[Sebastian.Athea]

I got a new set of Blue Jeans toslink cables, and when I touch the connector with my fingers or something metal audio cuts out but that doesn't happen if I poke it with something plastic, this only happens if sampling rate is 88.2khz or higher and if I use those specific cables, and if cables are connected to toslink switch. and it happens only with input connectors (to the switch and to the dac). It doesn't happen if I use different cables or if cable is connected directly to the dac. It's weird as hell, does anyone know why is it happening?

 

[taffy2207]

Static?

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

Static?

Any idea how to fix it? It didn't happen with generic cables from supermarket.

 

[bigshot]

Sounds like a defective cable. I'd exchange it.

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

Sounds like a defective cable. I'd exchange it.

I bought 3 cables with different lengths, it's happening with all of them.

 

[bigshot]

Could it be the grounding of whatever you're plugging them into rather than the cables themselves? Try them with a different DAC and source.

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

Could it be the grounding of whatever you're plugging them into rather than the cables themselves? Try them with a different DAC and source.

Tried that already, plugged the cables into the active toslink switch same thing, plug the cable directly into a dac same thing, it happnes with both pc (creative recon3D PCIe) and ps3. It also happens on 88.2 or higher sampling rates only, 48 and 44.1 work fine.

 

[bigshot]

Can you get those sampling rates to work with a different cable. I’d try systematically swapping things in and out to determine where the problem is.

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

Can you get those sampling rates to work with a different cable. I’d try systematically swapping things in and out to determine where the problem is.

Yes, on generic cables I can get 176.4 from PS3 without issues, but on Blue jeans there is no sound at all on 176.4khz.

 

[bigshot]

That is very strange. I guess you should just use the generic cables and return the blue jeans then. Let them know when you return it. They might be able to fix the problem.

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

That is very strange. I guess you should just use the generic cables and return the blue jeans then. Let them know when you return it. They might be able to fix the problem.

Yeah, I think I'll do that.

 

[Arpiben]

Are you sure your generic cables do also have metallic parts/covers at the extremities and not plastic ones? Your DAC is most probably not earth/grounded via AC plug. Same should apply to your SPDIF switch.
Therefore by touching it your body is interfering (resistive ,capacitive path to ground). Do not touch it and it should be fine.
Remove the plastic termination of your generic RCA and touch the remaining termination and you should have the same behavior.

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

Are you sure your generic cables do also have metallic parts/covers at the extremities and not plastic ones? Your DAC is most probably not earth/grounded via AC plug. Same should apply to your SPDIF switch.
Therefore by touching it your body is interfering (resistive ,capacitive path to ground). Do not touch it and it should be fine.
Remove the plastic termination of your generic RCA and touch the remaining termination and you should have the same behavior.

I'm talking about toslink not rca. Crackling noises happen every 5-10 seconds, touching it just makes it a lot more noticeable. Some of my generic TOSLINK cables have metal covers some don't, regardless they all work fine, unlike Blue Jeans TOSLINK cables.
I have been using Blue Jeans copper cables for years for everything from component video, analog audio, to digital audio and video, they have all performed flawlessly, this is the first time I'm using their toslink cables and to say that I'm disappointed would be putting it lightly.

 

[Arpiben]

Hi @Sebastian.Athea ,

You are perfectly right, watching your video I got the wrong idea that you were dealing with an SPDIF cable instead of a fiber (Toslink).
My misunderstanding, sorry. Then return your Blue Jean optical fiber.
Is the picture dealing with your DAC? Can you tell us more about your Toslink switch ? Just curious since I understood (maybe wrongly) that you don't have the reported issue when switch is bypassed. Correct?

 

[Sebastian.Athea]

Is the picture dealing with your DAC?

Yes.

Can you tell us more about your Toslink switch ?

I don't know much about it, it's more than 10 years old, and it was made by Specialty AV.

Just curious since I understood (maybe wrongly) that you don't have the reported issue when switch is bypassed. Correct?

actually it doesn't have anything to do with the switch, I thought that it did because PS3 was connected directly to the dac and it worked. I later discovered that it worked because it was outputting 48khz, when I tried playing 88.2knz file on PS3 the same thing happened, no matter if it was connected to the dac, switch or toslink input on my sound card.