Coax or Optical

Fireman99 · November 2003

What does eveyone use? I'm using Optical with my setup but found a little glitch or it could be my recever.
see optical glitch thread

Dan

Early B. · November 2003

Not sure, but I've read that optical cables are sonically inferior to coax because optical cables have a narrower bandwidth which potentially produces inaccuracies in the digital signal. Plus, you have to be a bit more careful about bending optical cables because you could distort the pulses of light traveling down the fiber-optic cable. I use coax.

Ron-P · November 2003

Coax

Peace Out~:D

Ceruleance · November 2003

if your question is, I have a new component and I am buying either coax or optical to connect it, the answer is coax

if your question is, I have optical, should I get rid of that and buy coax, the answer is probably not, unless thats really the last thing you think you can upgrade in your system

Fireman99 · November 2003

I'm just intrested in what everyone is useing. I have a optical cable now hookes up. think I will switch to coax and see if it makes a diffrence. My local Audio store sugested there is not much diffrence between the two unless I wanted to get a "high end" optical cable ($400 cdn) a lot to steep for me unless i get unlimited supply of beer with that! it would have to make a 30yr old black and white TV shove plasma quality colour for that kind of coin.
Dan

dorokusai · November 2003

Coax, and I like it

HBombToo · November 2003

Originally posted by Ceruleance

if your question is, I have optical, should I get rid of that and buy coax, the answer is probably not, unless thats really the last thing you think you can upgrade in your system

ok and i agree but i purchased an aa jitterbug which took plastic, did a tech refresh, and output it on coax. Now what?..at least i can flip between the 2 and i hear no appreciable difference.

Connect both ways and have fun

Twin

Tour2ma · November 2003

which dti are you running henry?

HBombToo · November 2003

Originally posted by Tour2ma
which dti are you running henry?

It is the Audio Alchemy DTI 1. This unit supposadly strips the code that would prevent copying a cd to a dat. I have not tested this because I don't have a dat but maybe someday i'll run across 1.

There really is a remarkable difference in audioquality from my Direct TV pcm or ac-3 feed.

HBomb

Duffman · November 2003

The way I've always heard it there should be absolutely no audible difference between optical and coax.

If you think about it, it's carrying a bunch of 1's and 0's from point A to point B. They either make it there or they don't. If they don't all make it there you'll hear very obvious (and bad) things. If they do make it there then there can be absolutely no difference in the "quality" of the 1's and 0's.

The only valid argument for coax, IMO, is that it's more durable than optical.

Fireman99 · November 2003

That iswhat I was thinking as well gona get a coax cable for the DVD and use it instead of the optical more for the durability then anything i guess.
Dan

PolkThug · November 2003

Duffman is correct.

If you just wanted to argue about stuff you could say that coax is better because the optical approach means converting coax to light and back to coax again, and the less conversions the better.

Or, you could jump on the "but optical doesn't emit any RF and EMI, so it is safer for my hamster" bandwagon.

Regards,
PolkThug

Fireman99 · November 2003

Thug is that what happened to my hamster I thought it was the heat comming off the H/K that cooked him.
Dan

PolkThug · November 2003

Could be a combination of factors. If tumors are present in the hamster's epidermis, I would start questioning the coax. If not, the H/K worked alone, as they are often known to do.

Seaward · December 2003

when you guys are saying that coax is more durable than optical, what do you mean by durable?? do you mean the life span of the cable?
because once the cable is hooked up(coax or digital) they really don't get touched anymore.

So from what I've read so far( if I understand correctly) if I bought an $80 coax and a $80 digital cable I wouldn't hear a difference (except for maybe the wife saying "why do you need so many cables?")

Thanks guys

seaward

Seaward · December 2003

I came across this website (monster cables) which gives an idea of good, better, best cables for audio and video

http://www.impactsites2000.com/avmain/monstercable.htm

Quick question,

Do Component Video cables do much more than the S-video cables? Is there a noticable difference?

dcorrea · December 2003

when you guys are saying that coax is more durable than optical, what do you mean by durable?? do you mean the life span of the cable?

Optical Cable is susceptible to signal loss through extrinsic and intrinsic loss. Basically the fiber cable is lined with a highly reflective material, usually glass or highly reflective plastic. When the light is sent through the line it is possible that some light is reflected back to the source bacause of the fiber line being bent to far. Pretty much it is similar to the bend radius of a normal wire. This loss degrades the signal and obvioulsy affects performance. If your using opital in your setup, make sure you try to keep the line as straight as possible.

I've read that optical cables are sonically inferior to coax because optical cables have a narrower bandwidth which potentially produces inaccuracies in the digital signal.

Optical cables actually have a very high bandwith, which is why they are used for phone lines between the continents and other things such as MAN's(Metropolitan Area Networks). They come in two distinct variety's..single mode and multimode. Single mode is just the transmission of a single light path whereas multimode transmits multiple light paths through the fiber, resulting in a much higher bandwith. But either way they are both high bandwith.

Sorry for the thread hijacking.. and the rambling...

north51 · December 2003

Seaward,

If you have the option of using component, then definitely use that, as the difference is usually quite noticable(unlike the coax/optical debate). If you can, hook up one S-video and one component to compare, and you should see the difference.

Jason

hamzahsh · December 2003

I use one of the best Digital Coaxial cable which is MONSTER INTERLINK DATALINK 100 cable about 1m/3.3ft long. The shortest cable. Very thick and has 24k gold highly polished. Outstanding sound quality what it delivers. Perfect trasmission of digital sound.

DIGITAL COAXIAL is better than OPTICAL. WHY!

DIGITAL COAXIAL uses copper to transfer current (digital sound). Same as a speaker wire. No conversion in the process of delivering sound. Stronger built and quite thick if bought from high quality manufacturer like MONSTER CABLE. Less prone to break. No jitter could occur.

TOSLINK or OPTICAL uses fiber to transfer current (digital sound) which converts into light first and then converts back to current (digital sound). Fiber is fragile and prone to bend. Digital jitter (error) could occur if fiber is damaged. The two ends of cable uses lens. If the lens gets dust, jitter could occur.

Seaward · December 2003

I'll give the component cables a try, if I don't like them I guess I can always take them back...

Thanks Jay,

and while im at the store I think I'll try the coax cable as well...

mantis · December 2003

I wanna know who did a side by side a- b it doesn't even matter test to hear the difference between the 2 connections.....

Tell me who you are and which one soounds better.

Knowing why is good but it doesn't mean it's better..

Hearing is key here.

I'm over 4 years into it and I still can't hear the difference between high quality coax or optical.I have a very tuned if you will set of ears........I cannot hear the difference.

This is one of the oldest..........no winner use high quality of it doesn't even matter and your system will sound great.

Dan

dcorrea · December 2003

To me audio wise they both sound the same. I did encounter a problem with coax that made me switch to fiber. For some reason when I had my system hooked up with the digital coax, my audio would disapear whenever a light switch was turned on or off in my apartment. This never happened in my old apartment but it was happening in my new one.
I did extensive troubleshooting, such as reading the power at the wall plug when the switch was thrown to see if there were any power spikes causing this. NO spikes. So I got a monster power filter. Didnt change a thing. It only went away once I switched to fiber.
But like I said, they both sounded the same to me...(besided the whole losing audio thing:D )

wlrandall · December 2003

Originally posted by hamzahsh
DIGITAL COAXIAL is better than OPTICAL. WHY!

DIGITAL COAXIAL uses copper to transfer current (digital sound). Same as a speaker wire.

TOSLINK or OPTICAL uses fiber to transfer current (digital sound) which converts into light first and then converts back to current (digital sound).

Hate to burst your bubble, but there is no measureable "current" in digital transmissions over such a short length. You can't compare it to an analog signal as you did with speaker wire. Nothing but binary coded data....

I've A/B'd both back to back over and over and there is no audible difference.

Fireman99 · December 2003

I have now hooked up both on my system and can switch back and forth between them. I can honestly say I can NOT hear a diffrence between the two. I will try again when I get my Good DVD player in the new year. But I expect no diffrence there either.

Dan

Ceruleance · December 2003

Fireman, try hooking up your source's analog inputs and digital input and A-B them, see if you can tell the difference between the DAC in your CDP and the DAC in your receiver.

Loud & Clear · December 2003

Originally posted by Ceruleance
Fireman, try hooking up your source's analog inputs and digital input and A-B them, see if you can tell the difference between the DAC in your CDP and the DAC in your receiver.

Used to run a cheap CD player hooked up to a Denon 2802 receiver. I used the really cheap analog patch cords for a while ... terrible results. Then used an optical cable and let the Denon handle the conversion ... significantly better results. Not sure if that's of any interest or not.

Frank Z · December 2003

Coax sounds better on my system than the optical. Smoother high end than toslink. Best way to find out is to try both.

ChrisDurano · December 2003

Here's what I did. I have an optical digital hooked between my satellite receiver and my A/V receiver. I have a coax hooked between my DVD player and my A/V receiver. I watched Lord of the Rings on one of the movie channels I have on satellite presented in DD 5.1. I also played my DVD of LOTR and compared the two. I noticed the sound from satellite (optical) was a few decibels louder than my DVD (coax) connection. I'm not sure if its an issue with the satellite receiver, but it was louder, but wasn't better overall.

Hope this helps.

RuSsMaN · December 2003

I'd love to comment, but my ears aren't finely tuned.

gidrah · December 2003

I have the opportunity, but not the cables, nor the time. I use optical for my DVD player. In my 2ch rig I was using a Monster video cable as digital coax to an AA DAC "In the Box", but bought an AMC CD8b which sounds good enough to where I haven't been able to justify changing anything.

RuSsMaN · December 2003

Hey, remember ME when and if you ever unass the AA, I have a use for it FINALLY. I have a cd8b also, and the internal DAC is GREAT - but in the Monitor 7 rig, I've got a NAD cdp I'd throw it on.

Cheers,
Russ

Coax or Optical

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