question for those knowledgeable about cables....i am currently using the cables provided with the blu 2 to connect to the dave....the bnc cables.......are these good enough or will better cables make a difference?...if so any suggestions?....thanks all!
I belong to the camp that wholeheartedly believes that cables matter. Theories abound regarding why cables should or shouldn't make a difference. Like with everything else in audio, I have learned to become empirical in my approach to cables. Either I can hear a consistent difference or I can't...theories be damned. If I question what I hear, then I blind test. I belong to a group of audiophiles that gets together regularly. We listen to music, we listen to different pieces of equipment that people bring in, and we compare. We have become quite proficient at blind testing. It is this process that has led many within our group to have purchased a DAVE. We come from different backgrounds. Some of us own modest headphone setups and a few own 2-channel speaker setups with a value in excess of $100k. Rarely are we unanimous about our preferences but one thing we are unanimous about is that cables can make a
huge difference and that DAVE is not immune to them.
My repeated experiences testing cabling with DAVE is that analog cabling makes more of a difference than digital cabling but digital cabling can still yield meaningful differences that are very much worth pursuing. I hold the belief that all cables cause harm and the best that a cable can do is to cause
no harm. Since there is no such thing as a perfect cable, then it becomes a matter of what degree of compromise we are willing to accept with our cables. As an inexpensive example, consider Uptone Audio's USPCB A/B adapter. This is a "hard USB cable" that is included with Uptone Audio's Iso Regen but can be purchased separately for $35. Essentially, it is a 4-layer PCB that incorporates a microstrip line for impedance control and the various layers are used for shielding and ground. Think of it as a circuit board extension rather than a "hard USB cable" because it has been designed to perfectly relay a USB waveform without altering signal integrity (and this has been confirmed with published eye charts). In short, this is probably as close as there is to a "perfect" USB cable or as close as there is to a USB cable that causes
no harm. Now go ahead and compare this inexpensive $35 USB "cable" to the USB cable you currently are using with your DAVE or BLU2 and regardless of how much or how little you paid for your cable, I would be willing to bet that you'll hear a notable difference with regards to greater clarity and immediacy in favor of the Uptone adapter. As another example, I am testing a prototype USB cable from a certain manufacturer that incorporates a passive filter block that filters harmonic frequencies between 100kHz and 1GHz (these are not frequencies that DAVE's or BLU2's galvanic isolation has any impact on). It will soon go on sale for about $1k and while expensive, I bet you'll be impressed by how much more airy and dimensional the presentation becomes. I assure you golden ear not necessary and that these findings can be consistently discerned even under blind testing.
Does this suggest that DAVE's (or BLU2's) galvanic isolation is ineffective or that pulse array DACs aren't truly immune to jitter as Rob says they are? On the contrary. To date, I have yet to hear a DAC that is as immune to the source as DAVE, however, my experience over the past few months (as detailed in depth on CA) suggests that while no upstream source sounds horrible on DAVE (as I have experienced with all my other DACs), some sources can sound SO much better than a basic PC or MAC and that digital cabling can make a significant difference. While I have no objective measurements to prove my theory on why this is the case, my observations, which have been supported by the observations of many other DAVE owners, suggests that upstream components and cables can impart irreparable damage to the audio waveform that are beyond DAVE's or any other component's capabilities to undo. In other words, at some point, even with all of DAVE's defenses, it becomes incapable of discerning the original waveform from artifact that has been "baked in."
With regards to whether the digital BNC cables that connect BLU2 to DAVE make a difference, I cannot offer a first-hand opinion because my BLU2 has not yet arrived but I will shocked if they don't. What is a mystery to me is that I was among the first to have heard the BLU2 back in January at CES and was told that I was among the first to have placed an order with the North American distributor as I placed my order while at CES. Nearly 8 months later, I'm still waiting for my BLU2. The good news is that my BLU2 has finally arrived stateside and I should receive it next week. Regardless of the reason for the delay, I have no doubt that BLU2 will have been worth the wait and laying in wait for my BLU2 are various digital BNC cables ready for comparison testing ranging from a $36 pair from Blue Jeans Cables to a $19k pair from High Fidelity Cables.
