S/PDIF electrical to DAC: which cable ?

Posted by: nbpf on 26 May 2014

I am testing a s/h Naim DAC into my SN2. Source is a fit-pc3 with electrical 3.5mm S/PDIF output.

The standard cable supplied with the the fit-pc3 works fine when connected to one of the two coaxial RCA input ports of the DAC.

I have tried Oehlbach NF 113 Digital (coaxial, 3.5mm jack to RCA, 75 ohms HF impedance, see http://www.oehlbach.com/en/com...r/audio/cable/nf-113 for details) on the same DAC port but it does not appear to work. I do not know if this is a fit-pc3 or a DAC incompatibility.

Any suggestion for a reasonably priced coaxial, 3.5mm jack to RCA cable to connect to the Naim DAC via electrical S/PDIF ?
Posted on: 27 May 2014 by james n

I'd stick with the standard cable if that works ok and think about getting an external USB to S/PDIF converter.

 

A 3.5mm connector is not really suited well to this application.

Posted on: 27 May 2014 by nbpf
Originally Posted by james n:
I'd stick with the standard cable if that works ok and think about getting an external USB to S/PDIF converter.

Thanks James, any recommendation for a USB to S/PDIF converter ? What about M2Tech Hiface 2 or M2Tech Evo ? Thanks, nbpf

Posted on: 27 May 2014 by PinkHamster

If you're only testing the s/h Naim DAC, I'd rather skip it and go for a USB capable DAC instead. Fitting in a USB to S/PDIF converter would be too much of a compromise.

 

But what interests me more is the incompatability of the NF113. This implies that either the cable, or the PC or the DAC are not according to the specs.

Posted on: 27 May 2014 by nbpf
Originally Posted by PinkHamster:
If you're only testing the s/h Naim DAC, I'd rather skip it and go for a USB capable DAC instead. Fitting in a USB to S/PDIF converter would be too much of a compromise.


I am comparing the Naim DAC to my portable M2Tech Hiface DAC. Although the M2Tech is very good, in particular when considering its size and price, I find the Naim DAC better. Why do you believe a USB to S/PDIF converter would be a compromise ? Which USB DAC would you suggest as alternative to the Naim DAC ?

Originally Posted by PinkHamster:

But what interests me more is the incompatability of the NF113. This implies that either the cable, or the PC or the DAC are not according to the specs.


Right, I suspect the fit-pc3 3.5 S/PDIF port is incompatible with the NF 113's jack. Another problem with the S/PDIF port is that, while the sound card of the fit-pc3 works flawlessly with 44.1, 48, 96 and 192 kHz 16 and 24 bit files, it sounds very bad with 88.2 kHz 24 bit files (both FLAC and WAV). Also, I can hear distinct echoes when playing the 88.2 kHz High Definition Frequency Sweep test file from

http://www.audiocheck.net/test...hdefinitionaudio.php

through S/PDIF port of the fit-pc3 into the Naim NAC. On the other hand, the same file sounds fine when played by the Naim DAC from a USB Stick.

Posted on: 27 May 2014 by PinkHamster
Originally Posted by nbpf:
Why do you believe a USB to S/PDIF converter would be a compromise ? Which USB DAC would you suggest as alternative to the Naim DAC ?

Ahhh, it's just that I like to have things simple and straight forward. So if I intended to go out of my PC via USB, I would just not even think of buying a DAC which cannot deal with USB natively. But that's just me.

As for other DACs ... there are so many out there. I really don't know. The only thing I know is that with modern DACs there are hardly any SQ differences any more. I find this to be true even across the whole range of price levels. Threre are certainly exceptions, but only of the negative kind, where you have a badly designed product. Some DACs may also have different emphasises, but hardly none are really bad.