Which cables for spdif?

I think with these regular cinch/rca connectors you should be able to make them a bit tighter with pliers, no?
You should use S/PDIF coax cables with an impedance of 75 Ohms, at least when you need longer cables. Regular RCA audio cables might or might not work well.

If you really need something to tide you over you can use pretty much any RCA cable. The composite (yellow for tv) should be your best bet as they are going to be closer to the 75ohm rating. The 75ohm rating will start to become really important with very long lengths. If you are using 3-10 ft I don't see cable ohmage being a fator that will affect your signal quality. (I believe a cable that uses RG-6 can achieve 75ohm the closest) Please save your money for a speaker fund or something. Digital cables like SPDIF and HDMI are on-off, there is no quality factor like an analog cable that can pick up interference. 10-20 bucks is more than enough if you shop online for a good SPDIF cable.

I'm not saying there is no difference between a specifically designed SPDIF cable and a RCA or Composite, so if you need one you should buy one, but the others should work fine to tide you over. If you squeeze the the loose connector you have now you risk damaging or scratching the KPA connector, so keep that in mind.

Look for cables fitted with REAN by Neutrik RCA connectors. They are sitting very tight on the Profilers SPDIF connectors. I use this one http://www.thomann.de/de/cordial_cpds1_cc_digitalkabel.htm
The plug is a Neutrik NYS 373-0 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb…rds=Neutrik%20NYS%20373-0

Quote from HELL-G

I use this one http://www.thomann.de/de/cordial_cpds1_cc_digitalkabel.htm

Same here. Great cables, even more when looking at the price tag.

Can't see how they should be better than your existing Monster cables. Seriously, try to press the cable's connectors just slightly together while not connected, nothing dramatic. Then connect them and they should have much better (tighter) fit without destroying anything. This ain't rocket science! And it won't change your guitar's sound (until Scott Grove prays the opposite).

If you are in the USA, check out monoprice.

http://www.monoprice.com/Produ…&p_id=2680&seq=1&format=2

That thing is 4 bucks and will probably be as good or better than most high end cables. I use guitar-cable.com when I need a silent analog 1/4 cable as they carry the Netriuk silent plug ends and canare, but I use Monoprice for most everything. I even pay a hefty shipping to Canada but it is still worth it.

Sorry to hear you broke one cable.
I've never had this problem with any of my cables in my pro audio and video gear. I only had it once with my receiver in the living room and I could easily fix it by just slightly pressing the plug.

Anyway, maybe you'll have to go for locking RCA plugs.

I can confirm that the S/PDIF plugs connect lousily. Weirdly, with the same plug one socket fits tightly, the other one doesn't.

It seems there's too high a tolerance in the sockets. I've not opened the unit to investigate this any further tho.

Black lunchbox here.

Sorry to hear this. my SPDIF connection sits very tight though.

Mine is super tight.

SPDIF is digital. No need to spend a ton of money on cables which carry a digital signal.

@ ingolf, deadpan: yes, this seems to confirm that there's a high tolerance across the units... or is it across the plugs?

@ Will : this opens of course another can of worms, but not everyone agrees on this. Several listening tests, even performed "blind" (sorry, don't know the Englilsh idiom for this) have shown that different cables do sound differently.

Read for example what the famous Chris Sommovigo reports on his discoveries.

Numbers are numbers, but jitter is jitter

I have experienced cables that degrade the signal. One may find it hard to believe but even in USB.

Quote from viabcroce

@ ingolf, deadpan: yes, this seems to confirm that there's a high tolerance across the units... or is it across the plugs?

@ Wull : this opens of course another can of worms, but not everyone agrees on this. Several listening tests, even performed "blind" (sorry, don't know the Englilsh idiom for this) have shown that different cables do sound differently.

Read for example what the famous Chris Sommovigo reports on his discoveries.

Numbers are numbers, but jitter is jitter

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I'm sorry, but that's impossible. A digital signal does not degrade like an analog signal does. If the signal is degrading to the point at which the signal can no longer be interpreted it is not a subtle change. And in the case of digital cabling, a listening test is completely and absolutely the worst possible test as you can actually take a bit stream run it trough a cable and compare the results before and after signal absolutely as the signal is digital.

Oh yes, it is possible to degrade pretty much the same like an analog signal, technically. And in a system without any I/O Buffers you could potentially get an audible jitter. But there's pretty much no digital audio signal chain that doesn't have at least small buffers at inputs and most likely at outputs as well. And since the buffering removes all transmission related timing errors (e.g. phase noise), there's simply no such thing like jitter introduced through cables.