Digital coax

[robzr]

<font color='#000000'>Question regarding the following soundstage article:

http://www.soundstage.com/maxdb/maxdb200005.htm

In this article, the author, Doug Blackburn, says &quot;Never underestimate the influence of the digital cable...the best-sounding digital coax you can afford. &nbsp;The TosLink interface sounds good only in comparison to cheap digital coax cables....The Cardas Lightning digital coax cable I often use sells for $269 per meter...&quot;

I don't get it... digital is digital, why would $269 per meter digital coax outperform a $5 toslink cable. &nbsp;I guess I'm curious because this guy, and that website, have reviewed speakers that I'm curious about and I'm wondering about the credibility of these reviews...

Rob</font>

 

[jeffsg4mac]

<font color='#000000'>It is very simple, It isn't, it doesn't, It can't. 1's and 0's are 1's and 0's they are there or they are not. You can not hear a difference between a cheap toslink and an expensive one. Pure snake oil. The only thing I would say is don't get a $5 dollar one because it might break easy. Spend 15 or 20 for a decent made cable and be done with it. That way you can spend the other money on music, movies or some new equipment.</font>

 

[Shinerman]

<font color='#000000'>IT&quot;S ALL BS!

You will not hear any difference. &nbsp;You will notice the author does not give any specific examples or what the differences in sound were that he heard or has any scientific data &nbsp;to back up his claims. &nbsp;There is a reason for this, he can't. &nbsp; Like jeffsg4mac said, buy some cables with decent build quality. I don't think I have spent over $20 to $25 for one cable yet. &nbsp;Look at Partexpress.com, Radio Shack, Target, Walmart. &nbsp;They all carry decent cables that will work fine. &nbsp;I don't recc. that you buy the ultra cheap cables for $3 to $5 dollars simply due to cheap build quality, although you won't be able to tell the difference in terms of sound.

Shinerman</font>

 

[pam]

<font color='#000000'>As digital signal is one and zeros, there is no difference between two cable (except their resistance to wear and tear).

One thing for sure, once every connection is digital we won't pay any more for expensive cables.

I am astounded that an expert pretends that an expensive digital cable will make some differences.</font>

 

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>Agreed. However,a cheap Toslink may not fit as well as a higher quality one. FO cables are pretty much the same with the exception of the splice quality of the ends. Poor alignment or connectivity could cause some errors, but you will probably notice that fairly quickly. A point to check if you have an intermitent,head scratching problem.</font>

 

[nm2285]

<font color='#000000'>I'm actually going to have to disagree with some of you. &nbsp;I don't know how a cheap toslink and a good coax would compare, I don't use toslink. &nbsp;I have however, upgraded from an AR coax to a Cobalt Cable coax and there is an audible difference. &nbsp;It's not huge but it's there and it was enough for me to justify the $40 (not that bad a price).
The Cobalt seems to do a slightly better job at imaging, sounds a bit smoother, and is crisper on the highs.
As a side note, I also bought Cobalt subwoofer cable and that actually did make a very large difference in my subwoofer. &nbsp;It's deeper, fuller, and quicker than with the RCA brand cable that I was originally using from Best Buy.

To anyone who is curious, check out Cobalt. &nbsp;They're GREAT build quality and the sound has made a difference in my system. &nbsp;With their reasonable prices and 90-day full refund (no shipping) return policy, you can't lose.</font>

 

[mustang_steve]

<font color='#000000'>I prefer coax digital just because I think TOSlink feels too cheap and fragile. &nbsp;However, for long runs and for computer use I prefer TOSlink. &nbsp;One bonus to TOSlink is no chance of electrical noise...especially near a computer that is putting out a nce frequency range of noise.

I doubt there is any real difference, but it at least gives me peace of mind that all I am hearing is what was intended.</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>You should use a sonicwave 280 glass toslink from cablesamerica.com. &nbsp;order a digital coax also. $35 for both and give them a listen then let us know.

</font>

 

[robzr]

<font color='#000000'>I'm also curious why are people spending hundreds of dollars on magical jitter reduction boxes and what not... you can buy a gigabit copper ethernet adapter on ebay for &lt; $20 which transmits a billion bits of digital data data per second (that's 233 times the bandwidth for a stereo 96k/24 bit stream according to my math). &nbsp;As a network admin I've never had to deal with any negative effects of jitter. &nbsp;Is that because retransmits and whatnot are taken care of via error correction protocols? &nbsp;If that can be worked into a $20 gigabit copper card why can't it be worked into $1000+ audio equipment???

Rob</font>