Chord C-Digital

A coaxial digital output asks an ordinary phono socket to do a job it was never drawn for. What travels down it is not really "data" in the comfortable sense — it is a fast square wave with steep edges, and the receiving chip recovers both the bits and the clock from the shape of those edges. Round the edges off, let reflections smear them, and the bits still arrive; the timing information wrapped around them arrives less cleanly. That is the whole reason a coaxial digital lead is worth thinking about at all.

The Chord Company built the C-Digital for the affordable end of that problem: the DAC in a streamer, the coaxial output on a CD player, the digital out on a set-top box. It is the cable that carries a signal from a component that has finished with it to the component that has to make sense of it, and at this price it competes largely with whatever was in the accessories drawer.

Tuned ARAY, handed down

The C-Digital uses Tuned ARAY conductor configuration. Chord developed that geometry for their high-end digital cables and now apply it across the ranges, which is unusual candour from a cable maker — most keep the good geometry upstairs where the margins are. What Chord publish about how ARAY works is thin, and we are not going to pad the gap with invented physics. What is confirmed is that the conductor arrangement is tuned to the specific job the cable does rather than shared across the catalogue, and that this one is tuned for coaxial digital.

Conductors, shielding and plugs

Oxygen-free copper conductors, with high-density over-wrapped foil shielding. The RCA plugs are direct gold-plated, which Chord specify for improved signal transfer, and the over-moulded surround is built to give zero conductor compression — the plug does not squeeze what passes through it. Two lengths are made, 0.5m and 1m, which tells you something about the intended use: this is a cable for two boxes on the same rack, not a run across a room.

Technical Specifications

Who Is It For?

Someone using a modestly priced outboard DAC, or feeding the coaxial input on an integrated amplifier, who is still using the lead that came free in a box. That is the situation this cable was designed around and where the money makes obvious sense.

The honest limitation: a DAC with a well-designed input stage and thorough reclocking is deliberately built to be indifferent to what feeds it, and the better that design is, the smaller the difference any coaxial cable makes. If you own such a DAC and you hear nothing, you have not been swindled — you have been shown that your DAC does its job. And if the source and DAC both offer USB or optical, it is worth asking whether coaxial is the connection you want in the first place. The alternatives across the range are on our Chord Company collection page, and if the source is a network streamer the Chord C-stream digital streaming cable addresses a different link in the same chain.

Buying from Martins Hi-Fi

We keep C-series cables in because they answer the question people actually ask — what should I use between these two boxes without spending more than the boxes cost. If you would like to hear one against what you already own, that is what our home evaluation service is for.

When you get in touch, you'll be speaking with Dave, Chris and Tim at info@martinshifi.co.uk, call 01603 627010, or WhatsApp on 07554 687137. You can read more about how we work on our Why Martins page. We are at 85–91 Ber Street, Norwich, NR1 3EY.