Cable Quality coming from interface to Daw? Is there a difference?

[AcousticDreams]

On Rare occasions I will do something out of curiosity. Or a need to know from first hand experience. If it doesn't break the bank, then the Satisfaction of first hand knowledge is most often, worth the price of admission.

On such example is with Reverbs. I love my Pro R. Sounds so clean and open and has wonderful presets to explore. But I come from the days when we used Plate Reverb. I wanted to have that old plate reverb sound in my arsenal. I was told that TransAtlantic Plate was the best of the best. Even on sale it cost nearly half of what my Pro R cost. It only has two settings... The Sound is massively grainier and not as open as Pro R. Still, I am happy to have it. Even if I wind up not using it much. It gives me that old standard of which I grew up on...to compare with. Sometimes it is worth it just to have that comparison. In the end it is a sort of mental relief knowing exactly what the differences are.

I liked what the Cocobolo Kid's articles had to say. So I decided to do what I also do, and that is call the tech rep at the fore mentioned cable company. He was extremely helpful and very candid in his replies.
He said:
" I can not guarantee that you will get better sound than what your inexpensive cable is delivering now when you record " What I can guarantee is you will get the same sound when Playing back."
Explaining further;
"Computers have error correction. So when a signal comes in it checks it and corrects it. Capture....will most of the time will be just fine. But when playing back...your interface most likely does not have the same error correction capabilities as your Computer does. This can make a difference from any external drive, streamed service. The Cable from the drive in playback can make a difference. it is the Playback mode where a good digital cable can make a difference. "

In a conversation with my brother who programs for a high end Hospital beds company stated that his company is very aware of digital errors in playback modes. They use special devices to check the error corrections.

Going on Cocobolo Kid's recommendations, I purchased this morning a higher quality digital cable. Wireworld Cable. I was lucky and got an open box from one of their dealers and saved $45 from the list price. A $135 for a single cable discounted??? Well worth it just for the curiously factor. Well worth it as it gives me some sort of mental relief that I have done everything possible to preserve the sound captured.

Bottom line, all it is hurting is my pocket book. In the meantime I get some fun conversations, so more knowledge, and little bit of satisfaction.

Oh, almost forgot. I have learned in more detail about Thunderbolt. I learned from Audient that they used C connectors coming out of there interface because you can flip them either way. Even though they are transmitting in 2.0.

What I learned this morning is that C connectors are double wired? Not sure the correct way to say this. So that the wiring works no matter which way you flip it. In Essence it has double the wire needed so you can use it from either side.

Thunderbolt uses the same C connectors, and the very same wire terminations behind the C connector. Thunderbolt however, is using Both sides of wiring. Both Connections. The most important thing to remember is that if it has a C type connector...it is always backward compatible. Anyway...I hope that is true as I will first connect to my Thunderbolt ports.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

"Computers have error correction. So when a signal comes in it checks it and corrects it.

This is not generally true. Many interfaces, like the USB standard, have error detection, as I stated above. Each packet goes across with a checksum, and if they don't match at the other end, the packet is rejected and requested to be re-sent.

Some standards (I'll admit I know nothing about Thunderbolt) may have error correction which is entirely different. Extra bits are sent along with the data such that specific bits can be flagged as corrupted, and the correct bits can be quickly computed at the receiving end so no re-transmission is necessary.

You can't make a blanket statement about "Computers" without knowing the specific transmission standard (and perhaps that it is actually implemented in a particular device). However, either way, the bits in still are identical to the bits out if everything is working like it's supposed to.

That stuff in the article about "squaring the wave" and jitter only apply during D/A or A/D conversion. IMO the only applicable things there--where we are strictly digital to digital, between the interface and the computer--affect the length of the cable (as has been noted) and the durability.