sandyk Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 I recently trialled a friend's JCAT SATA cable on the music ssd and was surprised with the SQ improvement (I was expecting none). David How long was this cable ? Did you also try the shortest possible SATA 3 6GB/S cable, which has 2 separate internal screened cables ? Kind Regards Alex How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file. PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020 Link to comment
sandyk Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 David Perhaps you will soon be in a position to be able to help answer the question as to whether there is any marked (not tiny) SQ advantage with an expensive aftermarket 40cm SATA cable over a shorter 25cm SATA 3 6GB/s cable ? . It makes sense to me that an aftermarket SATA cable may perform better at longer lengths than a normal SATA cable of the same length, due to improved screening and perhaps lower resistance conductors. Kind Regards Alex P.S. A generic SATA cable as still used by many, only has 7 wires side by side without any shielding . Most newer motherboards are likely to have come with at least one 40cm SATA3 6GB/s cable How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file. PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020 Link to comment
sandyk Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Yes comparing the cable you recommended to the JCAT SATA v1 which is in Peter's server I built for him. Alex, we will also get you over and you can decide for yourself!I hope the much cheaper cable does rate favourably. I am in a bit of a quandary if it does not as I have lost a bit of faith in the reliabilty of JCAT products (thus I am here researching Pachanko).Marcin declined to swap the faulty JCAT v1 for a v2 cable. In fairness, he did suggest some tweaks to the BIOS to see if that solved the compatibility issues. At Pete's place today the jcat was less problematic after a couple of reboots so he decided not to do anything further for now.I will also need to rethink about which usb card and cable I want to go with. Now Alex, you are beginning sound like one of those dang "objectivists". Throw in a spurious measurement or two and we might think you have defected ;-) Is that *generic* SATAII with 7 wires side by side and no shielding as opposed to *generic* SATAIII with two shielded wires? Just to add to (my) confusion I read somewhere that there should be no difference between shielded and unshielded as SATA uses differential signaling. Also, In most cases an unshielded cable has a higher impedance than an equivalent sheilded version. This higher impedance allows for higher frequency transmission and longer wire length. David The older SATA 2 cables which were usually red, with their 7 side by side wires normally visible, were often able to perform at the higher speed, but it was not guaranteed like with the SATA 3 6GB/s cables.They also appear to pick up radiated RF/EMI , especially in the longer than necessary lengths where they may end up draped across the motherboard. It's not always a good idea to have all of the internal SATA cables in a 25cm length as I found recently. The sound became ultra detailed when I replaced the last remaining one recently, but sounded balanced again when I fitted a 40cm Asus SATA 3 6GB/s cable that came in the motherboard's box instead. Weird !That isn't supposed to happen. Regards Alex P.S. Can we also see just how much better your new Gryphon DAC is too ? Does it also do DSD ? How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file. PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020 Link to comment
sandyk Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 For those interested I asked Chan the difference in his SATA Reference cable compared to SATA MkII and got his permission to pass on his answer. Hi David Other than cryo treatment, the resulting improvements from which are highly debatable, he didn't really tell you anything ,as he didn't use the words screened or shielded. Isolated independently could mean almost anything. Kind Regards Alex How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file. PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020 Link to comment
sandyk Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 Hi Alex,English is obviously not Chan's first language. He was also focusing on the difference between his standard cable. He has updated his website now... Pachanko Digital "Sata Reference" Features: OFC multi stranded 26 AWG cryo copper wire isolated separately - Teflon coated - Triple shielded -100% Handcrafted -Can be bent -Compatible with all OS Hi David That sounds much better ! The jury is still out on Cryo treatment for most people though. Kind Regards Alex How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file. PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020 Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now