Coaxial or Digital?

Lsi9

I am sure this has been discussed a lot in the past but here I am a noob bringing it up again

I read somewhere that coaxial is better...so I bought a XO coaxial wire...what are your opinions?

Frank Z

I'm in the coax sounds better camp, but there are a lot of people that say that they can't hear any difference at all. To me the difference was quite noticable, not night and day, but noticable none the less. Kind of like bi-wiring, some claim to hear an improvement, others don't hear any change at all. As with all things audio, sometimes you just gotta try it for yourself and see what you think.

danger boy

I can't hear a difference myself.. both sound great to me.. coax and optical are both good. I prefer coax over optical only because there seems to be more of them offered. I can only find a limited type of optical ones out there.. where as the coax are so many to choose from.

FYI coax and optical are both digital. I think you meant coax or optical. So many new words and phrases to learn in home audio huh?

Lsi9

Yes I did mean optical lol!

well what it boils down to is delivery of the 1's & 0's

does anyone know how the converting goes on in both of these formats?

Dr. Spec maybe?

jrausch

Optical uses light to x-fer the data and coax uses electrical pulses to do the same. There is less of a complex conversion back into analog using coax than optical and thus less jitter is added to the signal. This should provide a smoother top end and a more extended mid-range. A clean powered system will be more noticeable using the coax conversion, so it's kind of system dependant. My system is running mostly in a pure class A mode most of the time and coax makes a worthy addition to my rig. The cables themselves are not that expensive, give it a try and see what you think.

JR

Frank Z

I should point out that Jerry helped me "See the Light" regarding Coax vs. Toslink!

BTW..... How goes the new job Jerry?

ezc

I like coax for music it sounds smoother ( i guess that what you call it) & I use optical for movies seems the optical sounds harsher but for movies I like that better. Try different coax cables I have found one that I like even the optical cables sounds different between manufactures & levels. I think Mantis explained optical the signal is converted from electrical to light & back again to an electrical signal so it may not be the cleanest.

Double_S

Another vote for coax here. Toslink just seemed too flimsy. I got mine at www.heartlandcables.com and he did an awesome job!

kureboy99

I say Glass Toslink can beat some of the best Coax cables out there. They are not as flimsy as some say (unless you like making sharp bends with your cables). I have scoured the web and many stereophiles agree that glass toslinks either are dead even or slightly better than the best coax cables they tested with (yes, even the silver wired ones or others employing "uber" materials from the Gangularis system...a little SpaceQuest humor). I myself have tested against some fairly expensive Harmonic Tech Coax cables and I must say that my glass toslink is my favorite...overall persentation is truer to the master recording and more lifelike...neutral with no "zing" added by many cables out there. Of course...it goes without syaing that one should get an outboard DAC to run it into...for this...my Entech Number Cruncher works like magic to clean up any excess jitter and smoothes the rough edges with anti-aliasing filters. Stay away from the so called "medical grade" optical fiber toslinks...no DAC will really do it justice. Again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion...this is mine. I do suggest that you guys give it a try...those with optical outputs that is. There is a guy on eBay that is selling "Finest Glass Optical cable" for a mere $29 which was on paar with Wireworlds famed Supernova III and V (same cables...V employ cosmetic "upgrades") for $125. Still, even that beats out the most expensive, those reaching $3K, coax cables. Lastly, stay away from AudioQuests Optilink 5's....waste of money for $400....same sound quality can be heard with the eBay cables...which I currently am a happy (and proud) owner of. Hope this helps on your quest to the "ultimate" sound...it has with me...

Rob