Digital Coax versus Optical Cable for Audio? (1 Viewer)

[TomHansen]

Hi There.

I've been reading "Home Theater for everyone" by Robert Harley to try to get caught up on HT.

My question comes from something he said in the book. He said if you have the choice between the digital optical cable and the Digital Coax cable, to use the coax for better audio. I thought the fiber optic cable would be better for this?

Anyone know why this is?

Thanks,

Tom Hansen

 

[kurt_fire]

i've always read that the fiber optic (digital) cable gave you better sound than the coaxial cable. maybe the book is wrong??

 

[MancusoB]

It's my opinion that both will provide EQUAL sound quality, since they are only passing digital information. But this is the subject of much controversy.

However, toslink (optical) is probably less reliable because dirt can get into the connections, or the connections themselves tend to be less robust that the RCA type coaxial jacks.

I like optical for the coolness factor.

 

[John Garcia]

1) Check the primer. The answer is there.

2) Do a search, if it is working, as this has answered ad nasueum.

 

[TomHansen]

Found this thread in the Primer:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...826#post559826

Sounds like the two cables are the same, price no concern, sounds like opticals the better way to go becuase of no chance for interference. So why does Robert Harley says hands down go coax? Maybe I'll email him and ask

Thanks,

Tom Hansen

 

[JeremyFr]

My only response to this is dont spend unnessecary money on "high quality" optical cables like you would a coaxial cable, light does not induce eletrical interference hence you dont have to have all the sheilding etc around the cable like a coaxial cable would require, now I will say you would probably want to try to find a glass core optical cable then a plastic core for better transmission though glass core tends to be even less robust.

 

[John Garcia]

Personally, I prefer coax as well.

 

[Geoff L]

Me to John....RCA


Much less chance of breaking, less expensive, screw the cool factor, go rca...

Try them both, bet most HT systems can't tell the difference...

11010101010101010101010101010100000000000001010110 10100101010000000000010001101010101010101010101010 10101010101001010101100000011111110111110101010.

Long for, see!

 

[Ali_Techra]

I was told that Coax would give better bass response but after trying the optical I found exactly the opposite. My vote is with the optical for better sound and the "coolness factor"

 

[Neil Joseph]

Digital Audio: Optical Connection vs. Coax connection

 

[TimTurtino]

I meant to say something about this when reading the primer-- the other reason people might prefer coax over optical is that the coax digital cable means two less transformations-- i.e., the transform from digital signal in wires to digital signal in lights, and back again. Every transformation is a place something can go wrong. Anyway, that's my guess for why Robert Harley quotes coax as being better.

Better bass should theoretically not happen from either one, because any errors should with very high probability cause error packets which should cause little bits of silence spread equally among frequencies. But then again, I've never actually tried both back to back, so what the heck do I know?

Me