Digital Audio Cable.. (1 Viewer)

[Sidney]

I've been needing to get some digital audio cable to buy to connect my DVD Player to my Denon 3805 via optical cable. Is there anything I need to know when I buy one? ie type of connectors, level of quality..

Also where would you recommend to buy some good optical cable for a good price? I see things from bluejeans.com and others but how good are they with optical. I can see buying video component and regular audio cable from them, but optical..

Considering optical is digital light signals.. I'm wondering if there's really any difference between a expensive cable and a fair price cable as long as the connectors provide a good enough connection to transfer the laser light..

Well let me know which companies are good to buy from since I'm not sure what to do at this moment.

Thanks.

 

[Shane Martin]

As you know cables are a hot topic(or don't know) but I've found differences in the different ones. In generally I'd say that it is more than likely the connector on the optical cables that makes the difference more often that not. This is a guess however. I do know my Tara Labs optical sounds better than my Monster which was better than the Radio Shack/Walmart ones i've tried(and returned).

The price I paid for the Tara wasn't astronomical. I paid around $35 for it. Not expensive or ridiculous pricing.

 

[Chu Gai]

If you want some bragging rights, check out the glass toslink over at MCM otherwise find something locally like at Electronics Boutique or elsewhere. Tara's a sleezy company that got nabbed by the feds for pulling off 'made in China' stickers from their bulk overseas imports and then making out as if they were made elsewhere.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

You are correct. The digital signals transfer well over even a cheap cable.

But - you would be suprised that more expensive optical cables DO give you better quality of signal transfer. The pureity of the material has a big effect. (Image trying to pour a 6 foot thick sheet of glass with no imperfections in the material or optical distortions - it's very hard).

Someone had dual optical outputs on their DVD player. They took a Radio Shack toslink cable and a monster cable toslink and simply aimed the other end at a white sheet of paper. The Monster cable produced a much brighter spot of light. Does this really matter - no. The digital nature makes this a dont-care as long as the signals get through and dont reflect inside the fiber.

Does it matter for the long term? Well - optical fibers do solarize with use and yellow over time. A more expensive toslink cable will be glass rather than plastic. My guess is you do get a difference in life-span with a more expensive cable.

I am on my third or fourth year with a inexpensive optical cable for my Sat TV system with no problems.


Try this: Price a toslink cable at Radio Shack (about $20). Double this and set your budget at $40. Buy a cable between these two values to avoid over-buying. And if you have to replace the cable after 7 years - thats not a bad deal.