Why does Toslink suck?

There is this thing called jitter, you can do search to find out more about it. Basically, TOSLINK has a high amount of jitter associated while USB, especially asynchronous USB has very little jitter. Less jitter = better sound.

It is possible that your soundcard or your DAC has a poor Toslink implementation. For a good Toslink connection, you must first start with a good electrical SPDIF signal. Then you need a decent optical transmitter module, and clean power to operate it. Same goes for the receiving end.

A quality control lapse at any one of those points might degrade the signal by introducing errors. Typical SPDIF and USB audio does not have error correction. The audio will still "work" even if not all the bits are correct. (Try editing a .wav file and changing some bits randomly. It will still play.) I wouldn't jump to conclusions about jitter just yet though. There is good evidence that jitter is barely audible except in the worst of cases. I wouldn't be surprised if a poor Toslink implementation created errors that are much more audibly obvious than jitter.

Of course, the same goes for USB. I know of other DACs where the USB input isn't as good as the SPDIF ones.

Just my 2 cents. None of my own DACs had poor Toslink performance out of my iMac. Never tried the Maverick Audio DAC.

mmmm, dont know. There is no real scientific evidence that it is worse, just loads of folk saying it sounds worse. Maybe they are right....maybe not.

I tried coax and toslink on my AV amp and couldnt tell the difference.

One thing that is for sure is that toslink doesnt suffer from ground loops or interference.

It sound slightly worse on my system too, compared to coax.

Strange, theoretically it should be better, because toslink does not transmit RFI and other kinds of noise, and  coax does, (USB even more apparently).

One explanation I heart is that the process of changing the electric signal into optical and back introduces some jitter. 

When you use the toslink, the computer is the DAC and the Maverick is the amp.

When you use the USB, the Maverick is the DAC and the amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by batphink 

When you use the toslink, the computer is the DAC and the Maverick is the amp.

When you use the USB, the Maverick is the DAC and the amp.

Toslink is a digital connection. The Maverick will still need to perform digital to analog conversion. So it is also the DAC and the amp in that case.

Perhaps you meant that with USB, the Maverick also acts as the transport, in addition to DAC/amp. Whereas with Toslink, it only acts as DAC/amp, and the computer is the transport (it generates the SPDIF signal).

Quote:

Originally Posted by batphink 

When you use the toslink, the computer is the DAC and the Maverick is the amp.

When you use the USB, the Maverick is the DAC and the amp.

I don't think so, when you choose to pass through the digital data, toslink is just the transporter cable, the Maverick is still a DAC & amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

I doubt it is jitter. Jitter was discovered and solved back in the 1980s. It's more likely that the DAC inconsistently amplifies one signal more than the other.

As for the HD-800, you need to address the amplification well before considering the source. If you browse the HD-800 threads, you'll notice that it is quite sensitive to what it's plugged into. The HD-800 is sensitive enough to convey the problems in a poor amp.

x2 on each point.  Save your money for the amp.  That's where the HD800 magic happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoga Flame 

It is possible that your soundcard or your DAC has a poor Toslink implementation. For a good Toslink connection, you must first start with a good electrical SPDIF signal. Then you need a decent optical transmitter module, and clean power to operate it. Same goes for the receiving end.

 

A quality control lapse at any one of those points might degrade the signal by introducing errors. Typical SPDIF and USB audio does not have error correction. The audio will still "work" even if not all the bits are correct. (Try editing a .wav file and changing some bits randomly. It will still play.) I wouldn't jump to conclusions about jitter just yet though. There is good evidence that jitter is barely audible except in the worst of cases. I wouldn't be surprised if a poor Toslink implementation created errors that are much more audibly obvious than jitter.

 

Of course, the same goes for USB. I know of other DACs where the USB input isn't as good as the SPDIF ones.

 

Just my 2 cents. None of my own DACs had poor Toslink performance out of my iMac. Never tried the Maverick Audio DAC.

Agreed.  I keep hearing about optical jitter being an issue but going from my XFi Elite Pro to UHA6S has been superb.  It's on par or better than some of the best USB implementations I've heard.  Of course that's a short cable from a breakout box attached to the soundcard so I'm not sure how much that helps.  I haven't noticed any jitter or sparkles yet.  Just rich, clear, wonderful sound.  

Coax wasn't part of the OP's question or so I thought.  But yes Coax seems to rather unanimous as long as your grounds are fine.