[HeadLover]

so
I hear it a lot, and want some good answers based on real tests and so on

What will be a better way to connect a DAC to your pc ?
A coax or toslink?

I am mean connecting it to the digit out of your soundcard

what will bring the best audio quality ?

 

[1UP]

Depends on the equipment involved, but I've always got better real world results with coax with the gear I've tried.

 

[demoNMaCHiN3]

i was a/bing with my monster toslink and coax cable the other day. i can't hear any difference whatsoever (tested with .wav music) but i'm keeping the toslink cable because i need the coax for something else.

 

[Fungi]

The most expensive glass optical digital cable will enhance your highs and lows and dynamics and make your blacks blacker than the blackest black times infinity. The only way to get the best. It's brutal.

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadLover /img/forum/go_quote.gif what will bring the best audio quality ?

No difference whatsoever. I use optical to connect my Macbook to my AV rig, and get bitperfect resolving of DTS.

See ya
Steve

 

[krmathis]

My vote goes for the optical S/PDIF.
Because of the electrical isolation from the transport.

 

[philodox]

Optical requires an additional conversion at both ends and the chips that accomplish this are sometimes pretty terrible. The recievers used with Toslink are quite often not fast enough to keep up with the amount of data sent to them which can result in timing errors. Because of this, in most cases, coax will sound superior. I say most cases because it all comes down to the way they are implemented. Optical can sometimes be preferable in a high noise/bad power environment however, and it very popular with the computer as source crowd because of this. Of course if you have a BNC or AES/EBU connection, even better.

 

[HeadLover]

Some people told me that usually it is true that cox is better
But
for audio PC, optical is much preferred
What do u think ?

 

[1UP]

As I said before, it depends on the implementation of the gear involved but the avoiding of computer noise as the sole raison d'etre for optical/USB is NOT the be-all end-all panacea that some would claim.

S/PDIF is inherently flawed. But at least coax gives you some means (BNC, coax, transformers, blah, blah) to rectify or at least minimise some wrongs, often improving the sound quite above mainstream optical and USB. That's been my experience.

 

[HeadLover]

amm so in the end, is there a big different?
Sometimes I feel like we are paying much more attantion to things like even the power cord, when in the end the SQ, not getting much better or worst of it
So
will a good optical cable from a good pc will be the same as a coax?

 

[bigshot]

The difference in quality is primarily theoretical. Choose which theory you want to subscribe to and get that cable. Sound quality is virtually identical.

See ya
Steve

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif The difference in quality is primarily theoretical. Choose which theory you want to subscribe to and get that cable. Sound quality is virtually identical.

I'm guessing this is personal experience on your part that is making you arrive at this conclusion?

If so, I would like to introduce the possibility that you haven't run across a component with a poor Toslink implementation... I have and the difference was not negligible.

If you'd like a more scientific explanation, I have a link that I can look up for you.

 

[bigshot]

A component with poor toslink implementation would be a problem with the component, not the cable. Both types of cables are capable of transferring bit perfect sound.

See ya
Steve

 

[Slaughter]

1's and 0's people. You can't make them sound any different on a given piece of equipment. If they sound different then you probably use $200 HDMI cables as well.

 

[HeadLover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slaughter /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1's and 0's people. You can't make them sound any different on a given piece of equipment. If they sound different then you probably use $200 HDMI cables as well.

not correct

It is just like saying:
"if I connect two computers, the speed will always be the same - 0,1"

NOT TRUE !!
The line itself have many things to do with it, every one that design a network know what I mean
so I guess the same goes for audio
Bad cable will lead to retransmit of data, and that will lead to bad audio at the end