I have always appreciated the benefit of upgrading analogue
interconnects in hi-fi systems, having heard the benefits clearly for
myself. However, I have to say that I have been sceptical about the
potential benefits when transmitting a digital signal and many people have
expressed a similar scepticism to mine, both in print and personally.

A good friend of mine, whose opinions on hi-fi I respect, enthused about the
virtues of an American cable manufacturer company called Acoustic Zen,
whose MC2 digital reference cable, he waxed lyrical about from personal
experience. I had recently purchased a Russ Andrews DAC1-USB external
DAC to upgrade my Arcam CD player along with a Chord Prodac digital cable
and been pretty pleased with the improvements it had made to the sound, so
when I had the opportunity to buy the Acoustic Zen at a bargain price I
jumped at the opportunity.

Fortunately for me, Acoustic Zen is not a household name in the UK. If it had been an equivalent Chord digital reference cable, I would have paid a lot more! Gobsmacked is the only way
to describe the improvements across the whole frequency range. Treble
clarity, bass depth and resolution, detail retrieval and image solidity
improved for starters and were immediately noticeable, literally from the
first note.

There was nothing subtle about the differences and yet subtle
is now a term I can use to describe musical playback in my system. Timing
seems to have improved as well and the annoying digital glare that seems
to plague CD playback on virtually every system I have heard, within
sensible budgets, has gone. The best way to sum up is to say that, at
last, my system sounds musical in a way I had not fully appreciated
before.

I don't know how the Acoustic Zen does it, but there must be
something in the "zero crystal" technology that the founder, Robert Lee,
has created, whether this lowers jitter or improves how and when the 0's
and 1's arrive at the DAC. All I know is - it works and works
beautifully.