fiber optic cable...any reason to upgrade it?? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Goddard]

Greetings everyone!! I'm a newbie to this forum and I have a rookie question. I am looking to buy new fiber optic cable for my connection between my dvd player(Toshiba sd 3109) and my reciever{Onkyo Integra dtr 7). I accidently put a "kink" in the old AR fiber optic cable. It cost around $30 bucks a year ago from BB. I've been shopping around and found some Monster Cable ILS200 for $80. It is much thicker than my old cable, but is it worth the xtra bucks???? What could I possibly expect with any improved performance?? Thanks in advance for all your comments.
Colin Goddard
p.s. everyones advice on svsubwoofers was right on. I got the 16-46 about 3 months ago. Its fantastic!!

 

[John M Miller]

Do not under anycircumstances spend that much money on a Monster optical cable. You get little to no improvement in quality when upgrading optical cables. So my suggestion would be to either get another AR at http://www.accessories4less.com

 

[Lewis Besze]

I second that!
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"You Hungarians always disagree"

 

[Alf S]

I third that!!
p.s.
Welcome aboard!
Alfer
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Check out my new Home Theater site and my NEW HT 6.1 Pic's at Link Removed
Join my new Yahoo "Club Enormodome" for LIVE HT and DVD chats at: Link Removed

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

An $80 optical is gonna transmit the same 1's and 0's as a $10 cable. Don't pay for a name if you don't have to.
Bruce
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Welcome aboard the Satellite of Love

 

[dougW]

I recommend you forgo the optical and jump to a digital coax, provided you have the connections which I would think you should, unless your using them elsewhere. Generally much smoother, less "digital" sounding is the reason why.
Lex
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Lexman's Theater

 

[James Nguyen]

I recommend you forgo the optical and jump to a digital coax, provided you have the connections which I would think you should, unless your using them elsewhere. Generally much smoother, less "digital" sounding is the reason why.

I was looking for threads on this recently but the servers were too loaded at the time. Is there validity to this? Particularly if the wire run is relatively short, i.e. less than 10 feet?
If both formats are digital, carrying the digital bits across the line, what accounts for this "warmer" sound that I've had folks swear to me is present with digital coax?

 

[MikeSerrano]

quote: If both formats are digital, carrying the digital bits across the line, what accounts for this "warmer" sound that I've had folks swear to me is present with digital coax?[/quote]
I cannot answer the question directly as I can hear no difference, but I would speculate that it is the placebo (or some similar) effect.
As you could probably tell, I am in the "bits is bits" camp.
However, if you believe your $400 ultimate-bit-density non-feedback-looping double-sheilded 30-weight Monster coaxial cable sounds better than my $9.99 Best Buy brand optical cable, more power to you.
-Mike
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void *: Finger to spiritual emptiness underlying everything
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[Edited last by MikeSerrano on August 20, 2001 at 11:15 PM]

 

[Mike Kao]

I compared some Rat Shack gold series digital coaxial cable to some Acoustic Research Optical digital, both being equal in price (I got a real good deal on the AR cable though), and I heard NO difference on my system.

 

[Chu Gai]

no reason to 'upgrade' and no reason to not consider something even less expensive. coax is a more rugged connector than optical but less digital sounding??? as pacino said in devil's advocate..consider the source son.

 

[Saurav]

quote: If both formats are digital, carrying the digital bits across the line, what accounts for this "warmer" sound that I've had folks swear to me is present with digital coax?[/quote]
The answer is 'jitter', which would be a much bigger factor if you were transporting CD audio, as compared to a DD/DTS bitstream. The reason for this is in the way the information is encoded for DD/DTS. I would venture to say that you might hear a slight difference between coax and optical using an audio CD, you're almost certain to hear no difference with a DVD.
BTW, if you want to learn about jitter and digital audio transmission in general, try finding an hardware/software engineer who has experience in telephony and telecom systems. Too many people automatically think "computer" and "internet" when they think of digital formats - computers deal with digital data transmission, which is an entirely different ball game from digital audio/voice transmission. The reason is timing - an email isn't really affected if it gets delayed by 2 ms, but a telephone conversation would sound very funny if random delays were introduced into the signal.
That's also the reason why you almost certainly won't hear a difference with DVD's - because of the way a DD/DTS audio stream is encoded, the transmission mechanism used is more similar to data transmission than audio transmission.
Let me know if you're interested in reading up more on this, and I could point you to stuff that would be food for thought. Of course, you always have the option of staying within the "bits is bits" comfort zone and not exploring what's outside

And by now you should know which camp I'm in
Edit:
quote: as pacino said in devil's advocate..consider the source son.[/quote]
Very good advice. "Consider the source" - this also applies to advice you receive on a forum like this. You should always read what people have to say on other threads, so you know where they're coming from. Chu Gai, for instance, is a believer in science and measurements, he believes in numbers. That's a good thing. Me, I trust my ears. That's also a good thing. We both stand the chance of being deluded and walking down a dead-end path, neither of us is wrong or right. The important thing, in my opinion, is to have respect for the other man, even if you don't agree with his opinions.
[Edited last by Saurav on August 21, 2001 at 12:11 AM]

 

[Dennis Jacob]

If you need to stay with fiber optic, I would look at Bettercables.com Their termination is all metal, and not the cheap plastic, plus they are cheaper than Monster cable. I've got four of them, and very happy.
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[James Nguyen]

heh heh,
well having had the chance to play with a friend's system tonight w/ both types of connections, my ears couldn't discern any difference in DVD or CD Audio sources
I'll stick w/ my optical despite being a bit less rugged simply cuz it's thinner whole lotta wires back there, itty bitty hole in my AV furniture.
Ey, when performance is minimal or worse, questionable, issues beyond performance come into mind.. plus i like the thought of tiny little lasers firing around all over my system

 

[Rob Gillespie]

The only real difference an expensive optical cable might offer is improved durability. The cheaper ones feel, well... cheap and will not stand up to any abuse. A more expensive one may be made of tougher materials. But then again it may not
I've never heard any difference in audio quality between optical and coax when using Dolby Digital or DTS. On regular audio CDs sometimes I think I can hear a tiny improvement in coax, but it's difficult to pinpoint and even harder to explain.
Main advantanges:
Coax = a lot more durable
Optical = electrical isolation.
[Edited last by Rob Gillespie on August 21, 2001 at 02:35 AM]

 

[RicP]

no reason to 'upgrade' and no reason to not consider something even less expensive. coax is a more rugged connector than optical but less digital sounding??? as pacino said in devil's advocate..consider the source son.

Consider the source indeed! It just wouldn't be a cable thread without your sage wisdom!

Not to add any fuel to the fire, but in addition to what Saurav said, one other minor advantage that Coax has over digital is that there are less conversion states.
Coax is electrical straight through from source to destination. Toslink on the other hand must be converted from electrical to light, and then back again from light to electrical at the destination. These are ANALOG conversions, not digital. Yes they result in a digital signal, but the conversion from light to electricity is most certainly analog in nature.
Now, does this affect the sound? Thats an exercise for the listener. I use coax from my CD Deck to my P-3A DAC, and from my DVD to the pre/pro. However I would be hard pressed to tell a difference on DVD (i.e. DD or dts) soundtracks.
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http://www.ricperrott.com
Ric Perrott

 

[Chu Gai]

so jitter causes warmth or not? can you point me to the studies that examine jitter and human audibility? i'd love to read up on it...yes conversion of signals may cause an alteration but assuming the electronics are a non factor, there should be no difference.

 

[Saurav]

assuming the electronics are a non factor

This I did not understand - what did you mean by that statement?