Long optical cables (1 Viewer)

[Alan K]

Can anybody tell me why optical cables don't seem to come any longer than 6 feet/2M? Is it that the light doesn't travel well, or is that just the longest Best Buy carries, and there is longer out there.

 

[BIll Klein]

I don't know for sure but I'd say that it's mostly because they are used for interconnects which don't usually need to be too long... Also I was in a store the other day and saw a 12-foot cable, so you can at least find that...

 

[Sean Laughter]

Best Buy carries AR optical cables in both 6ft. and 12ft. lengths. The 12ft. was only $5 more than the 6ft. though so I just picked up the 12ft. cable instead -- never know where your receiver will end up after all

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Monster has a 25 footer out.
Glenn

 

[Chu Gai]

light travels pretty far in cables...or at least sprint seems to think so

 

[Chu Gai]

light travels pretty far in cables...or at least sprint seems to think so...longer lengths are out there...do a web search and try and stay away from the boutique stuff...somehow those cables have a way of siphoning money out of your pocket

 

[John Coleman]

Alan,
I work for a premium audio and video cable company, Cobalt Cable, and I can definitely answer your question.
Traditionally, like Bill said, optical cables are used in interconnect situations, so there really is a fairly small demand for longer cables. However, I have never run into any sort of length problem up to and beyond four meters (about 13 feet).
The only other concern that I would have with longer cables is letting them lay on the floor. Due to the cables being made out of several strands of polished plastic, the cables are fairly fragile. You can most definitely crush them if they are stepped on.
I hope this helps you out. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail me privately.

 

[EdS]

A year ago I purchased a 25' optical cable from Link Removed for around $25. It was a custom made cable, and the owner of core-link told me that the toslink specification doesn't support cable lengths longer than 10 meters. This is because the media (plastic fiber) and connectors used in a toslink cable do not have the same degree of quality as the fiber cables used by the phone company or computer networking.