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Thread: To adapt or not to adapt?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Jul 2013

    Location: Kingsbury, NW London

    Posts: 1,232
    I'm Clive.

    Default To adapt or not to adapt?

    I am now the proud and delighted owner of a Chord Qutest. My conundrum is about the 2 sp/dif cables I use from my streamer and disc player which are both RCA - RCA. I now need BNC at the dac end. So the question is do I buy new digital cables RCA - BNC or use (a good quality) adaptor. My dealer says buy new cables and the manufacturer says I would never notice the difference, hence my puzzlement.

    What does the panel do/think?

    Oh yes, forgot to mention, my dealer did give me 2 Atlas adaptors free.
    SOURCE:OPPO UDP-205 BluRay, SkyQ, Technics SL1210M5G/HexMat Eclipse/MN Bearing/Origin Live Gravity One puck/Isonoes with Boots/Jelco TK-850S Tonearm/Hana Umami Blue, PS Audio Stellar Phonostage. I also have an AT-OC9XSH as a spare cartridge.
    AMPLIFIER: Bryston BR-20 Pre/DAC/Streamer & Bryston 4B3 Power Amplifier
    SPEAKERS: Spendor D7 on Iso-Acoustics Gaia III’s
    HEADPHONES: OPPO PM-1 with Atlas Zeno cable, B&W Pi7 S2 and B&W C5 v2.
    CABLES: Analogue: Speaker Atlas Mavros Grun. Interconnect - Atlas Mavros XLR x3, MCRU Silver Tonearm cable
    Digital:Audioquest Carbon Ethernet x 4, Audioquest Carbon digital, English Electric 8Switch, Chord Optichord, Atlas Optical.
    Mains: PS Audio Perfectwave AC-05 x 5, Isol-8 Powerline Extreme with Quantum Science yellow fuse on input cable, Sounds Fantastic 6way Mains Blocks.
    STORAGE: Synology DS216J NAS with 2 x 3Tb WD Red hard-drives. Samsung 500Gb SSD.
    TV LG55B7 OLED

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Notts

    Posts: 2,741
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clive197 View Post
    I am now the proud and delighted owner of a Chord Qutest. My conundrum is about the 2 sp/dif cables I use from my streamer and disc player which are both RCA - RCA. I now need BNC at the dac end. So the question is do I buy new digital cables RCA - BNC or use (a good quality) adaptor. My dealer says buy new cables and the manufacturer says I would never notice the difference, hence my puzzlement.

    What does the panel do/think?

    Oh yes, forgot to mention, my dealer did give me 2 Atlas adaptors free.
    I can recommend this cable. I use it in my system. https://www.designacable.com/neutrik...deo-spdif.html

    Well made and inexpensive.

    Geoff

  3. #3
    Join Date: Apr 2008

    Location: Warrington

    Posts: 3,451
    I'm Neil.

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    I use RCA to BNC with no adapter. Less impedance changes that way, but RCA will inevitably introduce one...
    Mana Acoustics Racks / Bright Star IsoNodes Decoupling >> Allo DigiOne Player >> Pedja Rogic's Audial Model S DAC + Pioneer PL-71 turntable / Vista Audio phono-1 mk II / Denon PCL-5 headshell / Reson Reca >> LFD DLS >> LFD PA2M (SE) >> Royd RR3s.

  4. #4
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Much Wenlock

    Posts: 1,522
    I'm Gary.

    Default

    I have 2 outputs on my DAC one sp/dif one RCA, amp end RCA.

    I have two identical cables apart from the connectors one RCA to RCA, one sp/dif to RCA they both sound the same.
    If I use a connector on the RCA to RCA I hear no difference.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Apr 2018

    Location: South East Cornwall

    Posts: 322
    I'm Dominic.

    Default

    If you have a cable with an RCA connector at one end and a BNC connector at t'other end, the RCA connector has already removed all the benefits of a pure BNC connection. On that basis you might as well use the FREE adaptors
    CD player = Marantz CD6006
    DAC/pre = Rotel RC 1572
    Power amp = ADA PF201
    Speaks = Quadral Chromium Style 6

  6. #6
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,853
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

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    I wouldn't get too hung up about the impedance of RCA connectors. True they aren't a constant impedance design and can never have an impedance greater than about 57 Ohm and in practice will lie between 30 - 40 Ohm, dependant on he material used to support the centre pin, but the impedance mismatch occurs over a short length electrically, so the electrical mismatch is not as bad as it might be. If true 75 Ohm BNCs were necessary, I'm sure both Sony and Philips would have specified their use.
    Barry

  7. #7
    Join Date: Apr 2008

    Location: Warrington

    Posts: 3,451
    I'm Neil.

    Default To adapt or not to adapt?

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    I wouldn't get too hung up about the impedance of RCA connectors. True they aren't a constant impedance design and can never have an impedance greater than about 57 Ohm and in practice will lie between 30 - 40 Ohm, dependant on he material used to support the centre pin, but the impedance mismatch occurs over a short length electrically, so the electrical mismatch is not as bad as it might be. If true 75 Ohm BNCs were necessary, I'm sure both Sony and Philips would have specified their use.
    RCA was chosen because it was cheap and accessible, not because it was right.

    Signal reflections used to be much more of a problem, altering the transition points between samples, many DACs now reject the incoming clock anyway, I bet the Chord Qutest does...

    My DAC uses no reclocking, and has a true 75R SPDIF front end, so I use BNC.
    Mana Acoustics Racks / Bright Star IsoNodes Decoupling >> Allo DigiOne Player >> Pedja Rogic's Audial Model S DAC + Pioneer PL-71 turntable / Vista Audio phono-1 mk II / Denon PCL-5 headshell / Reson Reca >> LFD DLS >> LFD PA2M (SE) >> Royd RR3s.

  8. #8
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,853
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Yomanze View Post
    RCA was chosen because it was cheap and accessible, not because it was right.

    Signal reflections used to be much more of a problem, altering the transition points between samples, many DACs now reject the incoming clock anyway, I bet the Chord Qutest does...

    My DAC uses no reclocking, and has a true 75R SPDIF front end, so I use BNC.
    No doubt RCA was chosen because it was cheaper than BNC, but if it seriously degraded SQ I'm sure Sony/Philips wouldn't have specified it. Despite doubts about the impedance of the connector, as long as the impedance of the cable is 75 Ohm, that is sufficient to clearly hear the difference between various external DACs.

    Regarding signal reflections - many people claimed that the cable length needed to be at least 2m long to avoid aliasing, ignoring the fact that connection to an internal DAC would only be a few cms.
    Barry

  9. #9
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: Valley of the Hazels

    Posts: 9,139
    I'm AMusicFanNotAnAudiophile.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
    Regarding signal reflections - many people claimed that the cable length needed to be at least 2m long to avoid aliasing, ignoring the fact that connection to an internal DAC would only be a few cms.
    The internal connection is I2S, not S/PDIF
    Chris



    Common sense isn't anymore!

  10. #10
    Join Date: Jul 2013

    Location: Kingsbury, NW London

    Posts: 1,232
    I'm Clive.

    Default

    Thanks guys, your comments re RCA plugs are very interesting. I’m definitely getting the feeling that staying with the BNC adapters is the way to go, however a dealer who I have known for many years has offered me a half mtr Atlas Mavros Ultra RCA-BNC cable with £90 off. Ooo ahh missus, decisions decisions.
    SOURCE:OPPO UDP-205 BluRay, SkyQ, Technics SL1210M5G/HexMat Eclipse/MN Bearing/Origin Live Gravity One puck/Isonoes with Boots/Jelco TK-850S Tonearm/Hana Umami Blue, PS Audio Stellar Phonostage. I also have an AT-OC9XSH as a spare cartridge.
    AMPLIFIER: Bryston BR-20 Pre/DAC/Streamer & Bryston 4B3 Power Amplifier
    SPEAKERS: Spendor D7 on Iso-Acoustics Gaia III’s
    HEADPHONES: OPPO PM-1 with Atlas Zeno cable, B&W Pi7 S2 and B&W C5 v2.
    CABLES: Analogue: Speaker Atlas Mavros Grun. Interconnect - Atlas Mavros XLR x3, MCRU Silver Tonearm cable
    Digital:Audioquest Carbon Ethernet x 4, Audioquest Carbon digital, English Electric 8Switch, Chord Optichord, Atlas Optical.
    Mains: PS Audio Perfectwave AC-05 x 5, Isol-8 Powerline Extreme with Quantum Science yellow fuse on input cable, Sounds Fantastic 6way Mains Blocks.
    STORAGE: Synology DS216J NAS with 2 x 3Tb WD Red hard-drives. Samsung 500Gb SSD.
    TV LG55B7 OLED

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