buddyev Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) This may be a stupid question. What is the difference between a co-axial cable and an interconnect? Are they interchangeable? I have a very cheap co-axial cable connecting my Rega Dac and Rega Apollo R cd player and need to replace it. I can't see any specs or info on it. I also have a spare pair of Atlas equator interconnects. Can I use one of them instead of the co-ax cable? Is there any problem doing this? Thanks Edited June 24, 2013 by buddyev
Grainy Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 The difference between them is 25 ohm Interconnects have an impedence of 50 ohm and Digital coax, 75 ohm. But I'm not sure what would happen if you used 50 ohm cable between the DAC and CD 1
buddyev Posted June 24, 2013 Author Posted June 24, 2013 Thanks Grainy Obviously better not to try it.
aechmea Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) Coax cable is a central conductor with shielding - designed for carrying signals with higher freq ranges. Audio interconnect cable can be almost any configuration of 'wires'. Some aren't shielded at all. Both can have RCA connectors (or not). Coax cable with RCA for transporting digital from source to DAC is supposed to be 75ohm but rarely is. Some manufacturers try hard to meet the standard, most don't. A shielded audio interconnect will have a very good chance of carrying a digital signal provided it is shielded, but has some chance of picking up interference. It is unlikely to be 75ohm but many so-called digital coax cables aren't anyway. You won't break anything, and it may well work just fine. I always try to use the cable type that is designed for the job at hand though. Edited June 24, 2013 by aechmea 1
davewantsmoore Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) impedence If we are to generalise... the impedance of an analog audio interconnect is irrelevant Obviously better not to try it. It will definitely "work" ... and you definitely won't harm anything Edited June 24, 2013 by davewantsmoore
buddyev Posted June 24, 2013 Author Posted June 24, 2013 Thanks guys. Very good advice - use the tool that's designed for the job. 1
davewantsmoore Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) I have a very cheap co-axial cable connecting my Rega Dac and Rega Apollo R cd player and need to replace it. My apologies. I missed this. Sorry for any confusion, I was talking about analog audio (when I was saying "irrelevant"), not digital audio. You need a specific cable (75ohm) for digital. Any will work. You won't harm anything .... but you will get worse performance if the cable doesn't present the right impedance. Edited June 24, 2013 by davewantsmoore
Grainy Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 I have one of these not being used. PM me if you are interested. http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Cables/Interconnects/175/
Carrera1963 Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 Interconnects have an impedence of 50 ohm No they don't - big urban myth. As others have stated, the impedance for audio shouldn't matter - capacitance is the issue. 75ohms is required for video & digital, but works fine for audio. 1
Grainy Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) No they don't - big urban myth.Ahh bugger, I hate it when I do that.........So where does that myth come from? Are they around 50 Ohm or can they be whatever you want because no one cares because it's not an issue for analogue? Edited June 24, 2013 by Grainy
davewantsmoore Posted June 24, 2013 Posted June 24, 2013 So where does that myth come from? Are they around 50 Ohm or can they be whatever you want because no one cares because it's not an issue for analogue? Becuase it's a common impedance for other uses (where the impedance matters) .... and... Yes. 1
Recommended Posts