Digital wars?

[hchytd]

I want to buy a small (1m) digital optical cable. My question: do brand names and such matter a great deal here. In other words, do I need to buy a $40 monster optical or can I get something cheaper that will do just as well for just as long?

Any tips on where best to get them (perhaps locally)?

Thanx!

-Tiffany

 

[Leprkon]

the nearby Lowe's home store should carry the Phillips Gold line of fiber optic cables... cost me about $ 20 comes with free micro adapters should you need them.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=131961-578-M62794

 

[hchytd]

Thank you!

Fantastic!

Will do...

-T

 

[ScottMayo]

Optical cable is pretty much generic. I get mine at Radio Shack, or monoprice.com, and it works perfectly. This is one area it makes sense to go for the cheapest.

 

[philh]

Wow, are we missing out on a business opportunity???!!!

Isn't anybody smoothing out the highs, enhancing the highs, gold plating the fiber, cryogenic baking the glass? How about a trap to capture the floating stray light particles and surpressing the photon waves?

 

[f0am]

Wow, are we missing out on a business opportunity???!!!

Isn't anybody smoothing out the highs, enhancing the highs, gold plating the fiber, cryogenic baking the glass? How about a trap to capture the floating stray light particles and surpressing the photon waves?

Actualy my local audio store told me that optical cables get "jitter" and coaxial cables were beter. And told me that if I wanted to do beter then a coaxial i would have to get a quartz optical cable which was like 120 bucks.
Im a computer guy when I think digital im thinking theres no way you can get degrigation of a peice of data. Anyone have more facts on this subject?

Im currently using my coaxial connection for my dvd player because i was easily brainwashed but i still would like to beleave optical would be beter for digial signals.

 

[MDS]

Cables do not cause jitter, period - they are a conduit for sending binary data either electrically over coax or optically over optical cables. You can have interface jitter where there is a small timing error (jitter is a timing error) between reading/preparing the data and sending it to the interface to be transmitted to its destination but no cable can either improve or worsen that. Besides, it is so vanishingly small that it is inaudible - usually on the order of picoseconds.

Coax vs Optical is simply a matter of trade-offs:
1. Coax is more sturdy and RCA connectors fit more tightly, but it could be subject to EMI/RF interference. Any reasonably well made cable will have adequate shielding to make interference another practical non-issue.
2. Optical cables are immune to electrical interference because it is pulses of light, but the toslink connectors are small and fragile and if the cable is bent too far or obviously crimped, it will affect the data stream. Don't bend or break it and it will work flawlessly.

In HT applications, they are interchangeable and each performs as good as the other.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Actualy my local audio store told me that optical cables get "jitter" and coaxial cables were beter. And told me that if I wanted to do beter then a coaxial i would have to get a quartz optical cable which was like 120 bucks.
Im a computer guy when I think digital im thinking theres no way you can get degrigation of a peice of data. Anyone have more facts on this subject?

Im currently using my coaxial connection for my dvd player because i was easily brainwashed but i still would like to beleave optical would be beter for digial signals.

Don't bother to get technical help of real value from that store.
They have no clue.

Jitter is a timing error. Digital signals passed through the cable is re-clocked at the processor.
Now, if you are talking passing this over a long distance, many miles without repeaters, then we need better quality glass. But, that is another story.