Coaxial vs Optical vs RCA

[dieseldude73]

Hello all! I will soon be adding a Sony DVD player with SACD capability (I cant wait to see what those are like!) to my tower of power. It has coaxial, optical, and old school RCA outputs. I could use any of the three, but whats the difference and which is best?

 

[bandphan]

Hello all! I will soon be adding a Sony DVD player with SACD capability (I cant wait to see what those are like!) to my tower of power. It has coaxial, optical, and old school RCA outputs. I could use any of the three, but whats the difference and which is best?

depends on the model

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

depends on the model

Haha

No difference what-so-ever b'weeb coaxial and optical. Analog RCA quality depends on the model.
First two are digital, the later is analog. Since CD/DVD-A/SACD recording is digital and your speakers are analog, it has to be converted somewhere.
The quality of component which does this (DAC) will determinate the quality of sound.

Btw: I don't recall ANY SACD player capable outputting SACD recording digitally thru Coax/Optical.... Only newest models could output digital sacd(DSD) to hdmi....

More info:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46665
http://www.abccables.com/info-hdmi-sacd.html

 

[gmichael]

With optical, your player has to convert an electrical signal to an optical one, and then your receiver has to convert it back. But then the signal in the cable is not going to get any interference from any electrical signals in the air.
With Coaxial, there’s no need to convert but it could get the above mentioned interference.
With both of the above your receiver will need to convert the digital signal to analog to send it to your speakers.
With analog RCA, your player has to convert the digital signal to analog. Now the quality of the cable counts. It also matters very much what model player and receiver you have. One may be better than the other at the digital to analog conversion.

In the end, optical and coaxial are going to be about the same. RCA will depend on the models, and the brand cable used.

EDIT: Wait! I didn't notice that you were talking about SACD. I don't think that either optical or coaxial will be able to give you all of what SACD can. The RCA would be the way to go unless you have HDMI connectors.

 

[j_garcia]

EDIT: Wait! [/B]I didn't notice that you were talking about SACD. I don't think that either optical or coaxial will be able to give you all of what SACD can. The RCA would be the way to go unless you have HDMI connectors.

Actually, it won't give you ANYTHING. It has to be analog in this case.

Hello all! I will soon be adding a Sony DVD player with SACD capability (I cant wait to see what those are like!) to my tower of power. It has coaxial, optical, and old school RCA outputs. I could use any of the three, but whats the difference and which is best?

If you don't already have an SACD collection, I hope you are checking pricing, because many are out of print and are quite expensive at this point. I have 3 SACD players and I love the format, but it didn't catch on and is all but dead at this point.

 

[markw]

Two part answer.

Part 1 : As far as I know, SACD has to be decoded at the source and sent to the receiver in analog form. Why? I cant think of any receivers that will decode SACD.

Part 2: As for Dolby Digital and DTS, all else being equal, both optical and digital will produce the same results. But, optical tends to be more "finicky" as far as the connections.

 

[Seth=L]

Coaxial and Optical SPDIF transmit the following:

-Dolby Digital 2.0 - 5.1 (6.1 Dolby Digital EX Matrix surround sound)

-DTS 2.0 - 7.1 (DTS-ES discrete 6.1/7.1 and Matrix 6.1 surround sound)

-PCM 2.0 (48kHz / 24 bit maximum)
_____________________________

HDMI has the cability to transmit DSD (direct stream digital) which is what SACD 2.0 - 5.1 is encoded with instead of PCM (pulse code modulation). The catch, both the player and the receiver have to be HDMI 1.2 and ready to handle DSD streams. HDMI also can transmit MLP Lossless 2.0 - 5.1, the format used to encode DVD-Audio discs. This requires that the player and receiver both support HDMI 1.1 and are ready to handle those streams.

Analog connections are specifically put on the player to take full advantage of SACD and DVD-Audio. Given that SACD and DVD-Audio pre-date HDMI it is exceedingly common for SACD/DVD-Audio players to feature 5.1 (6 channel) analog outputs as well as bass management, level trim, and other facilities inside the player to tailor the configuration to your home theater. Because all of the DSD and MLP Lossless decoding occurs inside the player another connection is not required, and unless it's HDMI, it is inferior. In fact, you can only enjoy the secondary tracks on these discs provided they have them.

In the case of Hybrid SACDs there's a secondary 2.0 PCM only track so the disc can be played back in an assortment of standard CD players. In the case of DVD-Audio there will always be a Dolby 2.0 track, and sometimes a DTS 5.1 - 6.1 track. The DTS tracks can sound almost as good as the MLP Lossless ones, but if the material is very involved the bitrate may hit its capacity and data may be lost resulting in loss of dynamics or a mess of sound compared to the MLP Lossless track.

 

[bandphan]

With optical, your player has to convert an electrical signal to an optical one, and then your receiver has to convert it back. But then the signal in the cable is not going to get any interference from any electrical signals in the air.
With Coaxial, there’s no need to convert but it could get the above mentioned interference.
With both of the above your receiver will need to convert the digital signal to analog to send it to your speakers.
With analog RCA, your player has to convert the digital signal to analog. Now the quality of the cable counts. It also matters very much what model player and receiver you have. One may be better than the other at the digital to analog conversion.

In the end, optical and coaxial are going to be about the same. RCA will depend on the models, and the brand cable used.

EDIT: Wait! I didn't notice that you were talking about SACD. I don't think that either optical or coaxial will be able to give you all of what SACD can. The RCA would be the way to go unless you have HDMI connectors.

then haha what