Optical Cable difference

[eriksson]

Ever since I got my Benchmark DAC1 I've been using an Tech Link fiber optical digital cable between it and my M-Audio transit. This weekend just for fun I went out and got me an twice as expensive Monster Lightspeed standard cable and to my big surprise there's quite the difference in sound quality between the cables.

How is this possible with the jitter resistant Dac1? Placebo?

There seems to be a better fit in the optical socket on the Dac1 with the monster cable, could this result in better audible soundquality?

 

[Solude]

My vote would be placebo. The Monster is a horrid toslink cable. Actual it is usually the cable used to demonstrate poor versus good toslink

 

[eriksson]

What makes the Monster cable so bad then?

 

[GirgleMirt]

no its not surprising that you were able to hear differences, a toslink cable is somewhat of an interconnect. You should definitely post a review, some might be interested in upgrading theirs

[/sarcasm]

 

[meat01]

There is no such thing as a horrible toslink cable that actually carries the signal. Either the light gets there or it doesn't. Digital is made up of 1's and 0's. A bad cable can not change a 1 to a 0.


Quote:

What makes the Monster cable so bad then?

The name. While I do not like the company's practices of suing everyone that uses the word monster in their name, their cables are just as good as everyone elses, but for some reason it is cool to bash them because they charge a lot of money for their cables. Even though Cardas, Kimber, Audioquest and others charge a lot more, Monster gets bashed more. Go figure.

 

[Kurt]

Hey Eric, how are you?

The differences between optical cables are usually rather small. If you hear big differences, chances are that the bad one has a scratched lens on one or both sides.
One has to be careful when connecting. Touching the case of the player with the lens scratches it. Especially if it is a soft one.

 

[Solude]

Not to leave the big boys out, the Kimber OPT1 suck hard too

I do however like Monster interconnects is their price range.