I remember a debate a few years back about cable for connecting digital co-ax.
I read a review where the reviewer talked about how the cable being reviewed improved the sound, etc.
That did not seem credible. If the cable did anything except provide the correct stream of bits to the player it was not working right.
I had discussed this with a person who claimed it did make sense to spend $200 on a "digital" cable. Basically he was saying a cheaper cable might introduce timing errors. As long as the timing error was shorter than a single bit wouldn't the fact that those signals are synchronized fix timing errors? A serious timing error would simply corrupt the data right?
I read a review where the reviewer talked about how the cable being reviewed improved the sound, etc.
That did not seem credible. If the cable did anything except provide the correct stream of bits to the player it was not working right.
I had discussed this with a person who claimed it did make sense to spend $200 on a "digital" cable. Basically he was saying a cheaper cable might introduce timing errors. As long as the timing error was shorter than a single bit wouldn't the fact that those signals are synchronized fix timing errors? A serious timing error would simply corrupt the data right?
Here we go again...........
Digital cables don't cause "timing errors" in the sense that the wrong bits arrive, or at the wrong time. They do cause reflections, which after going through a PLL to recover the clock, introduces jitter.
Ok.....you could stretch the point that it is a timing error. But it is called jitter, because that is what it is.
There is no promise that a "good" ($200) cable, or a "really, really good" ($2000) cable will work any better than the "cheap" ($20) cable that my company used to sell. In fact, most of them worked very poorly when compared to ours. It is a function of the impedance of the cable, and that of the circuitry on both ends, that will determine how well, or poorly, the interface will work. No way to know unti you try it.
Most cables and interfaces stink. I know...................
Jocko
Digital cables don't cause "timing errors" in the sense that the wrong bits arrive, or at the wrong time. They do cause reflections, which after going through a PLL to recover the clock, introduces jitter.
Ok.....you could stretch the point that it is a timing error. But it is called jitter, because that is what it is.
There is no promise that a "good" ($200) cable, or a "really, really good" ($2000) cable will work any better than the "cheap" ($20) cable that my company used to sell. In fact, most of them worked very poorly when compared to ours. It is a function of the impedance of the cable, and that of the circuitry on both ends, that will determine how well, or poorly, the interface will work. No way to know unti you try it.
Most cables and interfaces stink. I know...................
Jocko
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.