC/RCA adapter, or more preferably order your cable with BNC for the BDP-1 end and RCA at the other end for your DAC.

[dubkarma]

When I had Bryston install their DAC module in my BP-26, the technician in charge fitted, at my request, one BNC digital input and one RCA. This allows me to use a BNC-BNC digital cable with the two digital players I have (Teac VRDS 25 & 25X) that have custom S/PDIF digital output boards on BNC.

In general, BNC achieves the 75 ohm S/PDIF spec better than RCA, or so I've heard...