XDA-1 overall

[lynxo]

Hi,

so what is your overall impression of the XDA-1? Is it a keeper?

For those who are connecting directly to your amps, how do you like the sound?

Looking forward to getting mine soon. will be directly connecting to XPA-1's and using the WD HD Media player for the source.

Any suggestions on a decent TOSLINK without breaking the bank? I'm using the monoprice premium cable, not sure if that is good enough.

thanks.

[roadrunner]

Feb 14, 2011 14:23:54 GMT -5 lynxo said:

Hi,

so what is your overall impression of the XDA-1? Is it a keeper?

For those who are connecting directly to your amps, how do you like the sound?

Looking forward to getting mine soon. will be directly connecting to XPA-1's and using the WD HD Media player for the source.

Any suggestions on a decent TOSLINK without breaking the bank? I'm using the monoprice premium cable, not sure if that is good enough.

thanks.

IMPACT ACOUSTICS , now CablesToGo, SonicWave digital optical cables are amongst the best "glass" optical cables I have used. I have tried several brands over the years and believe the SonicWave are the best performing cables if you stay away from the esoteric, uber priced stuff. Highly recommended. The following link shows you the info on them and their discounted price.

www.yourcablehookup.com/cables-sonicwavereg-glass-toslinkreg-cable-40231-p-1168.html

I ran across these about 15 years ago when a friend who worked in a research lab brought them to my attention. They needed to use extremely high quality wiring due to the usage of glass optical cabling in six figure test equipment. Their internal testing found the SonicWave cables to be the best of all cable tested.

I then used a SonicWave optical cable in my audio setup and was very impressed with the improvement in sound quality, and I have been using them ever since.

Note: If you are looking for something priced closer to the Monoprice Premiums the Impact Acoustic Velocity brand is better made than the Monoprice, but priced competitively. Link below:

www.yourcablehookup.com/cables-velocitytrade-illuminated-toslinkreg-optical-digital-audio-cable-40013-p-1539.html

I would use the SonicWave if the rest of your gear is high quality -- you will hear the difference.

[lynxo]

IMPACT ACOUSTICS , now CablesToGo, SonicWave digital optical cables are amongst the best "glass" optical cables I have used. I have tried several brands over the years and believe the SonicWave are the best performing cables if you stay away from the esoteric, uber priced stuff. Highly recommended. The following link shows you the info on them and their discounted price.

www.yourcablehookup.com/cables-so....231-p-1168.html

I ran across these about 15 years ago when a friend who worked in a research lab brought them to my attention. They needed to use extremely high quality wiring due to the usage of glass optical cabling in six figure test equipment. Their internal testing found the SonicWave cables to be the best of all cable tested.

I then used a SonicWave optical cable in my audio setup and was very impressed with the improvement in sound quality, and I have been using them ever since.

Note: If you are looking for something priced closer to the Monoprice Premiums the Impact Acoustic Velocity brand is better made than the Monoprice, but priced competitively. Link below:

www.yourcablehookup.com/cables-ve....13-p-1539. html

I would use the SonicWave if the rest of your gear is high quality -- you will hear the difference.

Hi roadrunner,

Thanks for the great suggestion. I will give the 1M Sonicwave a try from amazon. about $30.00. It's good to know they use high quality glass for the fiber.

The monoprice premium was around $12.00.

[bobbyt]

I'm just curious what you guys think happens in a $30 optical cable that doesn't in a $12 one (or vice versa).

Do some of the flashes of light not make it all the way through the $12 one? Is the material such that the speed of light changes, within bits, dramatically enough to add jitter?

[lynxo]

I'm just curious what you guys think happens in a $30 optical cable that doesn't in a $12 one (or vice versa).

Do some of the flashes of light not make it all the way through the $12 one? Is the material such that the speed of light changes, within bits, dramatically enough to add jitter?

cheap ones are usually made of plastic and not actual glass. high quality glass should provide less attenuation. if you can hear the difference or not is the $30 question.

I would not want to spend more than $30 for a toslink though.

[regulator]

Would a good quality Coaxial digital cable be better than an optical one?

[pigsonawing]

this is where your tastes come in to play. Get both types of cables and decide for yourself. what sounds good to you might not sound good to me.

BTW...I am going to compare the two types of cables as soon as my XDA comes in. ECR -> WDA -> conrad johnson pre -> bryston power -> sonus faber concertos

[lynxo]

Would a good quality Coaxial digital cable be better than an optical one?

it would certainly be lower cost. in my case, the WD HD media player has only TOSLINK output, NO coax. I would have gone with Coax.

[VisN]

roadrunner,

Thank you for that link, exactly what I was looking for.

[vharpip]

lynxo the cables are 17.50 on the cables to go website.

[sharkman]

Feb 14, 2011 14:23:54 GMT -5 lynxo said:

Hi,

so what is your overall impression of the XDA-1? Is it a keeper?

For those who are connecting directly to your amps, how do you like the sound?

Looking forward to getting mine soon. will be directly connecting to XPA-1's and using the WD HD Media player for the source.

Any suggestions on a decent TOSLINK without breaking the bank? I'm using the monoprice premium cable, not sure if that is good enough.

thanks.

It's definitely a keeper. I have it connected directly to my amp and I did notice an improvement over going through a pre-amp. The sound quality is very revealing of recordings. I have noticed now that a few of my cds are produced with brighter highs which at louder levels gets to be too much, but all my other music just sounds more accurate. The sound stage is improved and I can't wait to get a wadia or something so I can connect my Ipod digitally.

[lynxo]

Feb 15, 2011 14:11:23 GMT -5 vharpip said:

lynxo the cables are 17.50 on the cables to go website.

I believe the $17.50 is for .5M. I bought the 1M.

Thanks.

[lynxo]

Feb 15, 2011 14:24:50 GMT -5 sharkman said:

Feb 14, 2011 14:23:54 GMT -5 lynxo said:

Hi,

so what is your overall impression of the XDA-1? Is it a keeper?

For those who are connecting directly to your amps, how do you like the sound?

Looking forward to getting mine soon. will be directly connecting to XPA-1's and using the WD HD Media player for the source.

Any suggestions on a decent TOSLINK without breaking the bank? I'm using the monoprice premium cable, not sure if that is good enough.

thanks.

It's definitely a keeper. I have it connected directly to my amp and I did notice an improvement over going through a pre-amp. The sound quality is very revealing of recordings. I have noticed now that a few of my cds are produced with brighter highs which at louder levels gets to be too much, but all my other music just sounds more accurate. The sound stage is improved and I can't wait to get a wadia or something so I can connect my Ipod digitally.

Thanks Sharkman. looking forward to trying it out this weekend.

will direct connect to XPA-1's driving a pair of 1.6QR's. will be using monoprice XLR cables ;D

[lynxo]

Feb 15, 2011 14:01:07 GMT -5 pigsonawing said:

this is where your tastes come in to play. Get both types of cables and decide for yourself. what sounds good to you might not sound good to me.

BTW...I am going to compare the two types of cables as soon as my XDA comes in. ECR -> WDA -> conrad johnson pre -> bryston power -> sonus faber concertos

very nice setup. let us know if you hear any difference between coax and toslink. I personally cannot hear the difference when using my diyer DAC. will be interesting to see if I can hear the difference between the monoprice vs. sonicwave toslink.

[briank]

Yes, the XDA-1 is a keeper. Love mine. :-). I use the Dh labs toslink but it was a little more expensive at $45 for 1 meter.

[roadrunner]

There has been an ongoing argument about which is better for the past 20 years -- optical vs coax. Each camps claims advantageous. The one thing that is not argued about is the Optical is totally immune to hiss and hum caused by EMI/RFI noisy environments. This is why hospital equipment always uses Optical cabling in their diagnostic gear. Another advantage in long cable runs is that quality glass optical cables can be run thousands of feet without needing to boost the signal.

Any tests I have read about, the signal bandwidth and cable lengths in A/V are not approaching the limitations of either type of of digital cable; and, any audible difference will be a result of the quality in the circuits for Optical versus Coax. The bottom line is both are excellent as long as you are using them in a normal HT setting. If you have very long cable runs, optical becomes a better choice; and if you have a noisy electrical environment Optical becomes a far better choice.

Glass versus synthetic fiber is the other gray area. Synthetic fiber is harder to polish the ends to a mirror finish and over time the fiber will discolor and lose its "mirror finish". When this happens the error correction circuits are constantly having to try and correct the signal being sent. This adds to jitter and changes the timing/phase of the signal. These types of problems don't happen when using quality polished "glass".

My son works for Hughes Aerospace as an engineer. Hughes only uses Optical Digital signals in all of their satellites and communications gear. They spend considerable time and effort in polishing the ends of each cable to obtain the best possible mirror finish. Again, the bandwidth they are dealing with far exceed that used with A/V equipment, but it does demonstrate that Glass cable is better than synthetic or coax digital cables. Twenty years of debate in A/V has yet to produce a winner over which is best.

Quality cable of both types cost about the same price. The price range for both run from extremely cheap to uber expensive. It is like any other interconnect. You must decide at what point getting better quality reaches the point of diminishing returns.

[sei]

Thanks, roadrunner! Very educational info. Solved many question I had so far.

[Poodleluvr]

I'm actually using the 4 digital inputs as follows to the XDA-1 DAC:

ERC-1 to XDA-1 via Emo digital coax cable. (Coax #1 input)

Denon DVD 3800 BDCI Blu-ray disc player to XDA-1 via Emo digital coax cable to watch all movies in 2-channel. (DVD player configured correctly through settings) Overall pleased with the 'balanced' result, so I think I'll pass on spending $1K on the new Oppo BDP-95.
(Coax #2 input)

Cable DVR box to XDA-1 via 'plastic' optical cable. (Optical #1 input)

LG 60PK950 Plasma to XDA-1 via 12 foot 'glass' optical cable for Netflix streaming w/sound capability. (Optical #2 input)

Furthermore, XDA-1 output is hooked up to a pair of XPA-1 amps via Emo balanced cables though IMO, still need/prefer a preamp so awaiting debut of XSP-1.

And last, here is where I purchased my one 12 foot 'glass' optical cable with free shipping though I need 1 more glass cable and different sizes are available:

cgi.ebay.com/12-12ft-GLASS-Digital-Audio-Toslink-Cable-Premium-/380264346435?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5889857343

[CrazyBlue]

So, the BJC (plastic) Toslink cable I bought is utter garbage and I should throw it out ASAP?

;D

[justhavingfun]

I just received my XDA-1 today. It only took two days to arrive. It is sitting pretty at my work audio-setup. It is too early but I like what I am hearing. I am using cables from Monoprice both optical and coaxial cables and working great without any issue.