03-Feb-2016, 17:17
USB and Ethernet have protocols to make sure the data is sent correctly. That is why your printed page doesn't differ, even subtly, from the one you sent to the printer...
Frequency is not a problem at the frequencies we are dealing with here. Any jitter affecting the sound will be at internal the receiving end, not caused by the cable, and can be dealt with there before conversion to analogue.
SPDIF OTOH is a bitstream which may have jitter. The waveform can be really terrible, but as long as it has upward and downward parts that can be sensed by the receiver that is all that counts, the beauty of the waveform is of no consequence in the digital domain. Any timing shortcomings again need to be dealt with at the receiving end, usually a FIFO buffer and accurate clock. Some jitter may be added by the cable but only a poorly engineered receiver would be unable to deal with it.
So the quality of engineering in the devices either end of a digital cable would have to be dire for the cable to have any influence on the final analogue output.
Noise transfer is a possibility with USB and Ethernet, possible but unlikely with a normally engineered wired SPDIF input and not possible at all using optical SPDIF. I have seen a USB cable which actually has an aerial within it. This could pick up music related noise from the cables around it, but this is a deliberate manipulation and probably negated by a good receiver design at the DAC.
It is unwise to automatically assume one is immune to the placebo effect.
Placebo drugs are shown to be effective on subjects even when they know the treatment they are having is a placebo, and amusingly/ironically the more expensive the subject believes the treatment to be, the more effective it is, even when it is the placebo.
Our senses play tricks on us.
Frequency is not a problem at the frequencies we are dealing with here. Any jitter affecting the sound will be at internal the receiving end, not caused by the cable, and can be dealt with there before conversion to analogue.
SPDIF OTOH is a bitstream which may have jitter. The waveform can be really terrible, but as long as it has upward and downward parts that can be sensed by the receiver that is all that counts, the beauty of the waveform is of no consequence in the digital domain. Any timing shortcomings again need to be dealt with at the receiving end, usually a FIFO buffer and accurate clock. Some jitter may be added by the cable but only a poorly engineered receiver would be unable to deal with it.
So the quality of engineering in the devices either end of a digital cable would have to be dire for the cable to have any influence on the final analogue output.
Noise transfer is a possibility with USB and Ethernet, possible but unlikely with a normally engineered wired SPDIF input and not possible at all using optical SPDIF. I have seen a USB cable which actually has an aerial within it. This could pick up music related noise from the cables around it, but this is a deliberate manipulation and probably negated by a good receiver design at the DAC.
It is unwise to automatically assume one is immune to the placebo effect.
Placebo drugs are shown to be effective on subjects even when they know the treatment they are having is a placebo, and amusingly/ironically the more expensive the subject believes the treatment to be, the more effective it is, even when it is the placebo.
Our senses play tricks on us.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire
