glassplasticgalssplasticglassplasticglassplastic

[Lazarus Short]

I bought a pair of Monster [don't start] optical cables, and even Monster's site describes them (repeatedly) as "fiber" cables, but never says the magic word: "glass". Why is that? I suppose I could sacrifice one of them to see if it is glass or plastic, but maybe someone here knows??? The cable in question is the Interlink LightSpeed 200. They were cheap: $0.50 each!

Laz

[roadtonowhere08]

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short

I bought a pair of Monster [don't start] optical cables, and even Monster's site describes them (repeatedly) as "fiber" cables, but never says the magic word: "glass". Why is that? I suppose I could sacrifice one of them to see if it is glass or plastic, but maybe someone here knows??? The cable in question is the Interlink LightSpeed 200. They were cheap: $0.50 each!

Laz

Almost positive it will be plastic fibers. The word fiber is a marketing term. Regardless, at fifty cents apiece (even though it is a Monster product), it is still a steal as long as it works.

[krmathis]

Becausetheyarenotmadeofglass! Theyaremadeofplastic

[Uncle Erik]

Lazarus, do you have a cat?

[jgonino]

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik

Lazarus, do you have a cat?

, I see what you did there!

[Scrith]

In theory I suppose glass is going to be superior to plastic, but I think some caution is in order. I believed the hype about glass and ordered one of the "eBay" glass cables. At first, it seemed to offer an improvement (although I've learned since then that new devices that one is excited about acquiring always sound better than old devices, unless you blind test them...but that's another discussion).

But about one year after I started seeing the error light on my Benchmark DAC1 light up occasionally. I tried an alternative cable as an experiment (the highly praised Van den Hul Optocoupler) and it sounded better than the eBay glass cable. I remember reading somewhere afterwords that glass cables are prone to microfractures that can reduce their ability to transmit signals unless treated with great caution (which might explain why plastic cables were created in the first place). My eBay glass cable was just lying there for the one year I had it installed , although I suppose it might have been moved around a bit during various component swaps for testing over that one year period.

The bottom line is, glass is not some magic solution to improving audio quality with toslink connections, and might end up being far worse than a more flexible, less-fracture prone plastic cable.

Keep in mind, by the way, that toslink connections are sending digital data...the connection merely needs to be good enough for the receiver the differentiate between a "1" and a "0", which probably doesn't require a perfectly crystal clear (visually) connection between source and destination (i.e. just because un-fractured glass might be a bit clearer doesn't mean the destination can't correctly differentiate between the "1" and "0" signals through a plastic cable).

[Lazarus Short]

Originally Posted by jgonino

, I see what you did there!

I don't see what he did there, and I wonder what makes him think I might have a cat? It was one of my daughter's cats that chewed thru the cable of my Signets, and I still have not recabled them! I tell you what - if I had a cat, it would be half a cat!!

Master: What is the most valuable thing in the world?

Student: The severed head of a dead cat.

Master: Why?

Student: Because no one will put a price on it!

Laz

PS, thanks all, for the good advise on plastic vs glass.

[roadtonowhere08]

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short

I don't see what he did there, and I wonder what makes him think I might have a cat? It was one of my daughter's cats that chewed thru the cable of my Signets, and I still have not recabled them! I tell you what - if I had a cat, it would be half a cat!!

Master: What is the most valuable thing in the world?

Student: The severed head of a dead cat.

Master: Why?

Student: Because no one will put a price on it!

Laz

PS, thanks all, for the good advise on plastic vs glass.

Funny story.... if you recall there was a thread about a cat dissecting a rather "boutique" power cable from a rather "boutique" company. I suspect, in the spirit of that thread, Uncle Erik wondered if it were possible that if you had a cat, it could, in the name of science and curiosity, maul the Monster toslink cable to "see what it's made of".

Honestly, if you have not seen the thread I am referring to, its a hilarious train wreak. Just find the thread by the title "My cat tore up my Virtual Dynamics Power 3..." and get some popcorn...

[Lazarus Short]

Originally Posted by roadtonowhere08

Funny story.... if you recall there was a thread about a cat dissecting a rather "boutique" power cable from a rather "boutique" company. I suspect, in the spirit of that thread, Uncle Erik wondered if it were possible that if you had a cat, it could, in the name of science and curiosity, maul the Monster toslink cable to "see what it's made of".

Honestly, if you have not seen the thread I am referring to, its a hilarious train wreak. Just find the thread by the title "My cat tore up my Virtual Dynamics Power 3..." and get some popcorn...

Thanks, I'll have a look. My worst loss was a set of Zephir [sp?] speaker cables, one of the very early oh-gosh cables. My ex-wife's hamster got loose and chewed them in several spots. I had spent HOURS terminating those things, and yes, it was not an easy job.

Laz

[infinitesymphony]

From BJC:

"While POF (Plastic Optical Fiber) is in general rather lossy stuff compared to glass optical fiber, we prefer it for optical digital audio use because it's much more physically durable and because its aperture matches the spec for optical digital audio use, unlike glass fiber which is too small and must be used in bundles."