I have been trying to work out whether to buy special digital coax for a while now - so I decided to do an experiment. I bought 2 rca connecters and 2 feet of the cheapest, nastiest speaker wire that Jaycar had. I didnt even solder the connectors to the wire, I just twisted them on. I have a pair of Dali Evidence 870's for front speakers and my amp is a JVC 7.1 channel jobbie, and playing Jamiroquai's Live in Verona 5.1 channel DD DVD I could not tell the difference from the old RCA cable and the speaker wire. The amp received the Dolby Digital signals, all 5.1 channels. I then decided to get silly and I joined the 2 RCA connectors with some old 20 gauge rusty fencing wire, taking care that the 2 wires don't touch together. The thing sounded exactly the same, everything worked fine. With about 2c worth of fencing wire!!!!! I could not believe it. This is completely unsheilded, unbalanced, unsoldered and it still sounded like Jamiroquai was standing in front of me!! I think this verifies the theory that Digital signal is either there or not there. There is no way that anything more that $15 should be spent on digital coax.
Do the experiment yourself -- It costs about $4 to do.
Now that is funny :<) It just confirms my claim that there are only two kinds of cables. Adequate or not adequate for the job. If the wire carries the load for the task then it is adequate. IF it can't it is inadequate. If you replace inadequate with adequate you should be able to hear a difference. But that should be the only time. I'm surprised that the 20 guage was adequate. Did you run a Sound Level Meter to see if there was any drop in decibels?
He said as he sits here surrounded by Monster Cable and Pro-Flex cable swearing he heard an improvement ;<) At least I know they're adequate.
Mick
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I think you are correct, with digital signals it is either adequate or inadequate. As long at it gets thru everything is fine. I shudder to think of the impedance mismatch and resistance of the fencing wire, but the signal still gets thru.
I dont have a SPL meter (its on my wish list) so i can only tell you that I think it sounds the same.
I encourage anyone to do the experiment, i want to see if other digital gear will work with crap cable too.