Cables

My own view about cables? It's a fine balance between the law of diminishing returns and personal finances. After years in this hobby, it's clear to me that high-quality analog interconnects are important.

Great cables preserve signals.

Where to place the best interconnect? The best analog i.c. is from preamp to power amp. Next would be the DAC to preamp connection. The DAC receives digital inputs from various sources. Its analog output deserves an i.c. that best preserves the signal.

Properties of Quality Interconnects:

1) Good insulation and shielding

2) Low capacitance

3) Fully shielded, impedance-matched connectors

4) Connectors make good electrical contact with coaxial wire and jack

^ A generic coaxial digital cable.

Wire Gauge calculator:

http://www.v-cap.com/awg-calculator.php

What's the difference between analog vs. digital cables?

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/digitalanalog.htm

What is cable impedance and why is it important?

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/impedance.htm

What are balanced cables?

https://www.boxcast.com/blog/balanced-vs.-unbalanced-audio-whats-the-difference

AES/EBU cables:

Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcasting Union. A professional serial interface for transferring digital audio from CD and DVD players to amplifiers and TVs.

AES3 and AES3id - Short and Long Distances

AES3 uses 110-ohm shielded twisted pair (STP) cable with XLR connectors up to a distance of 100 m. AES3id uses 75 ohm coaxial cable and BNC connectors up to 1000 m.

S/PDIF

(Sony/Philips Digital InterFace) A serial interface for transferring digital audio from CD and DVD players to amplifiers and TVs. S/PDIF uses unbalanced 75 ohm coaxial cable up to 10 m with RCA connectors or optical fiber terminated with a TOSLINK (Toshiba link) connector. S/PDIF is the consumer version of AES/EBU and uses a lower signal voltage.

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Cardashians are Tops: Thanks to Josh Meredith, Brian Von Bork, Darla Dyer, The Terminators, and the shipping crew at Cardas Audio in Oregon, for their advice and technical prowess in re-terminating some old cables. Natural, relaxed, clear presentations. Cashmere for my eardrums.

Power cabling:

Uber-expen$ive "high-end" power cords. Ha. It's just free comedy. Power cables do one thing: carry electrical current. Period. Filtering noise? That's the job of well-designed passive power distributors and power regulation inside digital players. I use DIY cords bought sellers on from Canuck Audio Mart. These are 10-12 awg (net gauge = 5.3-9.3). These cords have mostly unplated red copper connectors. In my system, red Cu plugs provide high transparency without the high-frequency extension of rhodium. An enticingly warm, but still detailed midrange, with fuller bass than rhodium, make red Cu cords ideal for my ears. They excelled when placed on my DAC and amps. My digital sources also benefited from red Cu cords, sometimes with gold plating on the blades -- gold provides a tad more powerful bass, a richer midrange and sweeter highs than Cu. A tad less detailed than Cu. The End.

Here's a ranking of conductivity of different metals:

Ranking Metal (% Conductivity*)

1 Silver 105-106%

2 Single crystal copper 102%

3 Oxygen free copper 101%

4 Annealed copper 100%

5 Gold 70%

6 Aluminum 61%

7 Rhodium 38%

8 Brass 28%

9 Zinc 27%

10 Nickel 22%

11 Iron 17%

12 Tin 15%

13 Phosphor Bronze 15%

* Conductivity ratings are expressed as a relative measurement to annealed copper.