0700700

i always wanted to ask something. the cable itself does not matter, but what about the actual interconnects on the end... if we have a very impure compound wouldnt it lead to a % loss of data, thus degrading the signal???

UUronL

It would be interesting to get our hands on some testing software to see, but it's just passing 1s and 0s. As long as they can be identified reliably, there shouldn't be errors. I'm not sure how errors get handled by the spec - I haven't taken the time to read up, but certainly the roots of this are that of a computer spec. They generally make sure you can pass the 1s and 0s reliably.

I have actually seen the "sparkles" on a bad DVI cable/interface pairing, where the offending "color" is causing random bright dots, but for a cable that is operating well that is being driven by an interface that isn't substandard, all should be well.

swajames

This is also a source of huge debate amongst hi-fi purists. Some claim that certain digital interconnects (say between a CD transport and an offboard DAC or receiver) sound better than others. Others say that if you're just passing 1s and 0s you could (for all practical purposes) just connect the two with a length of wire and you'd get exactly the same result. Funny thing is that in blind listening tests it does seem possible to discern differences. I've experienced it myself, switching out nothing more than the digital interconnect does make a discernable difference - I tested some audioquest cables compared to my current interconnect and there was an improvement. Maybe the DAC has less work to do (and thus less opportunity to introduce noise or artifacts) with cable A compared to cable B. Either way, I've always been interested in how this can possibly the case - we''re talking about a simple data stream after all - but there does seem to be something in it.