Long optical cable run (1 Viewer)

[AndrewG]

What is the longest practical cable length for an optical digital cable. I want to run a signal from a CD player in one to a receiver in another and wanted to run a cable in the wall between them. Most CD players have only an optical out, I imagine that the length is not as important if I could use coaxial connections.
Thanks
Andrew
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[GaryM]

Andrew,
Longer fiber runs should be made with glass fibers, not plastic fibers. You will have to be carefull not to kink or stretch the fiber (i.e. don't pull it through a conduit) and don't run it around a sharp edge or do anything else to bend it smaller than the specified minimum radius.
Glass fibers can be run hundreds of feet and still have less loss than short lengths of plastic fiber. I use the epoxy style TOSLINK connectors because they do not require precision cleaving/polishing.
You didn't say how long your run actually was - In your case I would just get a packaged pre-terminated cable and two flanged TOSLINK couplings, and mount the couplings on wall plates. Now use 1 meter TOSLINK fibers at each end to go from the wall to the equipment. Easy and quick - if you can't buy the stuff locally, everything I talked about can be mail ordered from Digi-Key.
Gary