Digital cable ND5XS to DAC

Yes it's perfectly safe. Start with that and go from there. Don't get too hung up as decent 'digital' cables can be had for as little as £25 upwards. 

James

which DAC are you using Claus? your profile doesn't mention one...?

I made my own at home and like the results — compared favorably with Naim DC-1, to my ears.  No talent or skills required.  BNC crimper is required, of course.  Standard-bin materials.

Nick

Thanks for your replies. I’ll start out with the (very) cheap basic cable and take some time to consider the options from there. 

It’s a Naim DAC, will update my profile 

Claus  

Check out flashback for cables, their prices are keen & they can make you up any cable you can dream up!

With that kind of Dac I would go for the Naim or Chord option (probably Vertere is a safe bet too), instead of a cheap alternative. Try and see for yourself. Cables can do an ENORMOUS difference sometimes (Chord Music), kind of hearing is believing but not before.

It makes a worthwhile difference to these ears at least. 

//Jonas

Claus posted:

Thanks for your replies. I’ll start out with the (very) cheap basic cable and take some time to consider the options from there. 

It’s a Naim DAC, will update my profile 

Claus  

I use 5m toslink optical from tv into nDAC. Sounds pretty good and keeps the Naim stuff electrically isolated from noisy sources. The CDX2 uses Chord Clearway BNC to BNC. I’ve never tried DC1 as it’s 3 times the price of the Chord.

Be interested to hear if DC1 is much better. 

Given you have an nDAC I’d use it instead of ND5XS which the nDAC will outperform by miles especially if your source has good timing. 

Phil

Have seen a few DC1 cables on the secondhand/ex demo sites from established places for really nice prices.

If I were you, I'd forget about doing anything much for a couple of weeks and just put your feet up.   Your going to be very busy soon.

Thanks again for comments. 

I surely will get a better cable soon, am well aware how important this is with analogue signals, and even if the difference would be much smaller (??) with digital, there is good reason in spending a little more for a better SQ and thus justify the outlay for nd5xs + dac. 

Phil, I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘use in stead of nd5xs’ ? 

Claus 

Claus posted:

Thanks again for comments. 

I surely will get a better cable soon, am well aware how important this is with analogue signals, and even if the difference would be much smaller (??) with digital, there is good reason in spending a little more for a better SQ and thus justify the outlay for nd5xs + dac. 

Phil, I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘use in stead of nd5xs’ ? 

Claus 

The ND5XS has its own dac for analogue output. You are going to send digital to your amazing nDAC. Let us know how the digital cable performs.

Phil

Phil, thanks, connecting the nd5 to the dac was the very reason why I needed the digital cable 

The DAC arrived with courier this morning. Having caught a cold, I'm home from office and in spite of not feeling well I have managed to setup the system. After a few minutes of frustration I remembered that i had to turn on digital output on the ND5XS, I set it to Native, I guess this will be correct for this setup.

And I can now enjoy my new toy while restituting myself.... 

It's 3-4 years old but I guess it will benefit from some hours of of warming up after being powered off for some days. But it really sounds very good already now and only using a 6£ RJ59 cable. 

Claus

"I'm home from office and in spite of not feeling well I have managed to setup the system."

It's amazing what a bit of motivation will do

Following a thread on here I ordered a Belden 4794R when I needed to connect a DAC (Rega for the moment). In that context, for £35 delivered from the states it wiped the floor with the two lowest price Chord offerings (the cheapest of which was ~£100). Get used to your DAC with your current cable as long as there are no glaring inadiquacies, then audition any possible replacements, make them earn their place.

Claus posted:

Hello,

I have been reading some posts here on the subject and understand that there is a clear difference in SQ between different cables.
As such I understand that it's more or less mandatory to find me a good quality one, perhaps the DC1 from Naim. 

However, somewhere at home I already have a standard RG59 cable with BNC's, 75 ohm. Two questions:
1 Will it be perfectly safe to use this for a start?
2 Can I expect this setup to be "listenable" or is it likely to be worse than simply using the ND5XS on its own ?

Thanks for your comments.

Claus

 

Hi Claus

If there is any possibility of trying alternatives out before purchase, I would do that.  When I bought my nDAC (now sold) a good few years ago, my then dealer lent me some digital cables with the correct BNC connectors at various prices.  Two were from Chord and one was more than twice the price of the other.  After extensive auditioning I developed a strong preference for the most expensive, fattest and poshest-looking Chord cable.  It was not cheap so, to be sure I was making the right decision, I did a final listen through a series of tracks and was convinced that this was the cable to buy.  When I went behind the system to remove the cable I discovered I had actually been listening to the cheaper Chord cable.  My conclusion: some people can hear a difference between different cables but I could not.  My advice would be to make sure you're in the former category before shelling out serious money on a digital interconnect.

Roger

PS  I eventually purchased a DC1 on the basis of (a) keeping the system all Naim and (b) this, I think, was the cable Naim used when developing their DAC.

Yeti, Roger, thanks for your sound (!!) advice. Your thoughts are very much in line with my own. 

For now I'll get accustomed to the sound signature with the cable I have for now, and when the system has settled and I feel familiar with how it sounds in the current setup, I will try something more expensive (anything cheaper is probably not possible :-) )

Claus

which is an XPS better used with the ND5 XS or the NDAC or woud both bebifit from an XPS?

Peter1480 posted:

which is an XPS better used with the ND5 XS or the NDAC or woud both bebifit from an XPS?

The OP has it on the nDAC and is after a cable to take the digital out from the ND5XS. I do the same with my CDX2 and it is amazing.

Phil

Filipe posted:

Peter1480 posted:

which is an XPS better used with the ND5 XS or the NDAC or woud both bebifit from an XPS?

The OP has it on the nDAC and is after a cable to take the digital out from the ND5XS. I do the same with my CDX2 and it is amazing.

Phil

yes so do I but the question just popped into my head.........

I used a Flashback rca > bnc,  a Chord Anthem Tuned Aray rca >> bnc and also a Chord Prodac Digital rca >> rca (bnc adapter) and although there were slight differences I would happily use any of them.

Unfortunately I don't have an XPS , only nd5 and dac. 

Bob, nice to hear that differences to you were subtle. If the benefits from spending extra 150-200 or more £ are marginal then I might spend the money better elsewhere. I need service of most boxes soon, on the 250 it's really urgent, it has been taken out of service recently and I'm using my trusty old nait 2 at the moment, while 52/250 are unused, gathering dust. 

Claus 

I got hold of a demo DC1 from my dealer along with a Uniti Core to add to the UnitiServe I am also demoing. I was impressed with the DC1 on the US as it also lifted the US to the CDX2 level. I play through an nDAC + XPSDR so all cables+ sources are on level playing field once the bits reach the nDAC.

I couldn’t resist trying the DC1 on the CDX2, which hitherto has used a Chord Clearway digital, and oh wow. The gap has widened again. Bruce, on a thread about Soundstage and Imaging talked about notes blooming by which I interpreted him as meaning that after the leading edge rise the acoustics of the instrument take over to sustain the notes and allow it to decay. This should make the timbre imparted by the instrument/musician evident. This for me describes the improvement the DC1 has brought to the CDX2. An alternative description is that it is more of an analogue sound in the best possible sense. In fact I can’t hear any difference between Tanika Tikaram’s Ancient Heart album on vinyl and CD. The difference it makes to CD Piano music is to make it much warmer and dynamic with good leading edge and bloom. I need to turn the volume back an hour! The bass notes from all instruments are more pronounced again probably leading edge and bloom. Backing instruments are more forward in the soundstage and easy to listen too.

Definitely worth the extra money.

For what it’s worth the 6 year old UnitiServe SSD SQ is better than the well run in Uniti Core. The US is a no brainer at less than half price, and decent ripping of classical music. 

Phil

Filipe posted:

I got hold of a demo DC1 from my dealer along with a Uniti Core to add to the UnitiServe I am also demoing. I was impressed with the DC1 on the US as it also lifted the US to the CDX2 level. I play through an nDAC + XPSDR so all cables+ sources are on level playing field once the bits reach the nDAC.

I couldn’t resist trying the DC1 on the CDX2, which hitherto has used a Chord Clearway digital, and oh wow. The gap has widened again. Bruce, on a thread about Soundstage and Imaging talked about notes blooming by which I interpreted him as meaning that after the leading edge rise the acoustics of the instrument take over to sustain the notes and allow it to decay. This should make the timbre imparted by the instrument/musician evident. This for me describes the improvement the DC1 has brought to the CDX2. An alternative description is that it is more of an analogue sound in the best possible sense. In fact I can’t hear any difference between Tanika Tikaram’s Ancient Heart album on vinyl and CD. The difference it makes to CD Piano music is to make it much warmer and dynamic with good leading edge and bloom. I need to turn the volume back an hour! The bass notes from all instruments are more pronounced again probably leading edge and bloom. Backing instruments are more forward in the soundstage and easy to listen too.

Definitely worth the extra money.

For what it’s worth the 6 year old UnitiServe SSD SQ is better than the well run in Uniti Core. The US is a no brainer at less than half price, and decent ripping of classical music. 

Phil

so you found that unitserve/ ndac/ xps is better than uniticore/ndac/ xps, with dc1 between both?    the digital out of the core is not as good as the digital out of the serve?   if i understood you well?

FR, I have added AQ Pearl Ethernet cables between my NAS and Hub and US/Core and Hub. If these take a while to burn-in it’s possible the Core was disadvantaged. I have not gone as far as to add an audio quality switch and power supply.  There is probably not much between them but the CDX2 really improved with the DC1. In my experience first impressions are a good indicator of what is to come which if good usually gets better and better. I will try the Core again at a later time. The ripping of classical music is my priority and the Core is not good with such metadata.

Phil

Phil, I will try to listen to the DC1 as well.

It does have a hefty price tag, definitely more than I was expecting to spend. So to get in my system it must show a significant improvement compared to alternatives costing considerably less. 

As mentioned I will start out with a 5-25£ solution, to get used to how the system sounds with this. Later I will try a few more expensive cables, including the DC1. Surely, it would be pretty foolish spending a substantial amount, say 200-250£, on something else if the DC1 would be clearly better and not that much more expensive. 

Claus

Have not seen Nina on the forum lately, she eventually chose a black cat silver digital cable and was very pleased with it. About £230, but can be returned if not happy.

Claus posted:

Phil, I will try to listen to the DC1 as well.

It does have a hefty price tag, definitely more than I was expecting to spend. So to get in my system it must show a significant improvement compared to alternatives costing considerably less. 

As mentioned I will start out with a 5-25£ solution, to get used to how the system sounds with this. Later I will try a few more expensive cables, including the DC1. Surely, it would be pretty foolish spending a substantial amount, say 200-250£, on something else if the DC1 would be clearly better and not that much more expensive. 

Claus

Claus, the DC1 has the Naim Iogo on the source end. It can’t harm to follow their suggestions.

I’m interested in your observations of the DC1 with the ND5XS.

Phil