Mini-optical cable

[buckitrav]

I recently purchased a Harman Kardon AVR 235 receiver and I am now trying to decide the best way to hook up all my components. I'll be hooking up: PS2 (via component and optical), XBOX (via component and optical), my PC, XM MyFi and my Ipod Photo. Now I saw something on Monster's website that I didn't know existed, a cable that converts mini audio to optical audio. I was curious if anyone knows how the sound works on this. If it will be as clear as regular optical or if it will just be a digitally enhanced sort of stereo sound. Also, I only have three optical inputs, and my Xbox and PS2 are already taking up two. Would I want to run one of the other three items with this cable or should I just stick to the regular mini-stereo RCA cables for the remaining three. I also saw an adapter that takes optical and converts it to mini-stereo, is this any good? Any advice on these cables that are completely foreign to me?

 

[MDS]

How about a link to the cable so we can see what you are talking about?

1. If you are talking about a cable with a mini-toslink connector on one end and a regular size toslink connector on the other, then there will be no degradation of sound quality. The signal will remain digital all the way from the source to the receiver.

2. If you mean a cable with a 1/8" stereo mini RCA connector on one end and a toslink connector on the other, but the mini connector is connected to an analog rca jack (like on an ipod or other small device that only has mini rca outs), then there must be circuitry to convert the analog signal from the mini jack on the source component to digital as well as an led to emit the light pulses expected by the digital receiver and that will not be a pure digital path. The sound quality would then be dependent on how well it performs the a/d conversion.

3. If the cable has a 1/8" mini RCA connector one end and a toslink connector on the other, then it could be used to connect to a coax digital output (like on a soundcard) to an optical digital input on a receiver. That type of cable would need to convert the electrical signal to light as well, but there would be no a/d conversion.

 

[buckitrav]

http://monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=790

This is the one that monster offers and I can't imagine it would give optical quality, but I'm just not sure.

 

[MDS]

The description says toslink to mini-optical so it is as case 1 in my prior reply. The signal will remain digital all the way from source to receiver. Your only concern should be whether you want to pay Monster prices and believe their hype. I have quite a few Monster cables and they do work fine, but there are plenty of cheaper alternatives that work just as well.

As an example that cable would work for connecting my Shuttle PC, which has a mini-optical output, to my receiver which has the standard toslink optical input.

 

[DISCMAN]

I use it for going from a CD player to my portable MD. Sounds great to my ears. I don't remember if it was Monster or Sony brand though.