Yes this old cherry probably coming around again. I have an Audiolab 6000CDT feeding a Musical Fidelity MX-DAC. I for the life of of me cannot hear any difference between using either optical or coax cable. Have used a couple of cables of each type. Read some people favour one over the other. Well I am in neither, or both, camps. Am I missing something?
Optical provides electrical isolation, and cables are not affected by electrical noise. However, it is more expensive per port to implement in devices, and support for 192kHz's bandwidth in transmitters and receivers must be specifically sought-out, as that also takes higher-cost components.
When I used a disc player I could never tell the difference between coaxial and optical all other things being equal. Now my music sits on a hard drive connected by USB to my receiver. That sounds the same too.
Cloaca! Sounds more 'analog' @Bogart if you are that worried about missing something and trying different digital cables....you are not pleased with the sound of your system! I have been tweaking and tuning for 5 years, and today was the first day when I wanted to start another 'tweaking comparison' (adding acoustic panels) that I said to myself after 2 minutes: **** it, I'm going to listen to music, sound is perfect as is. As long as you don't get there...happy tweaking !
This. Plus, on some players I have sometimes thought coax had a bit more "sparkle" to it, but the conclusion was not reliable. JohnK
It’s a more solid connection that actually conducts and is less prone to jitter. Optical ports are notorious for breaking, not aligning properly etc.
Optical data transmission is the most widely used method in the world to transfer information. Nothing wrong with it; actually, Att&T just intalled optical fiber in my nighborhood. Toslink has been working well for me, and I like the fact that the two devices are connected by wholesome, pure, pristine, uncontaminated, immaculate light. +1 for toslink. I hear coax is good too, maybe as good as toslink, but not better, and certainly not as cool.
I purchased a glass toslink and does seem really good. Not sure if it is the cable or transmitter/ receiver but I could only get 24/96 to play. Currently it feeds an old Adcom GDP DAC which is a 20 bit architecture and still sounds great.
I have spools of wicked good low loss coax in the garage. I use optical. Does this make me redheaded?
Not unhappy with how my gears sounds but had read so much about which was better was wondering if it had passed me by.
I’ve heard coax is more reliable for audio applications, but have never tried optical to see if that’s true
Zero audible difference, hard to measure any difference. Your ears are telling you the truth. Hook it up and play some tunes, either method works fine.
