Optical or Coax for home audio?

[Nebakanezzar]

Hey all,

Earlyer i posted a topic Which is better, S-Video or Component Video?, the general consensus of which was that component video was the best. Twords the end of the thread the question of wether Optical (Toslink) or coaxial (SPDIF) is the better choice for Digital Audio. I would like to get more feed back on this question.

thanx

 

[Zucchini]

both are digital signals, should be exactly the same.

 

[Noriaki]

Shouldn't matter, Optical is "immune" to electral interferance, but if you have a well shielded RCA cable interferance shouldn't be an issue for Coax either, and anyways interferance isn't a really big deal with a digital singal, you need fairly heavy interferance to start flipping bits, and there's no such thing as simple distortion or degredation in Digital, either you get the right bits or you don't. And it takes heavy interferance to get the wrong bits.

Bottm line is, it's digital, either Optical or Coax you are just sending bits (1s and 0s), you aren't sending a sound wave through the cable. The reciever gets the bits and decodes them into sound waves. How the bits get there is unimportant.

Worry about getting good quality speaker wires that run between your speakers and reciever, they actually carry an analog sound wave, the Digital input doesn't.

 

[virtuamike]

Coax cable is cheaper than optical, plus you have to be really careful about not abusing the optical. Then again most receivers don't have too many coax inputs. I'd say go with optical if money is not a huge issue and if it's not too far of a distance (don't remember seeing optical longer than 12') just so you leave the coax free (more common on computer sound cards than optical in case you wanted to wire the two together). Quality wise can't really tell the difference.

 

[MichaelD]

Um, this has to do w/General Hardware or (Heaven Forbid) computers how, exactly? Off topic forum please.

 

[Noriaki]

Lots of sound cards have Coax and/or Optical out, maybe he's trying to decide how best to attach his sound card to his reciever, or to decide if it's worth while to get a Live! Drive II over a Live! Drive I (the former has optical, the latter does not).

 

[Erasmus-X]

It doesn't really matter, especially at short cable lengths. Both send a digital signal, and that's what is most important. Most commercial digital coax cables have heavier shielding than your average RCA cable, so distortion and interference isn't an issue.

Just keep in mind that most receivers will have more optical inputs than digital coax. For example, all of Sony's consumer-level A/V receivers (the STR series) have only one digital coax, and that's reserved for the DVD player. The rest are all optical.

 

[Oyeve]

They should be about the same. Its all a matter of preference really. I, myself, prefer optical for the "coolness" factor.

And MichaelD, what is your "definition" of computer? A lot of recent home audio/video equipment contins a processor of some kind. So therefore its a "Computer". Post something relevant or not at all.

 

[sohcrates]

All the high end home theater journals point towards coaxial digital

I ,though, prefer optical for the coolness. and that counts for a lot!

 

[iamwiz82]

go coax. It sounded better when i did a test of monster coax versus monster optical, using the same reciever and TV at best buy.

 

[Workin']

<< It sounded better when i did a test of monster coax versus monster optical, using the same reciever and TV at best buy. >>

*cough*bull$hit*cough* They should sound the same unless something is broken. Seeing as you were at Best Buy my guess is that something was broken.

If you have the appropriate connections I would go with optical just because it seems more hi-tech to go with the HDTV. But really, it doesn't matter.

Poor, poor MichaelD. Such narrow vision.

 

[klipsch42]

it depends on the device specifically. Some devices have better DAC's on the optical side, some on the Coaxial side...I can't give a solid answer here, sorry, but in my opinion Optical is more solid technology due to its semi-immunity to electrical interference and resistance problems, but it really depends on the componets...a good hi fi dealer will be able to tell you very quickly about his componets and whether it caters to coaxial or optical.

 

[klipsch42]

In reply to MichaelD, This is very hot topic to anyone interested in sound and computers due to the number of us that are using the optical or coaxial hookups from our computers to anything better than the typical wussy computer speakers.