The transmission of data over spdif is digital data.
Now you cannot hear the music from that sequence of 1 or 0. Transmitting that sequence of 1 and 0 over a cable does not make it analog.
The cable is probably not where you would want to throw your money at. I will spend on a DAC
If you want to insist that it is analogue, and base further discussion on that assumption, okay I concede your point. Maybe you should elaborate further on analog processing of the analog data that is transmitted (note: no quotes or rolling eyes). Another question to ask is what about streaming services like Tidal ? If transmission over cables caused things to go horribly and uncorrectably bad that should be impossible, right ?
I have never said data being transmitted is analogue. It is too elementary to even think like that. Data being conveyed is of digital domain but the transmission, which is in the form of electric charge in the SPDIF cable or a light wave in a optical cable is "analogue". Electricity and light is analog, I mean. So, if there is a error/distortion during transmission due to factors like the wrong impedance or the length of the cable, this error is an analog domain error. The receiver at the end of the cable is going to get a distorted signal and now has to interpret this into a digital data which is different from what was fed at the source. So it is an erroneous digital data in the end. The question is, what is the nature of these errors and what is the impact of these errors to the final sound we hear ?
The priorities on how much one should spend on transport - DAC - cable is a different subject. But lets be clear that no DAC is going to fix the loss happened in the transport or in the cable.
jls001 wrote: @Dr Bass, from transmission line theory, we know that matching the characteristic impedance of a transmission medium/channel (which an SPDIF cable is) to the source or the load maximises the energy transferred, and also avoids reflections. If one uses a 25 ohm cable, it creates an impedance mismatch with the 75 ohm source. It also is a mismatch to the 75 ohm load/destination. The cable will reflect a part of the energy sent by the source, back to the source. So a new waveform is created and will exist and interact with the original waveform. These waveforms will interact and inter modulate each other, thus giving rise to see third waveform. Whatever signal that manages to reach the destination is no longer the original, and to make things worse it will undergo further distortion.
Are any bits lost ?
Same question, what is the impact on the final sound ?