You know I forgot about the ultraDigital. Very nicely built just like all of their products.
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Define ridiculous.
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I am interested in value play, price/performance. Ideally, $300 or less for cable.
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New or Used?
What length?
Ideally used (to save money 
). .75-1M would be plenty.
AudioQuest Vodka 48 is not a bad choice. Not the eARC version. Just the 48 HDMI version.
If you wait until tomorrow I am sure there will be several more suggestions.
Please stand by. 
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Inakustik makes a affordable cable that is supposed to be good. Otherwise Audioquest Carbon 48 would be a good cable under $300
Nick from the Music Room might be able to get you a Vodka 48 for around $300 they list for $400
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Then Inakustik I2S cables are excellent. I use two the Exzellenz II cables with the two Jays transports. You can often find them from several EU retailers for under $100. I bought both of mine from Techinn for about $70 each. It looks like all they have at the moment are the Coax and USB cables. Hereâs another store in Germany with them in stock and if shipping outside the EU the 19% VAT will be removed.
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Best to go used. Grab a Wire World PS7 HDMI or RAL silver HDMI stay away from silver plated copper.
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My understanding is that while youâre on the digital side of your system you can go from box to box without loss. However, USB was developed as a standard (âuniversalâ) way for ânearbyâ computer peripherals to communicate with a computer in order to move data around and is not optimised for transferring audio data to a DAC, particularly DSD data streams. Itâs failing is that along with the musical data it transmits the clocking data as well which is susceptible to galvanic interference (distortion) as it passes through a computer. A USB cable also carries DC power to a connected device. The power comes from the computer and is usually less than pure DC also being susceptible to distortion. We can often hear the effects of this after itâs processed through a DAC.
On top of this, the USB protocol does not lend itself to transferring continuous bit streams like DSD. You need extra software on your computer that extends the USB protocol to handle not only PCM data but also single-, double- and higher-rate DSD.
The I2S protocol uses separate conductors to transmit audio data and clock data separately so isolating music data from clock data. In fact, according to Ted Smith, the DACâs designer, your DS DAC ignores the clock data and does some tricky computing to determine the type and speed of the music data by examining just the data!
So you should get better sound if you can utilise the DS DACâs I2S input rather than the USB. An intermediary box like a Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2 is one way to achieve this in the world of ubiquitous USB devices.
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Or not.
Begin rant.
So many of us have gone down this path together. We have so much experience with this. Basically itâs foolish to start down this path trying to save money. Our collective experience shows wherever you start you will become interested in going higher. I made six or seven jumps with I2S cables (yes, just an HDMI cable) before I finally went to the agreed upon best.
Notes: the best I2S cable is the AudioQuest Dragon. Probably $1500.
The best USB cable will cost somewhere around $3000.
We havenât mentioned power supplies but that tops out around $1500 but I never went that far.
My power supply stop point was around $400.
Yes, bits are bits, blah blah blah. Please donât go THERE.
So look at these numbers and decide if you might be overwhelmed with such things.
If so ignore all this and enjoy what you have.
Or spend $750 on a MacBook Pro and put AudirvÄna on it and feed your DAC with that. My last DAC cost me $38k and Iâm not done yet. The slope is very slippery and money means less and less when you start hearing and appreciating the rewards.
End rant.
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On dacs, if cost is no object, look to select 2 or Wadax to take you much higher
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The Ideon Audio Absolute DAC should be added to that short list.
And this here Gryphon Ethos is a might fine DAC. Mighty fine.
The Wadax didnât register with me at Axpona. I canât imagine a home test. I feel like I dodged a bullet.
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Probably dodged a bullet. Not sure it was set up for success there, based on what others have told me. MLavigne on Aâgon and wbf, who probably has a 3-5M system from what I can estimate, did the home test of the dac and server and didnât hesitate to move up from select 2 and taiko extreme. Said differences not subtle. One manâs opinion fwiw
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I get it. I have read the legendary prose. But I sat and listened to two very expensive systems playing music I was familiar with and I just didnât hear anything out of the ordinary.
I expected to wet myself.
I remained dry.
There is zero chance of a home demo for ordinary folks.
I want to believe! I want to be blown away! I was anything but.
Plus they look like 1950âs era Boomboxes to me.
Lottery win? Instant order of the entire system including the proprietary $18k Fiber cable.
Maybe a backup cable as well.
But to me it was dismissable.
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It is always good to keep it real and trust your ears, so good on you for not getting caught up in the hype if it didnât sway you. Listening and comparing is the key always
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Lots of great help and information, thanks! Based on feedback so far, seems like my. Ext step involves buying either Sonore or Matrix.
Has anyone compared the Matrix X-SPDIF 2 to the Sonore Digital for HDMI to I2s conversation? Any notable differences in sound reproduction?
Most prefer matrix or singer. I recall someone had Sonore. The matrix you can tweak to your hearts delite. I have a UltraRendu feeding my matrix and LPS with absorber, fuses aftermarket DC and AC power cords. The PS Audio Air Lens may save on those expenses. But is a product like DS MKIi that continues to shift right and who knows what final cost or real performance and early issues and gremlins will haunt them until ironed out. Plus like all PS gear will need expensive cords, RF absorber, isolation devices and fuses to perform its best.
If you buy something donât hang around here too much since we tend to tweak the most out of it. But we are here to help. Lol
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Iâve owned both. Had a fancy farad power supply serving the matrix too. My opinion is theyâre both perfectly capable. Youâre more likely to find a deal on a used matrix. I went with the sonore when I upgraded to the sonore signature rendu (from an optical Rendu). I wanted to keep it all in the sonore family. I also eliminated the separate farad power supply (sonore only runs off the USB power provided by the signature rendu).
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Why not getting a server/streamer that can be used as a Roon endpoint, and has a i2s output? Then you do not need to worry about getting extra converting boxes and cables?