Looking to buy a Toslink optical cable.

I agree with you. An advantage with a more expensive cable is you generally have a better/less flimsy connector. I'd pay a little bit more but I wouldn't break the bank on this one.

I used to think there wasn't a difference, but I'm not so sure anymore. The cable I used in my portable rig broke a month or two ago, and I've been playing with different connections since. There seems to be a quite a bit of noise when I use a right angle adapter. I thought this wouldn't matter, but it seems to. If that's true, maybe there's more to this.

Apologies for giving a negative opinion without any backing and without even a possible solution. As with everything else, try it out yourself. Maybe buy cheap, and borrow a good cable.

I dunno for sure either but I have read that a digital signal is a digtal signal and the cable dosen't really matter that much. then again I have read there is for sure a difference between a glass optical and a plastic one. that there is a difference between coaxial, optical and USB. I for one cannot tell a difference between my $50 optical and me $5 USB when connecting me iMac to me MicroDAC. I have to use mini toslink adapters on both sides of me optical cable so I dunno about a difference being made here either.

I would still buy a decent optical cable but I dunno if I would break me wallet on one.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...ts/toslink.php
http://www.stereophile.com/reference/1093jitter/

Basically, you need 9-11MHz of bandwidth. According to the article, plastic is typically 5MHz to 6MHz. Quartz or glass can easily meet 10-11MHz. There's a few other things mentioned, but nothing quantified. Even if you could get specific numbers to target, very few manufacturers publish them. We're left with some theory that explains how things can go wrong, but no way to know how to buy a cable. Without reliable specs and independent tests, the best thing we can do is listen.

I'm not totally comfortable with my knowledge here, but what the heck... Those mini adapters are just a means of physically securing the cable to the jack and positioning the cable end properly. It should have little to no effect on the signal itself. In either case, the signal (light) travels out of the end of the cable through air onto the sensor. I say should because I can imagine two scenarios where it might matter.

First, a poorly terminated cable that positions the light beam off center or disperses the beam might suffer if (and only if) the mini adapter positions the cable at a larger distance than the regular terminator. My guess is this would be the normal case for a mini adapter, if not for a true mini terminated cable, where the optical cable itself could be set right up to the end. The extra distance means the signal disperses more or moves further off center.

Second, the mini adapter might not be perfectly straight, causing the beam to be off center, although I don't think that matters in most cases--either you have enough signal to decode or you don't--it should only make a difference in the odd border case. Again, I said should. That's the theory. In practice the decoder might keep working with a borderline signal strength and make some mistakes. But this is getting pretty far out there.

that is a good article and me glad you posted it! me just might have to look into getting another optical cable.

I know me Monster LightSpeed optical cable is a good 5 or 6 years old at about the time the PS2 was released. I bought it to use with me Sony portable MiniDisc recorder and the PS2 for doing direct digital recordings.

I do not think I have ever seen an optical cable with fixed mini's plugs on it, only the adapters. have you? anyone? it would be nice to find one of these.

I bought the adapters from HeadRoom. they have the gold tips on them but while I was at WallyWorld one night I noticed an inexpensive optical cable with the same mini adapters. I have seen the same adapters on another site or two as well. other mini adapters I have seen were just plastic tipped. these seem to be loose fitting on the cable until I actually put the cable into the mini connection and then it seems to be a snug fit. I thought AudioQuest sold adapters but I cannot seem to find them on their site. who else makes or sales these adapters?

so I me myself might need to look into getting a better optical cable. hopefully terminated in mini but possibly with better adapters..

Check SysConcept. They have a wide range including Toslink-Toslink, mini-Toslink, and mini-mini. They are, however, plastic and not glass.

checking out BlueJeans coaxial cable and saw this. cheap enough to see if there is any difference to me old Monster. be nice if they could do it in mini. me just may email them.

http://bluejeanscable.com/store/digital-audio/index.htm
Optical Digital Audio Cable: Mitsubishi Eska POF

When we have a choice, we prefer to run digital audio in coax; it's more robust over distance, and the cable is interchangeable with cable used for certain other applications (e.g., composite video). However, an increasing number of devices are coming onto the market with digital audio available only in optical form, following the TOSlink standard. For these applications, we build our optical cables using the finest high-performance Plastic Optical Fiber (POF), Mitsubishi's ESKA Fiber. While POF 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. Our fiber is encased first in a tough cladding layer and then, for added durability, a flexible outer PVC jacket similar in texture to the PVC on some of our high-flex Belden cables (e.g. Belden 1505F). In our own usage, we've tested these cables at lengths up to 50 feet and found them to perform perfectly even at those extended distances.


We hand-cut and terminate each of these cables ourselves so we know they're done right and tested before they go out. We think you'll be impressed with their performance; but we also offer a complete, unconditional return privilege. If for any reason--or for no reason--you're not completely, utterly satisfied, just return the cables within 30 days and we'll refund your purchase price in full.


but when reading this again I just dunno..
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...ts/toslink.php
Quality TOSLINK interconnects must also feature a highly polished and properly fitted termination. One metric of proper termination is the numerical aperture. A numerical aperture mismatch occurs when the launching port has a higher NA than the optical cable. Think of this as the light equivalent of proper characteristic impedance. A NA mismatch causes reflections within the TOSLINK port and within the cable assembly. In general terms a smaller numerical aperture on a TOSLINK cable is better than a larger NA.

Quality TOSLINK assemblies should be made from multiple fibers of a very small diameter. Assemblies using fiber diameters greater than 200 micrometers, or single fiber assemblies as seen on many plastic fiber interconnects, will suffer from much greater signal attenuation and reflection than will multi-fiber assemblies. This occurs from bending the conductor. A facet of optical transmission generally unmentioned in product literature is the degradation of performance due to even mild bending of the interconnect assembly!

I have actually been busy testing a number of optical cable for someone who wants to sell his own version. Comparing these things is easier said than done. I am lucky that I have been able to find a reasonably cheap way to test them. I have an optical splitter with one end coming from my source deck. The other end accepts two optical leads. I plug in there any two leads I need to compare. Those two leads feed directly into one of two optical inputs on my Beresford TC-7510. I also COAX on the same DAC in more or less the same manner by the way. By a mere push of the channel input selector on the DAC I can get an instantaneous comparison result. It has given me for less disputed results than when I used to have to unplug the one lead and plug in the other lead. That easily creates false impressions. I haven't yet figured out a cheaper, quicker or better way to test optical leads.
Most spectacular demonstration on that rig of mine that differences between optical leads do exist is when I compare a 2mm thick lead to a 8mm thick lead. The differences are so obvious only a musically challenged person wouldn't notice it.

I'd go with Monoprice, I've read good things about these.

I would definitely agree, I have monoprice cables all over my house including Toslink and they work great.

You can probably get technical specs on the fiber cable itself if you know where the manufacturer of the finished cable gets parts. This applies to the blurb noseallinit mentions in post #9. What the manufacturer does with the cable is another matter, and we usually only get the marketing bs.

I've seen articles on how to do actual measurements, but haven't really read them. From a quick look at the numbers in those articles, it may be beyond my equipment's capabilities. My signal generators & frequency counters top out at 2-10 MHz. Maybe I'll read further. Probably not. Maybe someone around here knows more and has better capabilities. (hint)

what were the differences noted and what other findings have you recorded as a result of your tests? i'm curious