optical vs. coax digital input

Frank Z

Even a half-assed POS digitalcoax with a decent shield is immune to picking up stray signals.

Coax sounds better to my ears, on my rig.

steveinaz

Landry
FWIW, I found after running each for 4-6 months at a time, the following:

Toslink: Very neutral, almost sterile. Very deep/controlled bass. Smooth midrange treble at high volumes. Black background. Soundstage depth a little compressed compared to coax/XLR.
XLR: Warm, smooth character; more air around instruments. Bass a touch less controlled than Toslink. Treble the slightest bit more presence. Deeper soundstage. More of an "analog" sound to it than the other 2.
Coax: Smack dab in the middle between XLR and Toslink

The cables used were:
Toslink: quartz glass fiber optic from Sonic Wave, .5 mtr
XLR: Signal Cable AES/EBU digital, 2ft
Coax: DH Labs D-75, 1mtr

Bottom line:
Toslink: for the "accurate" music lover
XLR: for the "beautiful" music lover
Coax: for someone who wants a little of both, but compromises slightly on the best that Toslink/XLR have to offer

read-alot

Damn, ya think he is still looking going on three years?

ben62670

read-alot wrote:

Damn, ya think he is still looking going on three years?

No... but I am:)

read-alot

ben62670 wrote:

No... but I am:)

Well then let me give you some advice that I aquired early on this board.

"Don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see" or hear in this case.

steveinaz

True. YMMV. Didn't realize how old this post was.

louthewiz

Coaxial and Optical are both the same $hit it's all 111s and 000s...

MikeC78

louthewiz wrote:

Coaxial and Optical are both the same $hit it's all 111s and 000s...

I thought that only applied to digital connections?

Mike

ben62670

MikeC78 wrote:

I thought that only applied to digital connections?

Mike

Optical is digital via light pulses

louthewiz

Yes digital connections are via coaxial or optical connections,
the science in both applications are equal and while optical is by
light,
coaxial is by electrical both transfers of data are identical and the wiring has no audible difference.
Next thing members are going to say is that "burned in cables" make a difference.

blacklab

optical

disneyjoe7

Just what is the bandwidth of DTS does anyone know, I know coax can do t3 level which is 45meg / 28 t1's or 672 phone lines. Seems to me 5.1 channel of anything should have no issue's moving by coax.

dorokusai

It encodes audio by splitting it into 32 subbands, each with a bandwidth of 750 Hz - Wikipedia.

MikeC78

louthewiz wrote:

Yes digital connections are via coaxial or optical connections,
the science in both applications are equal and while optical is by
light,
coaxial is by electrical both transfers of data are identical and the wiring has no audible difference.
Next thing members are going to say is that "burned in cables" make a difference.

I knew that!:o I keep thinking HDMI is the only digital connection that uses 000's and 111's.

Thanks for correcting me.

Mike

disneyjoe7

I found this,

DTS 1.5mbit / sec or 754kbit / sec vs. Dolby Digital 448kbit / sec or 384kbit / sec. I guess theres actually 2 levels of decoding in both methods.

http://www.timefordvd.com/ref/dts.shtml

Again this should be no problem sending over coax. NONE.

engtaz

Just a thought:
wire measured in resistance Ohm's
fiber optics measured for loss dB's

HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

engtaz

ben62670

engtaz wrote:

Just a thought:
wire measured in resistance Ohm's
fiber optics measured for loss dB's

HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

engtaz

digital is easily capable of transmitting a gig a second.
HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

If they can broadcast digital TV with sound many miles away....
If they can broadcast digital TV from earths orbit miles away...

Bandwidth isn't near being approached by currant media. Even with video included. Hi Def at that too.;)

Deadof_knight

but I believe the sounds to be warmer for coax




die horse DIE ! THUMP! THUMP!

snow

louthewiz wrote:

Yes digital connections are via coaxial or optical connections,
the science in both applications are equal and while optical is by
light,
coaxial is by electrical both transfers of data are identical and the wiring has no audible difference.
Next thing members are going to say is that "burned in cables" make a difference.

Are you saying there is no diffrence between coaxial and toslinks as far as sound goes?

REGARDS SNOW

Nelson57

Do any of you watch your movies with the sound through the multichannel analog option?

I did this, actually by mistake, but found I liked the sound better than through the optical cable. Using the Anthem AVM 30 pre-pro I set the source to 6 channel with the THX Ultra 2 DSP overlay and preferred this to the optical option with the same DSP.

This was a new discovery for me as I only used the 6 channel option when I listened to multi channel music. I'm going to watch some more movies through this option just to make sure, but I think I might prefer this over both coax or optical digital formats.

madmax

The only difference is that opitcal has to go through two extra stages to change to light then back. The input going to the amplifier circuit for the light is the coax output and the output on the other side goes to the coax input. No doubt optical sounds "different" after going through these extra two conversions.
madmax

WilliamM2

No doubt optical sounds "different" after going through these extra two conversions.

Why? What would the conversion add, or take away from the 1 and 0's?

Frank Z

Not all 1's and 0's are repoduced exactly the same by every digital device. If they were then we'd all be buying cheap crap cuz it would sound the same as the expensive crap.

This subject is another that will never have an aswer that everyone agrees with. On MY system, with MY music, MY ears noticed an improvement over Toslink. I don't give a rats **** if anyone disagree's or not...you aren't doing the listening for me.


Quit arguing about it and go listen for yourselves and decide what you like or if you hear a difference.

We're done here.

LUKassz32

analog 5.1 and DD+ FTW!

engtaz

what?

Face

FTW=For the win=the best.

Face

I had a fellow Polkie over tonight and we wen back and forth with digital coax and optical from the same source. There was definitely a difference, coax seemed to sound fuller and more detailed to both of us.

It's not always about the 1's and 0's.

snoboarder77

i like optical better

zingo

I just ordered a "Premium Optical" cable from monoprice. When I get a change I'm going to test optical vs. coax since I can assign inputs on my pre/pro (coolest feature I never knew I needed). This will be my first experience with optical and I'll be interested if I can hear a difference.

louthewiz

I thought this horse Died!!!