Suggestions for Optical Cables

[beingmrdev]

Hi! Quite new to all this and setting up my first Hifi setup with the suggestions I read in this forum. Here is what I considered:
TV/Laptop -> WiiM Pro + Marantz PM6007 + Diamond Mishras by IndiQ

Can you please suggest me the optical cables, I should buy to enjoy audiophile music?

TIA!

 

[PTP]

Hi! Quite new to all this and setting up my first Hifi setup with the suggestions I read in this forum. Here is what I considered:
TV/Laptop -> WiiM Pro + Marantz PM6007 + Diamond Mishras by IndiQ

Can you please suggest me the optical cables, I should buy to enjoy audiophile music?

TIA!

Is this your existing setup or your proposed set up? If this is your proposed setup I would recommend ifi zen stream instead of wiim pro and coax spdif for digital interface instead of toslink. If wiim pro is already in your chain you may still consider a coax spdif instead of toslink. If you are very particular about using only toslink then you may go ahead with optical cables from MX for budget option. If you are OK with high budget cables you may consider glass fibre cables like lifatec or dh labs glass master.

 

[chander]

Depends on your budget

Budget cables - EMK - I have 2 being used in my setup no issues - used many others - but end up having reliability issues, EMK has been in my setup for more than 2 years - I think.

Mid priced - Pangea/DAC - both reliable

Expensive - Have Fun.

 

[amit11]

Hi! Quite new to all this and setting up my first Hifi setup with the suggestions I read in this forum. Here is what I considered:
TV/Laptop -> WiiM Pro + Marantz PM6007 + Diamond Mishras by IndiQ

Can you please suggest me the optical cables, I should buy to enjoy audiophile music?

TIA!

I have tried multiple optical cables.

The best and most decent in my experience and my system and my setup is Bandridge optical cable, (with blue color packet for the right model version).


Each type / brand of optical cable has its own sound signature. (Surprising but true)


Another good one is Profigold optical cable. It is a bit more expensive.

 

[beingmrdev]

all this and setting up my first Hifi setup with the suggestions I read in this forum. Here is what I co

Is this your existing setup or your proposed set up? If this is your proposed setup I would recommend ifi zen stream instead of wiim pro and coax spdif for digital interface instead of toslink. If wiim pro is already in your chain you may still consider a coax spdif instead of toslink. If you are very particular about using only toslink then you may go ahead with optical cables from MX for budget option. If you are OK with high budget cables you may consider glass fibre cables like lifatec or dh labs glass master.

Hi. Thanks for the response. This is my proposed setup as of now.
Are you talking about this one?
Also, will I be required to get a separate DAC to connect to it or the inbuilt DAC of PM 6007 would work?

 

[PTP]

Hi. Thanks for the response. This is my proposed setup as of now.
Are you talking about this one?
Also, will I be required to get a separate DAC to connect to it or the inbuilt DAC of PM 6007 would work?

Yes, this is the device. Inbuilt dac of PM6007 will suffice.

 

[beingmrdev]

Yes, this is the device. Inbuilt dac of PM6007 will suffice.

Thanks alot. I'll buy this. Can I ask a real dumb question?
I've a homeserver which has all my FLAC music files, which I access using Plex (I've their lifetime pass). Will I see a great difference in these two scenarios: Using network streamer + amp and connecting my laptop to amp directly (while playing music through plex)...

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Hi! Quite new to all this and setting up my first Hifi setup with the suggestions I read in this forum. Here is what I considered:
TV/Laptop -> WiiM Pro + Marantz PM6007 + Diamond Mishras by IndiQ

Can you please suggest me the optical cables, I should buy to enjoy audiophile music?

TIA!

I have a so called high end optical cable from silent wire and a no name one from Amazon. I cannot tell them apart unless I see which one is connected

 

[PTP]

Thanks alot. I'll buy this. Can I ask a real dumb question?
I've a homeserver which has all my FLAC music files, which I access using Plex (I've their lifetime pass). Will I see a great difference in these two scenarios: Using network streamer + amp and connecting my laptop to amp directly (while playing music through plex)...

A dedicated music streamer will always have better SQ than any laptop which was not made for that purposes. However you may connect you laptop and see if it works for you. If you are satisfied with the SQ of your laptop then there is no need for a dedicated music streamer.

I forgot to mention that the user interface of ifi zen stream won't be as good as wiim pro. But it's build quality and audio quality will be top notch compared to wiim pro. There are lot of reviews online regarding this issue with the zen stream. You may please refer to it.

 

[beingmrdev]

I forgot to mention that the user interface of ifi zen stream won't be as good as wiim pro. But it's build quality and audio quality will be top notch compared to wiim pro. There are lot of reviews online regarding this issue with the zen stream. You may please refer to it.

Exactly, last night I read all the reviews and most of the negatives mentioned the software design and UI. Please help me with my two scenarios:
1. I have all my music on my homeserver which I access and manage through Plexamp (which doesn't support UPnP). Though connecting it with an android app called "Symfonium" can work as this one works with UPnP. Will there we any SQ loss during the casting of music to zen stream/wiim pro this way or I'll receive 100% lossless music?

2. I surfed the internet and found that I can setup headless plex amp on a r-pi, connect a Digi HAT to it and connect it to the Marantz so that if feed digital input to the Marantz, instead of analog. Will this be the right way or I'll compromise with SQ? Also (i don't have much knowledge of digital analog I/O), if I connect my TV to Marantz directly via co-axial, how would I connect my DIY streamer to Marantz?

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

A dedicated music streamer will always have better SQ than any laptop which was not made for that purposes. However you may connect you laptop and see if it works for you. If you are satisfied with the SQ of your laptop then there is no need for a dedicated music streamer.

I forgot to mention that the user interface of ifi zen stream won't be as good as wiim pro. But its build quality and audio quality will be top notch compared to wiim pro. There are lot of reviews online regarding this issue with the zen stream. You may please refer to it.

Except from fan noise (considering the room to be dead silent) if you use a player like foobar and use bitperfect, it should be virtually identical to any streamer. There should be no audible improvement with a streamer as that’s how digital works.

 

[mbhangui]

Except from fan noise (considering the room to be dead silent) if you use a player like foobar and use bitperfect, it should be virtually identical to any streamer. There should be no audible improvement with a streamer as that’s how digital works.

+10000 to this. If you are using an external DAC, there will not be any difference between your laptop a raspberry pi or any other device (as long as you configure it for bit perfect). But, If you use headphone out of the laptop or if you are using a headphone out from your phone (ios or android), then you will easily notice the difference. Same goes with the optical cable. But many of us are prone to psychoacoustics based on the price/marketing bullshit of the equipment and cable. In that case you will notice (and actuall hear too) that costlier the cable or equipment the sound is better. Same goes with the price of wine or mango. The costiler ones taste better if there is very little difference in taste, colour and smell.

The no 1 culprit for bad sound is the room followed by amp and speaker. No amount of money spent on cables will solve your room problem.
NOTE: for optical cables quality will matter if you are going to transmit the audio over few kilometers. For light travelling at 299 792 458 m/s, few cms here and there and how good the glass is, light will just smash through from one end to the other end in no time regardless of the quality. And unlike electrical cables (RCA, SPDIF, etc) you don't have two enemies known as EMI, capacitance and inductance changing the frequency response characteristic of the cable.

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

+10000 to this. If you are using an external DAC, there will not be any difference between your laptop a raspberry pi or any other device (as long as you configure it for bit perfect). But, If you use headphone out of the laptop or if you are using a headphone out from your phone (ios or android), then you will easily notice the difference. Same goes with the optical cable. But many of us are prone to psychoacoustics based on the price/marketing bullshit of the equipment and cable. In that case you will notice (and actuall hear too) that costlier the cable or equipment the sound is better. Same goes with the price of wine or mango. The costiler ones taste better if there is very little difference in taste, colour and smell.

The no 1 culprit for bad sound is the room followed by amp and speaker. No amount of money spent on cables will solve your room problem.
NOTE: for optical cables quality will matter if you are going to transmit the audio over few kilometers. For light travelling at 299 792 458 m/s, few cms here and there and how good the glass is, light will just smash through from one end to the other end in no time regardless of the quality. And unlike electrical cables (RCA, SPDIF, etc) you don't have two enemies known as EMI, capacitance and inductance changing the frequency response characteristic of the cable.

Agree to the room, it’s the most important part which everyone conveniently ignores! Use some treatment or parametric eq, and it would benefit way more than placebo products like cables.

 

[keith_correa]

... But many of us are prone to psychoacoustics based on the price/marketing bullshit of the equipment and cable. In that case you will notice (and actuall hear too) that costlier the cable or equipment the sound is better....

Don't forget the fancy pictures of the internals that they put out with data points of "features" like 3mm (or is it 10mm?) aerospace grade aluminium case and yada yada and there will invariably be a black silkscreen motherboard which appeals to one's senses and looks premium unlike the traditional vanilla green silkscreened motherboard and there will also be a couple of rectangular aerospace grade aluminum boxes inside housing who knows what and why.
I recently read that one supposedly high end streamer was found to run - wait for it - - - - Windows XP!!! Not that there was anything bad about Win XP but come on...

 

[PTP]

Exactly, last night I read all the reviews and most of the negatives mentioned the software design and UI. Please help me with my two scenarios:
1. I have all my music on my homeserver which I access and manage through Plexamp (which doesn't support UPnP). Though connecting it with an android app called "Symfonium" can work as this one works with UPnP. Will there we any SQ loss during the casting of music to zen stream/wiim pro this way or I'll receive 100% lossless music?

2. I surfed the internet and found that I can setup headless plex amp on a r-pi, connect a Digi HAT to it and connect it to the Marantz so that if feed digital input to the Marantz, instead of analog. Will this be the right way or I'll compromise with SQ? Also (i don't have much knowledge of digital analog I/O), if I connect my TV to Marantz directly via co-axial, how would I connect my DIY streamer to Marantz?

1. Playing local files stored on pendrive sounded fuller than streaming through UPnP. It was not a significant difference though and you can't perceive the difference unless you do A/B testing.

I was able to stream music bit perfect from my android phone to streamer using both bubble upnp and usb audio player upnp. Since I'm not familiar with home server, I can't opinion on that part.

What lossless lossless? if your system is right you can find bliss with spotify itself.

2. If you are fine with some diy you may try rpi+audio HAT path for streaming music.
There are various audio hats for rpi like justboom digi hat, allo Digione, allo digione signature, pi2aes etc. Allo digione signature and pi2aes are well reviewed and regarded among these. However allo digione signature does only coax/bnc output and pi2aes is a very rare commodity in local market.

Since your amp has got only one coax, you have to decice which device to connect through it. Recheck if your tv has got any optical output or if you are using set top box check it for optical output. If optical out is not available in your TV/STB then you have to either ignore your tv or find a streamer with optical output.

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

.

Don't forget the fancy pictures of the internals that they put out with data points of "features" like 3mm (or is it 10mm?) aerospace grade aluminium case and yada yada and there will invariably be a black silkscreen motherboard which appeals to one's senses and looks premium unlike the traditional vanilla green silkscreened motherboard and there will also be a couple of rectangular aerospace grade aluminum boxes inside housing who knows what and why.
I recently read that one supposedly high end streamer was found to run - wait for it - - - - Windows XP!!! Not that there was anything bad about Win XP but come on...

i feel the same about manufacturers posting crazy exploded views of their drivers where it’s hardly any better than off the shelf drivers from vifa or scanspeak who knows their game. But for marketing it needs to be crazy looking !!

The cable game is really hilarious where many people use cables which looks like snakes only to connect to the amps which has internal wiring from the power amp section to the speaker terminal is done with generic 2.5mm cables. Again same story inside speakers.

See the Kef R11 internal wiring and the cable a YouTuber is using !

And the woofer coil themselves are even thinner. I get the argument that the whole power won’t go to the woofer by it would distributed among drivers but still !

 

[keith_correa]

See the Kef R11 internal wiring and the cable a YouTuber is using !

See that's where you're wrong! So wrong! Those snakes are for the REL sub not the KEF. Fooled you! What, don't you think the REL's need Anaconda cables? How in Hells name is that volcanic bass going to travel otherwise?

 

[beingmrdev]

1. Playing local files stored on pendrive sounded fuller than streaming through UPnP. It was not a significant difference though and you can't perceive the difference unless you do A/B testing.

I was able to stream music bit perfect from my android phone to streamer using both bubble upnp and usb audio player upnp. Since I'm not familiar with home server, I can't opinion on that part.

What lossless lossless? if your system is right you can find bliss with spotify itself.

2. If you are fine with some diy you may try rpi+audio HAT path for streaming music.
There are various audio hats for rpi like justboom digi hat, allo Digione, allo digione signature, pi2aes etc. Allo digione signature and pi2aes are well reviewed and regarded among these. However allo digione signature does only coax/bnc output and pi2aes is a very rare commodity in local market.

Since your amp has got only one coax, you have to decice which device to connect through it. Recheck if your tv has got any optical output or if you are using set top box check it for optical output. If optical out is not available in your TV/STB then you have to either ignore your tv or find a streamer with optical output.

Should I consider getting Linear Power Supply in case I'm buying ifi zen stream as a network streamer? Will it create an audible difference? (Talking about topping P50)

 

[PTP]

Should I consider getting Linear Power Supply in case I'm buying ifi zen stream as a network streamer? Will it create an audible difference? (Talking about topping P50)

You will be fine with stock power supply itself. Adding LPS will give little more cleaner presentation with darker background.

 

[MaSh]

Should I consider getting Linear Power Supply in case I'm buying ifi zen stream as a network streamer? Will it create an audible difference? (Talking about topping P50)

What all have you picked up as of date?

Title just asks for optical cable, but looks like an entire setup is being built.

MaSh