AES/EBU interface on Parasound DAC?

Emlyn

I recently acquired a used Parasound D/AC-2000 Ultra DAC and it has the ability to connect with a compatible digital source with an AES/EBU interconnect. I'm just using it with an unbalanced coaxial cable for now, running the digital signal from a CEC CD player although the CD player also has an AES/EBU output as well. The improvement in sound quality is quite noticeable with the external DAC even without using an AES/EBU cable.

Does anyone have experience with using components with an AES/EBU interface? There seem to be some cheap generic AES/EBU cables available for a low price and some with a very high price too. Is it worth buying a new cable (balanced 110 ohm) to use in place of the coaxial?

madmax

My Theta/AudioNote setup uses this cable. The fellow I bought it from said the cable should be of good quality. The one on mine was around $300. I've often wondered what the difference between this and the standard connection would be but unfortunatly this is the only connection on mine. No help I guess...

BTW, look into the polk replacement tweets for your SL-3000's or SL-2000's. They are quite nice.

madmax

Emlyn

Originally posted by madmax
My Theta/AudioNote setup uses this cable. The fellow I bought it from said the cable should be of good quality. The one on mine was around $300. I've often wondered what the difference between this and the standard connection would be but unfortunatly this is the only connection on mine. No help I guess...

BTW, look into the polk replacement tweets for your SL-3000's or SL-2000's. They are quite nice.

madmax

You're always a help, Chuck. I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between cables if I was still using my old speakers. It's difficult to find information on AES/EBU cables, although I have seen some people say that either coaxial or AES/EBU cables work better with external DACS than toslink cables. I think I'll stick with coaxial until I get more information, since it seems to cost more than what I paid for the DAC to get a short high end AES/EBU cable. I'd probably spend as much on a cable as it would cost to upgrade my SL-3000 tweeters on the 2.3TLs, and replacing the tweeters is a higher priority right now. I have replaced the SL2000 tweeters in SDA 2s as recommended by Dorokusai, and they are very nice.

Normanality

Greetings Emlyn. I've got the same Parasound 2000 DAC and found that the sound was a full step better using the AES/EBU over the coax digital. I've been using a Nordost Silver Shadow AES/EBU and also have a Kimber coax digital.
Other than the impedance difference 110 vs 75 I'm not sure why there is such a difference in sound.
I'm going to be selling my DAC also (I have 2 of them) since my Parasound 2000 transport finally gave up the ghost and I've moved onto a Jolida modded tube cd player.

unc2701

I've used AES connections on some recording stuff. Didn't notice any diff vs coax, but the gear wasn't very high-end. Basically just an 8 track HD recording setup.

steveinaz

I run my CEC CD-3300 via AES/EBU into my Benchmark DAC, and I prefer it to my connection via DH Labs coax, which I tried for a few months. My AES/EBU cable is from Signal Cable, 2ft length.

The AES/EBU connection seems to have a little bit smoother treble than coax, but I'm not thoroughly convinced yet, thats it's not a placebo effect.