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Squeezebox Classic -> Audioquest G-Snake -> Benchmark DAC1 -> AKG K701

Sorry for going off topic, perhaps we need to...

Curious as to how the G-Snake fits in to what I believe would be a digital connection. Are you using just one of the G-Snake as a coaxial spdif cable?

RG

Yep... I already had a pair of G Snake's lying around and have not felt the need to buy a digital cable yet... Also considering that the Benchmark is excellent at dealing with Jitter, I'm not sure if I'd notice any real benefit from using a digital cable (But eventually I'll probably get one to try anyway)...

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Yep... I already had a pair of G Snake's lying around and have not felt the need to buy a digital cable yet... Also considering that the Benchmark is excellent at dealing with Jitter, I'm not sure if I'd notice any real benefit from using a digital cable (But eventually I'll probably get one to try anyway)...

Yes, Benchmark products are good at reducing jitter but they don't eliminate it completely. So if you could lower the jitter going in that would lead to even lower jitter after Benchmark's jitter reduction techniques were applied. Considering how revealing the 701's are the difference would easily be worth wile.

After playing around with a number of digital cables recently I was surprised with the amount of difference that a really great 75 ohm cable made over the standard quality. Unfortunately, many cables aren't built in such a way that allows them to be even close to 75 ohms. Of course the fact that the RCA connector isn't ideal for the application doesn't help. Unlike analog cables there wasn't much difference between different digital cables in the lower price ranges. For the most part they all sounded grainy and two dimensional. But once I got into the pricier stuff the difference between those and the inexpensive one was pretty large. High frequencies became smoother, sweeter, and more extended and the presentation was much more 3-dimensional.

IIRC, JA has gone on record on this forum claiming you don

Ajani: +1 on the "stop complaining".

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IIRC, JA has gone on record on this forum claiming you don

It really is THE WAY that the cable is terminated. For the most part the cheaper, mass produced (or semi mass produced) cables aren't terminated properly for use in 75 ohm applications. So as another poster stated if you hand terminate an inexpensive cable PROPERLY it can perform quite well. Of course finding a properly terminated, modestly priced cable is possible. They just aren't real common.

Yes, definitely 2 meters is the way to go on digital cable.
And BlueJeans is likely the best way to ensure 75ohms.

RG, do you have the slim link that explains this?

I will try, shorter cables give rise to the ghosting effect.
The DAC may re-see the voltage of the primary signal. A longer cable reduces or removes this problem since the ghost signal arrives too late.

Please forgive me in advance for this very non technical explanation.

It doesn't surprise me that your BlueJeans cable hasn't been bested.

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RG, do you have the slim link that explains this?

I thought you did an admirable job explaining this but I did stumble across the LINK in another one of Phil's posts.

RG

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Yep... I already had a pair of G Snake's lying around and have not felt the need to buy a digital cable yet... Also considering that the Benchmark is excellent at dealing with Jitter, I'm not sure if I'd notice any real benefit from using a digital cable (But eventually I'll probably get one to try anyway)...

Yes, Benchmark products are good at reducing jitter but they don't eliminate it completely. So if you could lower the jitter going in that would lead to even lower jitter after Benchmark's jitter reduction techniques were applied. Considering how revealing the 701's are the difference would easily be worth wile.

After playing around with a number of digital cables recently I was surprised with the amount of difference that a really great 75 ohm cable made over the standard quality. Unfortunately, many cables aren't built in such a way that allows them to be even close to 75 ohms. Of course the fact that the RCA connector isn't ideal for the application doesn't help. Unlike analog cables there wasn't much difference between different digital cables in the lower price ranges. For the most part they all sounded grainy and two dimensional. But once I got into the pricier stuff the difference between those and the inexpensive one was pretty large. High frequencies became smoother, sweeter, and more extended and the presentation was much more 3-dimensional.

Update:

I received my Audioquest VDM-X Digital Interconnect today. Replacing the G-Snake with the VDM-X seemed to yield an immediate improvement in the overall sound...

However, since I'm not really in an 'audiophile' mood I won't be dedicating hours of A/B comparisons to determine the extent of the improvements (or if the improvements are just my imagination)...

As far as I'm concerned, If a $35 cable can make my setup sound better (whether real or imagined) then it was money well spent...

Maybe, when I'm really bored I'll do that painstaking A/B comparison...

Glad to hear the good news. Digital cables were the hardest cable for me to accept as making a difference.