If you're willing to wait a little, I'd recommend this guy for cables https://www.etsy.com/shop/impactaudiocables
Your conclusions about USB vs SPDIF are the same as mine, the best thing it does is free up a USB port for other stuff.
Those custom cables do look nice... I kinda wish I had tried one of those.
BUT. Well, I already got the ... $300.00 6ft audiophile cable from c3audio.com for the HD 650 for XLR on the Jot in the mail today.
... Hm. Honestly I didn't know what to expect lol. And I'm uncertain what changes the cable made and what changes balanced (unbalanced input from Modi Multi) made.
Makes me really wish I could demo a bunch of cables and headphones, and A/B them with the Jot.
What's the verdict though? Moving from stock Sennheiser SE to c3audio XLR?
Well unfortunately, I'm more of a casual audiophile, or at least I don't have the same experience that most people here do.
What I CAN say, which you can take with a grain of salt:
It's kind of like I was wearing slightly tinted sunglasses with the Foobar2k ASIO lossless FLAC -> Optical -> Modi Multi -> PYST -> Jotunheim SE.
Some things sounded absolutely magnificent, but others... well it felt like it was missing something.
Whether it's Jot's XLR (unbalanced input though), or the magic of the $300 cable or the combination; I've taken off my tinted glasses with the new cable and it's what I wanted.
There seems to be greater clarity, and a seemingly more realistic, more believable sound. Not sure if it made it any brighter, or the bass any less... but it just sounds full and great.
I'm quick to doubt myself, and I have poor audio memory, but before I would always have this sense that some content left something to be desired. This just sounds better.
A bump in the direction I was hoping for! An expensive bump... but in any case it sounds beautiful.
I would love to hear someone else's opinion on the cable, someone who has experience and has stuff to compare it to. The 14 day full money back return policy (under 600$) is what sold me.
...I hate that I spent so much, but it *is* wonderful.
And mostly from others: how much difference the SE vs the XLR input on the Jotunheim makes when using an unbalanced source like the Modi Multibit?