Forgive possible repeat - TosLink vs. Digital coax (1 Viewer)

[Mike Romo]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed.

So, years ago, I went with an optical cable from bettercables.com and figured that this was the way to go. Just the other day, as I was buying my component video cables from them, I saw this on their website:

What is better OPTICAL or DIGITAL COAX?
Generally speaking, when you have the choice between toslink (optical) and digital coax, the digital coax sounds better. Both carry a digital signal, but the optical signal goes through 2 extra conversions (electrical->light and light->electrical). The optical connection has shown to have more jitter problems.

Do you guys agree with this? Why did "they" include optical in the first place? I would think the signal would be more clear...

thanks!
mike

 

[Jamie Doucette]

Here is a link to the HTF FAQ Primer:

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

As for what I think? I can't tell the difference on a blind sound test and I use both.

 

[EricRWem]

I almost always prefer coax myself. Not a big Toslink fan...

 

[matt-f]

I personally prefer coax myself. I pretty much use it for all my connections unless there is a device that only has optical output only.

 

[Leo Kerr]

I use some Toslink and some coax - again, some devices only support one or the other.

My preference is from an economic standpoint: a decent 75ohm cable is much cheaper than the cheapest crap Toslink cable.

As for sound, well, in a well designed and built piece of hardware, there shouldn't be any difference. (Is that safe enough because of the qualifiers?)

Leo Kerr

 

[Chu Gai]

The jitter differences don't rise to the point of audibility.