kurt_fire

What will give me better 5.1 sound from a DVD player? Fiber optic or coaxial cables?

I have a 5.1 surruond system that can decode both DD and DTS. I know most of the current DVD players out there have both coax and fiber optic outputs for digital sound. I am going to purchase a new DVD player, so which form of audio cable should I use for the audio. Thanks guys.

Chris Gerhard

I prefer coax because it is sturdier. I have never had a problem with toslink and I am using those also but if give a choice I always would choose coax. No difference sonically to the best of my knowledge.

Chris

Philip Hamm

It doesn't make any difference for DTS and Dolby Digital. Coax is usually cheaper because you can use a run-of-the-mill 75ohm shielded composite video cable. Toslink cables can be more expensive. I've used ultra-cheap audio cables for coax and they work great.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

kurt_fire

so you guys think an Acoustic Research coaxial cable from BestBuy would work just as fine as anything??

Neil Joseph

I would go for the coax simply because it is more robust as others have mentioned...

Digital Audio: Optical Connection vs. Coax connection

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Carl Johnson

Six of one half a dozen of another, on working class equipment (like less than $1000 per componet) you're unlikely to hear a difference. Given a choice I use coax because it's cheaper but my receiver has two digital ins, optical for the CD player and coax for DVD. One digital in doesn't sound much if any better than the other, but they are both better than analogue inputs.

Philip Hamm

And it is highly debatable whether there's a difference on high dollar equipment.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

Mark Hedges

I use coax because the cabling is cheaper and more robust. There are some people who say that to get the best signal from an optical connection you have to use a glass-based cable, which are very expensive. For a coax connection cabling doesn't seem to be as important (as long as it is a shielded 75 ohm cable).

Mark

Michael Reuben

This question is asked so often that it's covered in the Beginner's Primer and FAQ:

Digital Audio: Optical Connection vs. Coax connection

M.

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imported_Brian L

I fall squarely into the "it does not make any performance difference" camp.

Having said that, I would also agree that coax will be sturdier, however if for some bizarre reason your cable were exposed to high amounts of RF noise and who knows what all, the optical cable would obviously not be affected by that. I suppose properly designed coax would also be immune.

As for cost, I recently bought a 6' Optical cable from Parts Express (their Dayton brand) and was pleasantly surprised at how stout it was. Seems to me it was less than $10, which is what you would pay for a Rat Shack Gold 75 Ohm job, and the thing was as big around as any coax I have used.

The connector was extremely robust as well. A far cry from some of the optical cable I own. I got a free one in the box with a DD Sat Box...what a POS. The thing was so small I am sure I could break it by giving it a dirty look. Then again, it does seem to work OK.

BGL