Dare I Ask? Digital Cables?

Nico69

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Going to need a digital connection between the Marantz CD6007 and the PM7000n amp. I believe I can use Optical or Coax. Which is better?
Is a bog standard cheap Optical from Amazon as good as a £60 QED or Chord cable?

Can I have both RCA connectors AND an Optical link connected to the Amp at the same time? i.e. to switch between the two? I guess I'd choose Optical as the Source rather than CD Input etc?
 
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Gray

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Going to need a digital connection between the Marantz CD6007 and the PM7000n amp. I believe I can use Optical or Coax. Which is better?
Is a bog standard cheap Optical from Amazon as good as a £60 QED or Chord cable?

Can I have both RCA connectors AND an Optical link connected to the Amp at the same time? i.e. to switch between the two? I guess I'd choose Optical as the Source rather than CD Input etc?
Yes and yes to both questions.
Some of the cheapest optical can be hair thin though, so just make sure whatever you get is likely to be durable.
And no need for gold plated optical connectors 😆
 

Vincent Kars

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Which is better?
According to the standard Toslink is gapped at 96 kHz and coax at 192 kHz.
However modern Toslink often performs much better.
Toslink provides full galvanic isolation.
Wonder if you have much 192 kHz stuff.

Anyway, unless you believe in audiophile bits, get both cables and do an A/B.
I doubt if there will be any audible difference.
 

podknocker

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According to the standard Toslink is gapped at 96 kHz and coax at 192 kHz.
However modern Toslink often performs much better.
Toslink provides full galvanic isolation.
Wonder if you have much 192 kHz stuff.

Anyway, unless you believe in audiophile bits, get both cables and do an A/B.
I doubt if there will be any audible difference.
That's 100% correct. There is nothing in a TOSLINK, or phono cable, which can turn a zero into a one, or vice versa, to make the sound quality change. If all the data gets to the other end intact, it will get processed by the DAC. It is impossible for a cable to make a difference to the data and hence, the sound quality.
 

hifi

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Going to need a digital connection between the Marantz CD6007 and the PM7000n amp. I believe I can use Optical or Coax. Which is better?
Is a bog standard cheap Optical from Amazon as good as a £60 QED or Chord cable?

Can I have both RCA connectors AND an Optical link connected to the Amp at the same time? i.e. to switch between the two? I guess I'd choose Optical as the Source rather than CD Input etc?
https://www.whathifi.com/advice/coaxial-vs-optical-vs-hdmi-which-is-the-best-audio-connection-to-use good luck 😁
 

Stuart.W.D

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I use co-axial cables for my HiFi and optical to my TV/ HiFi.

I bought an inexpensive QED optical wire, which is extremely difficult to connect to both my TV and hi-fi components. It actually broke the lip on the CD players optical slot.

I bought a higher-priced coaxial cable from Audio Quest, which is the Cinnamon cable. And yes, the connection is much improved.

I also had an inexpensive USB cable for my dac and notebook. The connection was pretty loose, so I changed the inexpensive cable with a Furutech USB. Do I think cables matter yes,
Is it caused by the placebo effect many will say yes. In my experience, cheaper cables have weaker connections, and I think that contributes to a bit of signal loss.

I spend less than €100 on digital cables so don't go mad, I think around £30-50 is the sweet spot. Many people will think this is too much, but you will get better quality cable with better connection and durability.
 
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npxavar

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Going to need a digital connection between the Marantz CD6007 and the PM7000n amp. I believe I can use Optical or Coax. Which is better?
Is a bog standard cheap Optical from Amazon as good as a £60 QED or Chord cable?

Can I have both RCA connectors AND an Optical link connected to the Amp at the same time? i.e. to switch between the two? I guess I'd choose Optical as the Source rather than CD Input etc?
Did you know that an RCA cable is fine for a coaxial connection? It is true, try it.
 
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Gray

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I also had an inexpensive USB cable for my dac and notebook. The connection was pretty loose, so I changed the inexpensive cable with a Furutech USB. Do I think cables matter yes
But you're right about not going mad Stuart.
I currently have this month's Hi-fi Choice magazine open at the buying guide.

It's my duty to quote from their description of a £563 USB cable:
'Terminated with hand-made pupleheart and gaboon ebony connector housings'
(No prizes for guessing the exclusive UK distributor).
 

Noddy

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Going to need a digital connection between the Marantz CD6007 and the PM7000n amp. I believe I can use Optical or Coax. Which is better?
Is a bog standard cheap Optical from Amazon as good as a £60 QED or Chord cable?

I’m in the cheap is fine camp, but not the cheapest as you do want a decent build quality. I pay about £10 for a meter long cable, they all work fine, in fact cheapies that came with an Akai hifi are fine too. There is no need for it to made from Cornish copper, sheathed with Unicorn hide and hand assembled by pixie virgins. No need for cable risers either. 🤡
 
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Vincent Kars

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Like the one bundled free with the Marantz CD6007 ?
The standard says 75 Ohm impedance.
If you want to do it right, you need a 75 Ohm coax cable terminated with a 75 Ohm BNC. Of course your boxes should have a BNC socket as well.

Most of the time both termination and socket are RCA. This introduces a impedance mismatch as there is no such thing as 75 Ohm RCA.

Now if you use a analog interconnect, it will have an impedance but not 75 Ohm.
A rule of the thumb is the 'quarter wavelength'. If the analogue cable is shorter than ¼ of the wavelength, it will work.
Don't ask me to compute the wavelength of S/PDIF.
 
I chose a colour and length here. Made to order in a day or two.

 

Vincent Kars

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You can't go wrong with Van Damme, ad some muscle to the sound

jean-claude-van-damme-8_auto_x1_%281%29.jpg
 
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npxavar

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A rule of the thumb is the 'quarter wavelength'. If the analogue cable is shorter than ¼ of the wavelength, it will work.
Don't ask me to compute the wavelength of S/PDIF.
Assuming a 400Khz frequency (to account for 192KHz stereo) and using the speed of light in vacuum as the speed of the signal, the wavelength is 750 m, quarter of which is 187,5m.

Divided by 24 for the maximum bit-depth we get 7,8m. If it is less than 8 meter it will work, regardless of impedance?
 
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Gray

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Assuming a 400Khz frequency (to account for 192KHz stereo) and using the speed of light in vacuum as the speed of the signal, the wavelength is 750 m, quarter of which is 187,5m.

Divided by 24 for the maximum bit-depth we get 7,8m. If it is less than 8 meter it will work, regardless of impedance?
There won't be two lots of 192 for stereo.
As for the rest...I don't do maths.
 
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Nico69

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Thanks for the discussion and advice above.

So far I have gathered the following:
  • Coax is better/preferable to Optical? (though I'm not sure why)
  • Coax connectors are the same as RCA.
  • Any RCA interconnect cable will do even though it shouldn't.
  • Any cheap cable will be as good as one costing more but feel free to spend what you want? (Applies to both Coax and Optical)
  • More expensive cables might have better connectors but unless you are often unplugging/plugging in this doesn't really matter.
So if I budgeted £10 per cable from the likes of Amazon etc I can't really go wrong and the sound quality won't suffer as a result?

Cables are likely to be 1m max.

Comments please :)
 
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Noddy

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I chose a colour and length here. Made to order in a day or two.


Bear in mind that red cables will sound a bit more authoritative, and muscular. Blue cables will sound calmer, more open, and more relaxed. Black will absorb less radiant heat, and hence produce a cooler sound. Avoid brown, they sound like ****.
 

npxavar

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Shielding matters for coaxial cables, so if you can spend more than £10 please do. In the case of optical cables, from my experience I had to buy the QED "Performance Graphite" to get a clean sound as the QED "Profile" gave grainy sound. Constructing quality optical cables is more demanding than copper cables. Never bought a coaxial, only experimented with my stereo RCAs.
 

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