Easy....Gen 5 will sound better than TOSLINK.....

Problem with Toslink is imho it has not advanced over the years, because it is "working" for the masses. If you look at the developement process of laser and fiber used for "ethernet", you can see what is possible. But that was payed because  IT needed faster connections.   Simply have a look...

Thank you, that was very informative. I also agree that there will most likely not be a change from Toslink, though I hope a switch to optical ethernet connectors and fibre is in the future.

Toslink Smoslink.  Give me AES/EBU.

...hope someone could clear up some confusion I have about s/pdif, usb and converters between them. I have a 2007 macbook pro with an SSD. I use toslink out to my bimby and also sometimes use usb with wryd. I thought most other computers have toslink too, so why use a usb/toslink or usb/whatever...

...autocoffee? :relaxed: :upside_down:

Gen 5 vs. toslink optical. Which sounds like less ass?

Use the output that SOUNDS BEST TO YOU! There are an infinite stack of situations that can change an infinite number of parameters, but the end result is HOW DOES IT SOUND TO YOU?   Sit back and enjoy YOUR music.

I suspect it is the poor quality Toslink connectors that are the problem. AT&T connectors have higher bandwidth.

My experience with TosLink plastic vs Glass has been the opposite. High priced glass in my case resulted in sync failure at rates higher than 96khz and cheap plastic $5/6ft cables always seems to get the job done. I suspect a cheap materials mismatch with glass to be the issue. Cheap Chinese...

That's why I use a MacMini with toslink output to Yggy. Best of all worlds. Full library, better transport than USB, and convenience.

  My Asus Xonar DX sound card has a high bandwidth optical transmitter, so no problems with toslink here. I do use USB more often just for the ease of use though.   Furman PST-8D got rid of all electrical noise in my desktop system, I highly recommend it for anyone experiencing electrical...

Toslink, as I understand it, suffers from consuming too much coffee. Da*$#it! I hate it when these new phones take autocorrect to new levels! What I mean to say is that Toslink has issues with jitter...

...differentiation, but chances are high that the implementation will be on the cheap.   Given how polluted the power in a computer is, TOSLink sometimes yields better results than electrical transmission (like coax or USB), thanks to its inherent galva electrical isolation (no ground loops...

Inputs: USB-C Outputs: USB-C, AES and Coax, no Toslink Matt

  Here's a recent post going into technical details on why plastic Toslink may be suboptimal compared to glass Toslink, and both dwarfed by USB assisted by reclocking devices like Wyrd.   Since USB itself can be suboptimal when transmitting data in realtime streaming (e.g. try a >5m USB...

...add BNC digital out to a system?   I've found this: http://www.shenzhenaudio.com/musiland-digital-times-24bit-192khz-pci-sound-card-spdif-toslink-bnc.html Everything is in Chinese, I'll have to research a lot more.   And this...

Except that we're not talking about TOSLink here...

Hmm, not a bad idea, but no.

do you put plugs in the unused toslink inputs? some IR receivers use current-sourced differential pair to minimize noise coupled to the power rails at the expense of higher quiescent current.

Perhaps that is it, but the Lifatec Toslink cable I have seems to be a rather precise cable and it faired no better than a $20 radiocrap cable, which suggests to me that it is the interference within the optical stream or perhaps it’s a signal timing issue, or noise in the optical couplers, or...

...my Gungnir D/S DAC. It was noisy and unstable ... the music would stop and crash JRiver (running on Macbook Pro). So, I bought a nice glass toslink cable. Problem solved, no more crashes, better sound. Then, I upgraded the DAC to multibit and Gen5 USB. The SQ of the DAC improved very much. I...

I use a HDMI Audio Extractor, to convert HDMI to Toslink optical, then to my Bifrost. I used to go optical, from my TV cable box, but the latest and greatest 'upgraded' box no longer offers a digital output. The J-Tech extractor supports 4K passthrough, and works fine for my 2 channel system.

This was my experience as well. Unison USB was also an easily noticeable upgrade.

I tried out a Sony UBP-X800M2 end of last year (black friday sale for $199), testing both coax and toslink into Bifrost OG. didn't sound as good as my aging Sony NS500V though. also the X800M2 does not have a front panel display (relies on connected HDMI display). tried both the stock UBP...