Best Optical cable?

[hchytd]

Hey fellas,

I have heard mixed advice on optical (digital) cables?

Basically, I have a very solid home audio system (aperion audio speakers and sub, high end yamaha receiver, xbox 360, etc.)...and recently my optical cable crapped out.

I would like to replace it immediately (best buy, circuit city, etc.) with a real good one that will sound great and last a long time.

Any advice?

Other than durability, can one tell an audible difference between more expensive optical cables?

Which one should I get (preferably under $100)?

Thanx in advance!

-Tiffany

 

[Jeff HDDVD]

Optical Digital Cable

I just received a 5 foot Optical Digital cable which I ordered from Blue Jeans Cables. They sell TOP quality cables. I paid $15 plus $5.75 shipping. Got it 2 days after ordering. I buy all my cables now from them. You won't be disapointed! Just be careful with all Optical Digital cables. Don't bend them. They are less forgiving then Coaxial Digital cables. Jeff D. I bought it and a HDMI 5 foot cable for my new Toshiba 1080p HD-AX2 HD DVD player coming tomorrow. The 5 foot HDMI cable is thick! And cost $19.50 Monster cable is WAY OVERPRICED!!!

 

[f0am]

I have used monster cables optical cables, and Phillips cables from the hard ware store.
I was quite skeptical at first about the 10 dollar cable from a hard ware store. But it was only meant to be temporary, after using it for about a week, I cant find any good reason to replace it. And to be honest it looks kind of cool, it's completely clear which screws with peoples heads who don't know anything about it.
The thing about optical cables is its light, and its 1's and 0's. It doesn't get interference, its data. Simply put if the light is not getting there then you might want to buy a better cable.

 

[j_garcia]

$100 for an optical cable? That is ridiculous. Get the one from Bluejeans and never worry about it again. The Blujeans HDMI cables seriously kick butt and mine was only $17.

 

[Hi Ho]

Other than durability, can one tell an audible difference between more expensive optical cables?

There is no difference. It is transmitting pulses of light. The cable does not affect it in any way. The only way it could is if it was not transferring the light pulses at all, in which case you would have no sound at all.

HERE is one for $4.27 plus shipping. It will work just as well as any $100 rediculously overpriced optical cable. BlueJeans makes excellent cables as well.

 

[Nomo]

Check out monoprice.com

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&style=

One alternative:
If Digital Coax is an option to the optical cables I recommend it over the Toslink stuff. Easier connection and far better durablility. I can't tell a difference in signal quality myself.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Question: How does one's optical cable go out in the first place? I've owned at least 2 dozen different optical cables in my lifetime with various gear and not once have I ever seen the 30 cent one, or the 100 dollar one fail.

Was it stressed and broken... or what?

 

[JKL1960]

Really expensive digital cables bother me more than really expensive analogue cables.

Digital signals are robust and can tolerate a less than perfect signal path. In digital, the signal contains the information. If the signal is adequate to pull out the information accurately then it works perfectly. The signal cannot be improved in any way such as to make it better.

In analogue the signal is the information. Anything that degrades the signal will degrade the information. Signal degradation can range from unnoticable to horrible. Again nothing can improve the signal but it can't tolerate degradation of the signal the way digital can. In some applications the gradual degradation of an analogue signal may be preferable to the on or off digital but certainly not high fidelity audio.

It really frosts my gourd when sales people seem to intimate that digital signals require super fancy scary brand cables. I always want to choke them while screaming it's a digital signal idiot. Don't you know anything.

 

[jonnythan]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7695096&st=optical+cable&type=product&id=1138085316481

Done.

It's a standard optical audio cable. However, instead of being sold as some super fancy high end home theater cable, it's sold as an XBox cable. So.. it's cheaper.

 

[j_garcia]

A good read on optical.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/interconnects/toslink.php

 

[hchytd]

Thanx fellas!

You have all been of great help!

P.S. What happened with mine was after several months the sound would occassionally quit (like a half second signal interruption). But rarely. Then one day it got worse (almost every 5 seconds). I had a clear optical cable from lowes and saw where it was partially blown (a grey/black patch - like when you have a blown fuse - it was actually glowing red at the spot). Anyhoo, Lowes replaced it for free and the new one works perfectly). If it happens again, I'll order one from bluejeans.

 

[jonnythan]

A grey/black patch?

That's.. exceptionally odd.

 

[Aburtch]

One alternative:
If Digital Coax is an option to the optical cables I recommend it over the Toslink stuff. Easier connection and far better durablility. I can't tell a difference in signal quality myself.

I'd like to hear more about this. I've always wondered if there was any difference between Digital Coax and Digital Optical (Toslink?). Aren't they both transmitting the same thing, 0's and 1's? One does it electrically and the other does it with light, correct?

Does anyone else feel there is any noticable difference or that one is better than the other?

Thanks!

 

[MDS]

There is no audible difference between digital coax and digital optical. The preference for digital coax is just because the RCA connectors on a digital coax are far more robust than the Toslink connectors on a digital optical cable. Toslink connectors sometimes fall out of their jack easily whereas the RCA connectors never do.

 

[f0am]

There are some SLIGHT differences between optical and digital coax. Optical does better at longer lengths. Some be leave that optical has to go threw a conversion to light and then be converted back to a analog signal at the receiver, the theory is that this conversion to light is slower then just pure digital out. Some one posted actual specs of the time it took on here once. It was like nano seconds. Nothing to worry about. Anyways there is a thread already going about this whole topic click search and look for it, plenty of great information on it.