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In Reply to: RE: Digital coax cable length posted by Peter C on July 17, 2017 at 11:20:22
In practical terms unless you have significant impedance mismatch at each end of the cable (source and load), it's not going to matter if you go with .5m, 1m, 1.5m, 2m, etc. Reflections occur due to mismatch. Even with slight mismatch it's not going to matter a lot because the signal arriving at the load end will be amplified and reshaped. There may be a theoretical 'ideal' but whether it really matters and is plainly audible is another story.
Follow Ups:
Maybe I should just order .5 and 1.5 meter lengths of the cable I'm considering and try to hear a difference between the two. I've heard that the Wireworld Gold Starlight 7 is excellent. Perhaps my "non-digital" .5m Audioquest Coral is doing a fine job right now.
It won't hurt to go with 1.5m, but as you mentioned you could try .5m as well and see if you can hear a worthwhile improvement with 1.5m.
Years ago I ran a few meters of cheap Belden RG59 75-ohm coax cable between my 5-disc CD changer and my DAC. Works great, sounds great! But at 50-cents a foot definitely not audiophile approved. ;-)
How did you connect the RCA plugs? I hear crimping is better than soldering, which can change the impedance.
You're faced with an impedance mismatch anyway if your source & DAC have RCA jacks on them. RCA jacks and plugs were never designed to accommodate 75-ohm coaxial cabling and maintain constant impedance.I'm not suggesting that you use RG59 coax but....
RG59 (and RG6) coax are 75-ohm. F connectors are also 75-ohm. These are typically used for Cable TV hook-ups. My RG59 cable came with crimped F connectors on each end. I used type F to RCA adapters on each end for my CD changer and DAC. Technically not ideal, practically it works fine and sounds fine.
However, if you need only .5 - 1.5m or so I would just buy an audiophile brand digital cable with RCAs attached rather than dealing with adapters. If you feel better about buying 1.5m, go for it. It won't make a practical difference but since when are audiophiles practical? ;-)
My reason for using RG59 is that it is 75-ohm, it is cheap, I needed a longer length, I already had several lengths of it on-hand. I just needed a couple adapters.
Type F to RCA Adapters
Edits: 07/19/17 07/19/17
Thanks for the info! Very helpful.
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