"Glenn Richards" wrote in message
...
Mark R Penn wrote:


I then sent the digital output of the Technics player into an Arcam Black
Box 50 offboard DAC, and repeated the experiment.

This time there WAS a quite dramatic improvement in the sound each time
you went up the scale. Tighter and deeper bass, better projection and
soundstaging, more detail.

Now this I DO take issue with. The data that goes between player and DAC is
EXACTLY the same regardless of cable. In fact, I have done an experiment
where I used literally a short bit if wet salty string between CD player and
DAC, and the decoded audio was identical to using a correctly matched 75 ohm
cable. S-PDIF and AES/EBU is extremely rugged and will withstand a lot of
abuse. Cable-induced jitter could be an issue with an inferior DAC that
doesn't reclock the data adequately, and this may be the case with the Arcam
unit, I don't know the details of their receivers, but even with a poor DAC
receiver, whilst there may be a difference between a good 75 ohm cable and
something very inferior (very poor impedance match) there would be
negligible difference between two 75 ohm cables of normal domestic lengths.

S.