nicks911e

I am new to a server based audio system but not new to either audiophile audio or I.T and I have spent £1000's of pounds on speaker cables and interconnects in the past and I have done blind tests when choosing my cables but I am sorry but I defy anyone to tell me they have heard a difference between a $200 usb cable and one costing $1500!! (let alone one costing $20). Isnt this cable carrying a digital signal? Isnt the equipment either end of the cable doing the hard stuff (and also something that can affect the quality of the sound more). Unless the usb cable is incredibly long then I don't see how these prices can be justified. This is not supposed to be controversial (but probably is) but is there scientific evidence to prove me wrong?

I have a problem(with my brain?), I set the volume of my apple remote to max (this is controlling a airport express connected via toslink to my TAG av32r), am I going mad but it seems overly bassy and muddled in the mid-range. When I lower the volume say half way on the remote and raise the pre-amp volume, it seems to of fixed it, is this possible on a digital connection?

Simple Question, Do you think the Arcam rDAC will be a good upgrade to a Tag Mclaren AV32R? I currently own a av32r (and 100x5r power amp) and I am feeding a Airport Express via toslink into it. Will the rDAC sound better via toslink initially and then via a mac mini (when I save up more cash) via USB or am I better off spending a similar amount to what I spent on the av32r (which was new at the time) many years ago. My current front end is a Roksan Xerxes, Artemis and Shiraz cartridge so in the end I would like it to sound as good as this although this possibly is going to be out of my budget. Either way I would something that is very flexible and has a 'analogue' (the best way I can describe it) sound to it. It doesnt need to be over detailed just relaxing to listen to for long periods of time Many thanks Nick p.s. love the website