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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author
In Reply to: RE: unshielded digital interconnector posted by tz7 on March 17, 2012 at 15:30:49
"Is there such a thing as an unshielded digital interconnector? Just about everything in my system is unshielded and its gotten better. Right now I have DH Labs 75 interconnector. "Generally, in order to maintain low jitter you will need a perfect 75 Ohms impedance over 5-10x the bandwidth of the SPDIF signal, and you just won't get it with anything but a coaxial cable (which automatically will give you some shielding as well). You won't be spending kilobucks on it either.
There are a ton of poorly done digital cables being sold by all manner of high end cable companies (some of them very well respected brands that make great analog interconnects!) at all price levels. SPDIF is a real minefield.
If you have jitter, you will get a hardness and glare in the upper midrange, a glassy screechy treble and either a bloated wooly 1-note bass, or more commonly, one much reduced and muddy bass. Also jitter reduction circuitry generally works best at the lower frequencies, and will clear up some of the midrange to treble hardness, but not all.
If you have a prefect 75 Ohm interface ... you will hear not a speck of hardness, and the bass will be BIG and detailed. (Now, your source might have jitter built in to it, in which case, garbage in/garbage out ... but the cable won't be the issue).
Also ... the main difference between shielding on analog interconnects, is the shielding will change the impedance from unshielded, and given the driving impedance is about 20 Ohms and the receiving impedance is 200 Ohms or more, this interconnect configuration might act as a tone control all things. In SPDIF it is all 75 Ohms.
One thing you may want to consider is going pure BNC input and output - the RCA connectors are not 75 Ohms and are real culprits in creating jitter. You could move to "pure 75 Ohm" BNC to RCA adapters and use a BNC based cable. Also if you will have some jitter making the cable 1-2m in length can help somewhat in rejecting jitter due to internal reflections due to impedance mismatch. (can roll off the sound a touch, but it won't have the screechy glass treble and the bass will be big)
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad"
Edits: 03/19/12Follow Ups:
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