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coax vs optical?????????????

post #1 of 14
11/21/06 at 11:15am
Thread Starter 
let teh games begin
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post #2 of 14
11/21/06 at 11:22am
Digital is digital. It (the signal) is sent out as a pulse, and the only major difference is that optical allows that digital pulse to travel faster than coaxial. It really does not have a noticable difference, but there are those that feel that you lose signal using coax, or that there is more of a "delay" between the time the sound goes out and the time it is received by using coax. Both do securely transfer a signal though. I would recommend making sure that your optical cable is nice and thick in terms of shielding however - for some reason I just don't trust those ones that are the width of a strand ofspahgetti.
(cheat hint - regular rca cable can be used for coax connections)
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post #3 of 14
11/21/06 at 11:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SoundGoon View Post
Digital is digital.
True. We do not see command propagation delays in glass fiber for video applications under 4500'. I suspect it is far less than this with the plastic fiber strands used in TOSLINK, but is far greater than the actual footages used in home theater or home audio.

That said, it is possible to lose data due to a poor plastic fiber strand used in too lengthy a run or a poorly shielded coaxial cable used in too noisy an environment. Conclusion: if it is a relatively short run, decent quality plastic optical fiber wins.
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post #4 of 14
11/21/06 at 7:08pm
yes, digital is digital. i remember reading an article saying that the quality should be the same, but between the two, they are susceptible to different forms of interference. so it depends on the environment you're running your wire. one may have more interference than another, so the one with less would be the better choice.
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post #5 of 14
11/21/06 at 10:48pm
I'm still trying to decide between coax/optical. Since I use my Computer as a source, and my DAC/amp is next to my LCD monitor, would you suggest using optical/toslink over coaxial?
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post #6 of 14
11/22/06 at 1:46am
Well something that doesn't really seem to be debatable is the fact that using optical adds extra jitter because of the steps of converting the signal to optical and back. On the other hand, coax picks up noise on the line which happens with things like computers, but I don't know if this noise actually affects anything. Maybe someone else knows.
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post #7 of 14
11/22/06 at 1:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mher6 View Post
I'm still trying to decide between coax/optical. Since I use my Computer as a source, and my DAC/amp is next to my LCD monitor, would you suggest using optical/toslink over coaxial?
I have a View Sonic LCD monitor (DVI) and I am running a 3' generic plastic Toslink with no interference problems. My DAC and AMP sit under the monitor shelf so there is a good 5" of clearance.
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post #8 of 14
11/22/06 at 3:20am
So, if there is no interference, there is no audio quality difference between optical/coax.
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post #9 of 14
11/22/06 at 3:33am
Coax is generally considered to be the better of the two. However, if you use a PC as soruce or transport, and it or any parts inside are not properly grounded, optical might be a better choice due to less noise pickup.
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post #10 of 14
11/24/06 at 6:50pm
Optical for me atm!
But that is only because of hardware limitations.
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post #11 of 14
11/25/06 at 11:45am
Well, a major problem with the SPDIF standard is the signal carrier impedance of 75 Ohm. This is not the case with RCA plugs and jacks, that is heavily used in this business, so as with analog signals, this causes reflection due to impedance mismatch. If you can hear this or not is another thing, some say they can, some can't, but i believe that when the difference is measureable - it is objectively - you can hear it. Surely there's error correction, but how well does this work? There's a reason why even different digital sources sound different from each other
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post #12 of 14
11/25/06 at 12:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 003 View Post
Coax is generally considered to be the better of the two. However, if you use a PC as soruce or transport, and it or any parts inside are not properly grounded, optical might be a better choice due to less noise pickup.
Time for me to sound out of the know - why is coax considered better?
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post #13 of 14
11/25/06 at 2:11pm
Very hard to explain. However it has been covered in detail before. Just search for it.
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post #14 of 14
11/26/06 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daroid View Post
Well, a major problem with the SPDIF standard is the signal carrier impedance of 75 Ohm. This is not the case with RCA plugs and jacks, that is heavily used in this business, so as with analog signals, this causes reflection due to impedance mismatch. If you can hear this or not is another thing, some say they can, some can't, but i believe that when the difference is measureable - it is objectively - you can hear it. Surely there's error correction, but how well does this work? There's a reason why even different digital sources sound different from each other
You might want to checkout Marcuscables.com.
Look at his digital coax.You are from Denmark so I
think you can read Swedish.
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