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The bad/good news is that replacing the Schuko IEU connectors on Sogon AC cables with the Oyaide F1 produces a dramatic upgrade. Not at at all subtle. More of the same but up by 20-30% on a guess. The all good news is that using just one in a system is terrific. In my all AN system, I use in on the dac; in my BC/JMR system, on the preamp. No idea what the multiplier effects would be, not in a hurry to find out.

Not having taken the plugs apart, Scarebus, and presuming that there is a thoroughgoing practice in the production of Audio Note cables so that the coloured tape end is the grounded end, my experience, reported earlier in this thread, would lend support to your recollection. The ‘yellow end’ of the cable connected to the transport did sound better to me. If the ‘yellow end’ is the grounded end, and that end should be at the source of signal at that particular point in the chain of reproduction, simple correlation a physical practice that should give rise to subjective experience has, in this case at least, given rise to such experience. Now, if the cable is not so constructed, and the grounded end is not the yellow end .... Well, I like it better the way I have it!!

If my memory is correct, I always understood that the colored side goes to the source, i.g. in this case the colored XLR(RCA) goes into the transport and the black plug goes to the DAC. Or you can take the plug apart and check which side is terminated to the ground pin. That grounded plug should go to the source.

How familiar that sounds to me! On one occasion, having made a small number of changes, all be each one itself small, on listening to the system my wife made me in turn take out each one, even down to a HiFi-Tuning fuse (silver fuse wire, ceramic body, silver/gold plated caps) replacing it with an AHP manufacture (copper wire, ceramic body, damping material and gold plated caps), until she declared the system to be, within constraints, as it should be. I have to say, she pinned it all down, making me adopt consequently a more nuanced approach to system ‘improvement’, focusing less, shall we say, on the so-called hi-fidelity and more on the reproduction of music. Now, surely, these are not mutually exclusive but ...

As to the cable and what may appear prima facie to be a preference for copper: yet, the Audio Note silver digital interconnect was preferred to the copper types tried; how much is the connector, itself, a ‘player’ in all this? Cable metallurgy, construction, connector metallurgy and construction, the system itself, all have to be factored in. I am mindful of your suggestion and need to try out. Incidently, with power plugs, as I have mentioned elsewhere on the forum, I, and my significant other, have a preference for white metals, Oyaide platinum/palladium plated beryllium copper. So much, surely, bears on this fascinating practice to reproduce recorded music.

Now, finally, if I may presume, in the light of Amherst submitting a post in this thread earlier, may I pick up on a comment made in his most recent reviews for Positive Feedback Online under the rubric ‘Notes of an Amateur’? Amherst, that is, Bob Neill, states he is uncertain whether Boulez composes by intuition or by design; I can tell him, from hearing a conversation between the composer and his compatriot, the pianist, Pierre-Laurent Aimard (part of the Aldeburgh Festival, this year, where Aimard, has for the last two years been principal director of the Festival), that Boulez is far less influenced by design and goes very much with his gut feeling; he declared that his earlier use of serialism proved far too restrictive, leading him to acknowledge how much intuition needed to be at work in his compositional practice.

How funny that you, too, 'torture' your wife to get an un-biased non-audiophile opinion. I've swapped power cords with my wife listening, without telling her what I've done, and she was shocked afterward to learn what I'd changed as she had a marked preference for one over the other.

If she likes copper, you should try the AN Lexus interconnect between DAC and pre.

If the length of your lonely length of Vx is sufficient, a very good way to go would be to use Sogon as the digital IC and get a second, matching length piece of Vx to bridge the DAC-pre gap.

At the time the unit was loaned to me by Peter Qvortrup, for home audition, Peter made no mention of direction of cable, and for that audition Peter supplied another, cheaper AN silver cable to connect the transport and converter. With purchase of the DAC and a length of AN-S analogue interconnect, out of the blue, I received a length of AN-Vx digital interconnect from Peter, with a note saying that he had come across this particular length of digital interconnect and offered it to me without charge, which I was grateful to receive. Again, no mention was made of directionality. I have compared the AN-Vx with some other digital interconnects, RCA and XLR, and have returned time and again to the AN-Vx; I suspect I may have to raise the stake in the Audio Note game to find a superior digital interconnect. However, with the length of AN-S, running from the DAC to my pre-amplifier, after quite some time, and, particularly, at the behest of my spouse, I replaced it with a length of Living Voice copper interconnect cable that had been used previously. I acknowledged, finally, my wife’s preference for the copper cable in that context, appreciating too the quality of representation the copper cable brought that the AN-S didn’t bring, though she acknowledged there was more detail with the silver cable.

I do need to invite my wife to listen to the digital interconnect as customarily run and reversed, to see if she prefers one way to the other, if at all. I know, now, she will be reluctant — she wants to listen to recorded music, not experiment — but her insight is high, indifferent to claim or extra-musical influences.

For whatever reason, I've never really thought about the orientation of the cable between transport and DAC. I would have guessed that the grounded end (the yellow taped end, I believe) should have been plugged into the DAC, but your experience indicates the reverse. I'll get a definitive answer from the Home Office and report back here.

I thank you for such a prompt response to my earlier question.

While I have had the DAC and the length of Vx, I have only removed the cable to clean or to try out an alternative balanced interconnect, each time returning the Vx with the coloured tape ends as when disconnected. I have not thought to try the cable reversed. I appreciate the enquiry from Frihed 89 concerned analogue interconnects and pre-amplifier connection, and, from a search of this forum, that the earlier discussion to which he refers mentioned grounding, the coloured end being the grounded end for connection to pre-amplifier. Now, as reported, my digital interconnect has one end black tape the other yellow tape, the latter tape shorter than the former; I have used with yellow tape end connected to the CEC TL51X and, clearly, the longer black tape end connected to the DAC2.1x Balanced. Following my posting, today, I reversed the length of interconnect and listened. Now, I don’t know what, if any, consequence for grounding follows by running one way or the other. But, I do know, and it was clear to me quite quickly, that the sound of the one cable was different one way to the other. Ease of reproduction and sense of space on the recording were better when the cable was connected to the transport with the shorter yellow taped end. So, reversing the cable and listening resulted in my restoring the orientation I had used since first acquiring. Am I imagining the difference? I am not inclined to think so. The sound was not ‘revelatory’ one way and execrable the other, but the difference was there and my preference was clear.

I don't think digital IC's are directional but David C will correct me if I've got (had) this wrong (forever).

Might I presume, here, to ask a question that comes to me in the light of your postings? When I bought my DAC2.1x Balanced directly from Peter, I received a length of Vx for use as interconnect between transport and converter; one end of said has black tape, the other yellow tape; would the black taped end, then, be used at the transport or at the converter connection, or, would this issue be deemed not to arise with digital interconnection?