A dive into digital interlinks – coaxial cables

Listening

Hirschmann BNC measurement cable

Our standard measurement cables measure well – as you will see below – but do they also sound good? With digital cables, you would think so: the bits arrive in perfect order…

Yet: when compared to the rest of the test field, the Hirschmann lacks something. Flow. It is all very correct and tight, but the s-sounds are a bit rough and it feels a bit stiff compared to the Sommer which really does better in all areas.

Fine cable for those who don’t really want to spend money…. but it could be better.

Sommer BNC cable

After the “baseline cable,” we move on to yet another one of our own cables. Again, a cable we use a lot in our measurement setups. (You can never have enough BNC cables :-)).

For those unfamiliar with Sommer: Sommer is a pro-audio brand that makes microphone cables and BNC clock cables, among other things. At the Alpha Offices, call it “the little green cable. (Check Helios for more information)

The sound is rich, smooth and free of harshness. For less than €40 it is actually nuts how good this cable sounds. It is all very correct without becoming sterile. This coaxial cable brings a lot of musicallity to your home without braking the bank!

Audio Mway

The big question is: can we even hear a significant increase in jitter? Well: yes … we think so at least. The Audiomat Mway sounds significantly softer than the Hirshmann to say the least. And 180 degrees different from the Ixos 105. Now at first that does seem nice…. after all: soft is good, right? Well, yes … until you notice that transients are lost and intelligibility has deteriorated. There’s just more smearing….

We also notice that the Sonnet sometimes “slips” at S sounds: it sometimes overshoots it seems. Sometimes it’s soft, other times it’s not. Very weird. (This may have to do with the noise we see on the scope).

Bottom line, just not a very nice cable. And that becomes clear later when we start measuring.

Albedo BNC

We were a bit premature in our examination of the geometry. Unfortunately, we were not able to listen to this cable because we had already taken it apart. DOH!

Ixos 105 coax

The Ixos 105 is an old cable that we have had for years. We estimate that we have owned it for over 20 years now.

It is quite strange to hear that this Ixos sounds very different from the rest of the field. Surely rougher and coarser than the rest of the field. It all feels a bit restless. And that while the measurements are very good…. that shows there is more to it…!

Imaging and focus is tight with the Ixos. However, that is not enough to keep up in this field: the development has clearly not stood still!

Audioquest Forest

How nice does this Audioquest Forest sound! The sound is rich, big and generous. With a price tag of just under €40 (1.5 meters) – just like the Sommer – we absolutely cannot complain. The price/quality ratio is simply excellent.

Compared to the Sommer BNC, the Forest’s reproduction feels just a bit rounder and warmer. The Sommer will be slightly less colorful, we estimate. The Forest’s imaging seems a bit larger. But even compared to the Cinnamon and Carbon, the Forest plays bigger. The Diamond is mostly different. But more on that later.

Audioquest Cinnamon

The Audioquest Cinnamon feels a little off, if we’re honest. On the one hand, we hear – we think – a little more calmness and a little more tightness overall…. On the other hand, the focus feels “off”. It seems too big, but mostly it’s that it floats a bit. It makes us a little restless, because we feel that something is off….

Audioquest Carbon

The Carbon seems to blend the Cinnamon and Forest. It’s a bit tighter and cleaner than the Forest and fortunately brings stability again. The voice seems a bit higher than the Forest. The Forest does continue to put down more space.

Sharpness remains absent. But that is true of all Audioquest interlinks. A pleasant feature.

Audioquest Diamond

The financial step from the Carbon to the Diamond is huge. From about 300 Euros to 1750 Euros. That’s a factor of six!

But admittedly, the Diamond does sound very nice. It mixes the nice features of the Sommer and Forest and therefore manages to create a very complete picture: fluidity, space and calmness. Yes: we are talking about digital interlinks.

Without DBS

Does that DBS system do anything? Definitely! And frankly, we now doubt which is better (again). If we pull the dbs cable out of the system, we hear – our opinion – really tighter focus. But it also gets a little flatter; you gain something, you lose something….