glass optical digital cable

danger boy

I'm in the process of getting rid of some of my lesser quality IC's, speaker wires and digital cables.

I just bought a glass optical cable off ebay for about $34 for 1M. I hooked it up to my recevier from the optical output from the Dish Network receiver. I'm not going to say it sounds amazing and is a huge upgrade from the Monster cable I was using.

But i did notice (slightly) better seperation and clarity in the sounds. Where i noticed the biggest difference was when listening to those Sirius music channels on Dish Network. the bass is much more pronounced. I had to double check to see if my sub was on or off. The SVS was turned off.. and the bass was quite a bit better with the glass cable.

It may be hogwash.... but I figured for $34 i'd give it a try. One cable down.. 9 more to go. Whew, i'm exhausted.

gmorris

You got a link or a picture of that glass cable? I've never heard of such a thing. It sounds interesting.

danger boy

glass toslink

check it out

gmorris

Oh. Is the difference with that cable supposed to be with the actual fiber optic material?

danger boy

yes glass fiber optic instead of plastic fiber optic. suppose to reduce jitter as well.

gmorris

Ok. I never really thought about that before. I just kind of figured that there was only one material for fiber optic material.

Decent price. I think you're right in giving them a try.

dkg999

I had the same type of experience when switching optical cables from a brand we don't mention to Outlaw Audio. The sound quality, soundstage, and clarity all improved. My perception is that the db level went down for a specific volume setting on my Yamaha 5790 receiver. In a previous post the prevailing opinion was that since this is just the transmission of 1's and 0's, the cable should not impact the sound. Not being a rocket scientist, I'm not sure whether my perception was biased because I spent money on the new optical cable, or if there really is a difference!

gmorris

dkg999,

how do you like that Cambridge CD player you have there? Are you using an optical output to a DAC with it, or just using the player by itself.

I will be in the market for a new CD player in about 8-10 months. That Cambridge has always looked interesting to me. Audioadvisor.com sells it for $500, and I'm sure I could probably find a used one for less.

Any thougths?

dkg999

gmorris - I absolutely love the Cambridge Audio CDP! I am using the DAC's in the CDP and running the analog output into my Parasound P/HP-850 pre-amp. I bought mine as a showroom demo. for $399, but I don't think it had much use, as it took about 50 hours of playing time for the DAC's to smooth out. It seems to be very solid and works great. I am thinking about getting the Musical Fidelity tube buffer/DAC and using with an older Onkyo Integra 6 disc. changer to see how that will compare with the Cambridge Audio. I just keep finding other things to spend money on and haven't gotten to this yet. If you want to use an external DAC, the Cambridge 540C I believe uses the same transport as the 640C, but doesn't have the Wolfsen 24 bit DAC, and is significantly cheaper.