I am a 'cables make a difference' man based on two experiences. One was a blind test I did on family members and the other was simply my own ears when I upgraded by digital co-axial cable.

I won't bore you with the long version of the blind test, suffice to say I had made my own speaker cable and compared it with Nordost Blue Heaven by generating some hi-res and CD quality mono files and connecting one speaker to my own cable and the other to the Nordost. My kids who have young ears pulled out a 100% and instantaneous preference for the Nordost. I myself (not blind) struggled to hear much difference but preferred the Nordost on two of the five tracks.

I ran a digital coxial cable from the soundcard (an upgraded ASUS Xonar ST) to the DAC. The cable was some species of Nordost co-ax. This time the difference in quality was blindingly obvious, even into my own 50 year old ears. The Oyaide DB-510 (don't say it: 'blind' and 'ears' are not metaphorically matched!) was better.

The single word I use to describe the Oyaide is 'Clarity'. A look at their website (home page http://www.oyaide.com/ENGLISH/index.html ) shows that they have ticked every box when it comes to cable design including my particular hobbyhorse that the quality of the metal is the overwhelming most important feature of any cable.

Incidentally most cable manufacturers love to bullshit about their particular technology ('poles of articulation' being the most spastic and my personal favourite) but one thing all good cable manufacturers have in common is good quality metal.

The punchline is this: It is expensive, as it should be. But wait there is more - it is actually cheap compared with overpriced rivals. Joynetmall for example (http://www.joynetmall.com/shop/produ...oducts_id=2611 ) list it at US$207 or a 1.3 meter length.

So as far as cables go that has been my path: I presently run Nordost Heimdall as speaker cable and most interconnects are by Oyaide. I don't really have an upgrade path.

I speculate that the quality of a a co-ax cable must be important (if that is your connection to the DAC) because of the load it is required to bear. 192 khz times 24 bits plus clocking information (plus handshaking? or who knows what) per second!.

So that is my recommendation. Oyaide DB-510 uber cheap in audiophile terms but top notch in quality if it can - and it did - best a respected brand.