Optical Cables? Good or bad?

nascarmann
nascarmann Posts: 1,464
edited February 28 in Clubhouse Archives
I would like any thoughts on the pros and cons of optical cables. Are there much of a difference in one to another? Are they better or worse than coax? Why are they? Do you use them? Why would you not use them?

Thanks! :confused:
Oh, the bottle has been to me, my closes friend, my worse enemy!
Post edited by RyanC_Masimo on
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Comments

  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited April 2002
    Optical cable's are fine as long as you don't break it.Monstercable makes a perfectly good optical cable.Use it.You don't need to spend anymore, no improvement on any tonal level that I have heard.We carry Reference Transparent optical and Compared to the Monster....No difference, but built quality, just becarfull when running them.
    Coax is about the same as well, Monstercable makes a great coax.Stronger than the optial but no tonal difference.I tested this theory untill I was blue in the face, not just on my gear at home, but on hundered's of different setup's.
    Dan
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited April 2002
    theoretically, they are better, or at least have the capacity to be better than coaxial digital cables. i however, have not seen a noticible difference between the two (only looked at monster/ar/other mid-level range cables). i stay away from optical as it is too fragile and damages easily. i also prefer the feel of the coaxial's connection, the optical connection seem's flimsly. spending the $ on coaxial, the cable (in my experience anyway) lasts longer, a better value for the money. that's just my opinion, but hey, that's what you asked for...
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  • nascarmann
    nascarmann Posts: 1,464
    edited April 2002
    Yes sir I did and thanks to you both, sounds good. I have optical from the CD and DVD to the receiver and coax to the amps. I have seen where some people thought optical was inferior. I aquired some AR Pro Series to replace them(warlock1), but may not now?
    Oh, the bottle has been to me, my closes friend, my worse enemy!
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  • Aaron
    Aaron Posts: 1,853
    edited April 2002
    I've heard people say that optical is inferior, because it has some kind of bandwidth limitation. I think the limitation was supposed to be in the optical transmitter, not the cable.

    Aaron
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  • gidrah
    gidrah Posts: 3,049
    edited April 2002
    I think (but could be wrong) that you can get a better signal transference with a cheap optical cable than you can a cheap coax. I use opticals for CD, DVD, and CDR/RW. To the CDR/RW I also have Monster(something or other) for analog source recording. I haven't done any direct comparisons between optical and coax. Maybe I should. I have done direct comparisons between optical and MC analog. The difference was substantial. This may be(and wil be) due to the different D/A converters. Let the better decoder do the work and go analog from there.
    Make it Funky! :)
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  • rskarvan
    rskarvan Posts: 2,374
    edited April 2002
    Buy Monster optical cable.
    Who cares if it breaks... its guaranteed free-replacement for life.
    Unless, of course, Monsters scare you - the price sometimes scares me.
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