Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Best Coaxial cable for DSP speaker ?

I love those steampunk connectors!!

Honestly, after a lot of research, the conclusion I came to with consumer SPDIF is, as long as you have a good quality 75ohm coax, the cable is the least of your worries. It's the fact you have a non-75ohm connector (the good old RCA) on the end which is causing far more damage than the cable in most cases, due to reflections caused by impedance mismatch.

Only two RCA connectors, as far as I'm aware, claim to get anywhere near 75ohm, the Canare (only in its general construction, I've never seen any measurements showing 75ohm), and the WBT Nextgen, which apparently does measure 75ohm, and has 1Ghz bandwidth. Even the WBT, you have to use with its own socket, or you throw that away instantly. Lovely argument about it here, if anyone can be bothered to read it -

75 Ohm RCA

Personally, if I didn't feel I was getting great sound anyway, I'd pay someone to change the connectors on the speakers/source to BNC and use a good 75ohm cable. In practice, it seems well designed consumer SPDIF seems tolerant enough to be largely immune to these issues, especially when MHR is used.

I hope that thread improves, as from reading the first few pages, there are some fairly intelligent people, missing the point.

Canare RCAPs are a multi-part connector, you crimp the centre pin (which is the centre pin from their BNCs) and that then plugs into the RCA body itself.

The actual pin that makes contact with the socket is not the same pin that attaches to the cable, there is an additional interface, whose characteristics are most likely tailored to bring the CI up to the magic 75R figure.

Not sure the initial explanation is aimed at digital - I didnt expect any improvement for digital over their standard cusat cable - but the difference is there.

Both for linking HD621 to G61 (smaller difference but still a difference and for linking then ms600 now audio pc to G61 a very big difference.

All my music was 88/24 obviously so the design wors well for that sample rate.
I now have all my music 96/24 and it works equally well.

There are not many cables out there I have seen that are designed this way - that's what gives them an edge I feel and they are worth demoing 100%

I might give them a go at some point, the proof is in the pudding, after all!

It won't hurt you to try them - It would be interesting if what you hear doesn't match up with your theory based on your technical knowledge, or if you feel it does.

I think they could ship you an analogue pair as they are the same as the digital leads that way you have 2, one for each speaker. Ideally you would have 3 to try 1 from the MC200 to 818 or is that done via SpeakerLink?

Hello ,

Do you think that Mark Grant with Canare connectors, will be good with our DSP speaker? Much better (I mean musical, because less bright) than the M stock cable?

Or, for a better result, do we take the MG with WBT connectors? The price per meter is not the same ...

I have tried other cables between the Oppo and the 818, a Kimber D60 for example, and couldn't hear much difference in that application, whereas with analogue cables Kimber Select made a huge difference to me. All other connections are now SpeakerLink anyway.

I have it on good authority the original M cables are actually pretty good. Maybe try them with a pair of WBT Nextgens and see how you get on?

Hi Remy,

Is your goal to modify the sound of your system to one which you prefer or to see what difference altering the digital cable can make?

If the first, I suggest you have a wide range of alternative free options. The on-board DSP capabilities of your processor and speakers provide a range of programmable options which could support the changes you wish to make: Tilt could strengthen the bass and soften the treble, Axis in my systems affects intelligibility of voices, etc., etc. All such changes are quickly and easily compared and reversible. You might even revert to the standard processor software to see if that is an improvement...

Your room position and treatments are also ways of experimentation but there is a thread elsewhere on that subject.

I suggest that stock Meridian cables are probably well-engineered and meet the SPDIF standards. If you try alternatives, they may introduce euphonic improvements by varying from that standard. I recently replaced the 8m long standard M- and S- leads in my smaller system with some Atlantic 1m SPDIF cables, purely to tidy things up. I think the sound is better in terms of bass extension, treble sweetness, separation and dynamics but would not swear to it and I have done no back-to-back testing. Was this perceived change caused by the change of cables - who knows? BUT, I not only changed the make of cable, I also changed the lengths, the routing and, of course, cleaned the processor and speaker connections just by the act of unplugging and plugging the cables. All these variables may be candidates for any change in sound - if indeed it exists.

Good luck with your experiments and please let us know what you find.

Hi Gianni,

Thank's for the reply. It's interesting.

In fact, I do not want to modify the sound. I just want to give the best to my digital speaker. And the best is cables having an impedance of 75 Ohms. M stock digital cable are further away from the norm.

And obviously, only cables with Canare or WBT RCA connectors are very close to 75 Ohms. Mark Grant, Belden, River Silver, Missing Link, and Canare coaxial cables, have all such of connectors.

Regards

So you want to spend money making sure the cable is in itself precisely 75 ohms, even if it will make no difference to the sound?

I think it will affect the sound. All those who have experienced it, say you lost the typical digital "edginess".

The sound would be (can be) just more musical. Of course, I'm not sure, but I think it's worth to try.

R�my,

Where are you getting the information that the supplied Meridian cable is not 75ohm?

Also, just to avoid any misconceptions, as I posted earlier, no SPDIF cable using any RCA connector can really be 75ohm, end to end, unless you chance the socket also - the second it's plugged into an RCA connector of a different impedance, you essentially throw away any advantage gained by using a 75ohm type RCA plug. So, for example, the WBT nextgen plug gains little to no improvement unless you replace the stock RCA socket with their own 75ohm one?

So... unless you're wanting to modify your equipment, you're never going to have a perfect 75ohm cable including the connections on both ends anyway? IF you were going to modify your equipment to have different sockets, I'd go the whole hog and just use a proper 75ohm BNC which is purpose designed to have that characteristic impedance.

So... If you're leaving the stock sockets in place, just use the best quality 75ohm coaxial you can afford, well constructed and shielded, and with decent quality connectors. The Canare are great for a number of reasons, and the WBTs are too, just don't misunderstand that this will give you a 75ohm connection without replacing the sockets too.