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what are some of the best digital cables, besides ack's own, for the ack! dac? price within reason.
anyone tried the dh labs d-75?
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Tried briefly between Proceed CDD and DAP.Nothing spectacular, pretty much on par with Signal Cable, which is 1/2 the price. Something like Zu Ash or PS Audio Dig. Ref. is in different league entirely.
Well, don't know why it sounds best (to me), but I'm sticking with my DIY QED analogue cable with BNC at the source, and RCA at the load. This QED was available in bulk over 20 years ago. It gives me a wonderful soundstage, width and height beyond the speakers, a full bodied voice in the middle, maybe a little too forward for some, plenty of bass, a little bit of edge to add sparkle, but no where near the brightness of DH LABS. I guess it all boils down to system synergy. This was my second round of shoot out with various connectors and cables in as many years. Lots of borrowing of factory finished cables as well as soldering bncs, rca's in and out of both the source and load gear. Experimenting with cable lengths and terminations. I've played with Harmonic Technology, Straightwire, Acoustic Zen, Cardas, Vampire as well as purchasing cheapies just to through into the mix. I really wanted to find an expensive reference cable to strive for. Who'd of figured the QED couldn't get kicked off the hill. Bottom line is if at all possible, experiment with loaners first. And do lots of audio aslum reading to help narrow down the possibilities. Cable swapping can do some amazing things to your system. (P.S. One of the biggest helps when doing all this is to have a second set of ears. And a semi-decent second CD player, eg. an all-in-one, to use as a baseline reference playing the same copy of the CD in synch proved quite helpful. Then during all the cable swapping with your main source, you just switch between line inputs to see how if compares to the fixed baseline.) Good luck.
did try (pulsar) smaller lengths as I said I would in an earlier post. this cable really does smooth things out, yet remains detailed. quite amazing actually. midrange, eg voices still a little recessed for me. again likely system synergy. otherwise it does do what it claims to.
I put together a 1.5m DH Labs with BNC Vampire at both ends. Vampire BNC jacks also on my P3A Dac and Roksan Caspian CD. Tons of detail/brightness which was a little overwhelming for me as I listen in the nearfield. In this case the highs tend to overlap each other across the soundstage. However might be your cup of tea if that's what you are looking for, or depending how far apart your speakers are.Alternatively, same DIY configuration using VH Audio Pulsar cable, quite the opposite effect. Extremely black background. Better bass and rhythm, highs are still there, jumping out at you out of nowhere, as opposed to the DH Labs, but voices (midrange?) somewhat recessed for me. What it does well, it does really well. I'm silently cheering I can somehow get more out of it.
Neither cable has been allowed much break-in, so these just initial impressions. Am going to try some under .5m lengths and different connectors.
Tried a Straightwire Infolink. That was really nice. Very smooth but very expensive.
I'm back to tinkering and maybe end up with something in the middle.
Hope some of this info helps you out.
Cheers
Try Audio Metallurgy digital cable with upgraded connectors, they always auction them on Audiogon. I have bought two from them, very good cable for the money, it will blow the Stereovox(old) out of water, and I had compared it to one $400 plus digital cable I had, Audio Metallurgy is better, but needs 270 hours break in time, it was a pain. Check them out, you can have them for 30 days trial, don't like them? Send it back.
With my Ack Ack 2.0, I'm using a "Wyde Eye" 75 ohm cable from Apogee Electronics (not the defunct speaker company). Like it better than the one that came with the unit, and it cost less than $50 as I recall. Sorry, don't have a link.
I don't own and haven't heard the Ack Dac so this may not apply, but I'm getting good results with a Stereovox XV2 digital cable between my 47 Labs Shigaraki 4716 transport and a MHdt Laboratory Paradisea DAC. The older HDXV Stereovox cable is mentioned on the Ack website along with a description of the sound. The newer XV2 is supposed to be an improved version of this cable. There is a review of it on enjoythemusic.com at the link below. The only other cable I tried that bettered the XV2 was a much more expensive Audio Note AN-Vx interconnect used as a digital cable.
The new Stereovoxcable is excellent and well worth the money.I have the Apogee Wyde Eye RCA and it is good for the money, but not in the same league.
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