Indeed. Ditto. Interested to hear which optical cable people are using as I’m always open to see if my views might change.
I found investigating this with the tt2 fascinating. It is so revealing that it highlights differences starkly. I think the problem for me is electrical noise over usb. I have always hated the slight glare with digital and that is why vinyl is my main source. With the tt2 it reduced dramatically when I went Phoenix usb but it was still there. Going optical with an AQ forest cable almost totally removed it. Interestingly Rob watts mentions that some prefer this glare as it emphasises highs and appears to add detail
I also suspect the amount of noise will vary massively due to external factors in the home
Noted. Presumably a relatively short length of cable?
The optical?1.5m
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I’m intrigued now and at that price, assuming I’m looking at the right thing, it seems a no-brainier to give it a try.
I always get very confused with optical cables. Am I looking at Toslink or mini-Toslink or something else? Struggling to find the 1m I’d need. Seem to do 0.75m and 1.5m.
Full sized toslink. Search audioquest forest optical toslink about £42 on amazon
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Thanks. Looks available in downtown Manchester. Might grab some on Tuesday. The test will be against Chord Epic USB.
Let me know how you get on! First impressions will probably that it is darker and less detailed. Stick with it for a few days to get used to it. Worse case is you lose £40 
Edit: with the zen mini you need to set the audio to zen mini dac to get optical out, otherwise it defaults to usb. Sounds odd but it does not actually use the dac chip as the output is digital!
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Withy zenith 3 and mscaler usb via the pheonix offers the best sound. I did try and src dx that others raved about and hated it
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Well as @Ryder35 suggests, for the price, I’m happy to put my money where my mouth is and see what happens.
An interesting read.
The Zen and Zenith don’t have optical do they though that was just the Zen Mini? So not sue what use it will be to you buying a cable.
Very true, Mike if you have a zenith rather than zen mini no point buying the cable you will not have a way to plug it in!
Hi @gav_sw20, I have a zen mk3 and use it with an M2Tech HiFace. The M2Tech has a BNC socket for the output and I have Chord Shawline BNC to BNC to connect to the digital 1 input of my 272. Using the ethernet cable out from Zen to 272 is very, very slightly clearer for UPnP streaming. But the M2tech is needed for Qobuz and I cannot fault it as a connection. I have connected the USB out of the Zen to a Chord Mojo and that sounds pretty good into the analogue 2 input of the 272, it is perhaps a little bit filtered in the treble. That maybe because I had a low cost QED 3.5mm jack to phono lead as the analogue out from Mojo to 272. These are my findings and you may get a different impression.
How are you getting 5v power to the Quest? The backup USB port on the Zenith may be strong enough to power the Qutest and benefits from the clean power supply in the Zenith.
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Doh. Apologies. Been a long long week.
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I owned a Zen Mini with power supply before moving onto the Zenith (both with Chord DAC). IMHO the interconnect in the first set up could have been designed by Einstein, made by Jesus and fitted by God himself and it would still not be in the same league as the Zenith so I wouldn’t lose sleep over it if I were you.
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Thanks for the response.
I was looking at a M2Tech USB-BNC but not sure whether it would be an improvement over USB.
The Qutest is running from a TP 5v powered supply, I hadn’t even thought if trying to run it from the Zenith. I assume you mean plugging it into the “BACKUP” USB port on the rear of the Zenith ? Also, do you recommend and particular cable at all please ?
Hi,
yes, I think you can plug the Qutest power input (I think it is a micro USB) into the Zenith BACKUP USB port. I have tried this with a Chord Mojo into the BACKUP USB output of my Zen and it charged the Mojo.
For the BACKUP USB port of the Zenith to Qutest power input, I think you could use an ordinary USB A to micro USB cable.
For the DAC USB port of the Zenith to the Qutest USB B signal input, I guess there are a lot of expensive hifi cables you could choose from. Someone on the forum will make a good suggestion for you. I use the cable supplied by Chord Electronics for the Mojo, so I don’t have an expensive recommendation for you.
If you get a M2Tech HiFace2 USB to BNC, Naim’s own digital BNC to BNC cable will be a good choice. I use a Chord Company Shawline BNC to BNC and that works well, it was a significant improvement on the basic Belkin cable that came with the M2Tech (which I bought secondhand).
Regards,
M
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